Author: admin

My colleague Hugh G has nicknamed me the Patrick McMullan of Honolulu as I always seem to end up shooting lots of the socialite parties here in town. I don’t shoot many but those I do shoot end up in the local glossy mags. The parties are lots of fun and and I recognize many of the people are they are the same faces at all the different functions. Like I said, I really don’t shoot many…mostly four or five a year and that’s plenty for me.

The party I shot on Friday was for the Parc Hotel and it was a neat shindig. DJs, artists, food, lights and lasers, and drink. The party also had as I can only describe as water dancers. To describe, two girls dressed as flowers and they floated around the pool and did a slow moving water ballet. Pretty neat.

My focus was off but that element gave the image a deliberate slow and dreamy feel. Dreamy…how many times does that come up in a description of an artistic photo? Not dreamy but rather, an unexpected entrance into solemnity. Dare I say Degas?

I opted to shoot with my Canon 1D Mark II over the 1Ds just to give the 1Ds a rest. I shot raw varying the iso between 400-1600 depending on the quality and feel I wanted to pull from the image. Looking at the newer tech on the market right now, the Mark II is slowly obsoleting itself from existence. In many ways, most jobs can still be shot on the tinny Mark I with that small 4 mg file. Hell, the original Nikon D1 with the small 2.7 mg file was pretty incredible. But the computer war took over the camera battles and now we all have to face an increasing pull of more megapixels for more money.

The Mark II is a great camera…fast and quick on the focus. Jacques made a claim not too long ago he longed for a Mark II over the III. Its hard to say which is best. No grain or digital noise in a high iso image must be nice but not always the best. Natural or enhanced depends on your preference.

Parties are usually loud so I can sneak around and take some neat pictures of people when they are not really paying attention. I mean its hard to sneak around people when you have a big Canon, lens, and flash on a hand/face combo. Nevertheless, when the drinks are flowing and conversation is shrilling away, its neat to sneak around and snap the unexpected.

The laser lights were flashing and casting everything blue.

This last shot was part of the dance troupe except she wasn’t in the water. I can only describe her as a living flower and she’d pose around the party flipping her pedals above and over her head. Although my last image doesn’t quiet show the experience, the uniqueness of the image overall makes the image.

Enjoy.

7:15am today

I pulled the camera out for a quick snap of the bad weather pounding Honolulu today. Usually you can see a view like this out our window for sunrise:

>7am sunny sunrise morning

The tourism board of Hawaii would love to let you believe it never rains on the Islands and surely it will never rain on your vacation. Nothing could be further from the truth. It rains all the time and depending on what part of the island you live on, it ALWAYS rains. We get lots of rain as we live right below the mountain range and misty rain seems to always fall from the sky. Its nothing to make you pull out the umbrella but its enough to make you pull off your sunglasses for a quick wipe.

Today happen to be one of the worst days in a while.

The rain and winds rattled the windows and woke us up in the middle of the night. The traffic is at a complete stop on the highways this morning and the rain is causing flooding in some parts on Oahu. Its not a great day.

Winter season, roughly November through Jan/Feb, will bring bad weather and rain to Hawaii. Several years ago, it happen to rain more than 40 days STRAIGHT! You can’t help to feel bad for all those tourist who arrive from their snowy homes hoping to have a perfect tropical vacation. I’ve seen rain fall for days and sadly see jets ferrying tourist off the Islands as the sunny skies break open.

Its a sad fact, rain falls in the winter on Hawaii. To me it happens to be the most depressing time. You get so used to having sunny bright days and cool weather. Donning a rain coat or perhaps socks and sneakers (as opposed to flip flops) is tough. Hey–I lived in New York along time and remember freezing ears, frozen toes, and red noses. My first experience with snow was “wow, its snow!” but once you have to cross the icy cold streams at the intersections, you quickly come to hate that lovely winter wonderland.

Either way, most tourist who come to Honolulu during the winter season can’t all be doing that bad. A quick look at the weather across the US and the globe today:

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2008

New York: 41 F, overcast
Los Angeles: 65 F, cloudy
Chicago: 34 F, PC
Dallas: 49 F, clear

The Globe:

London: 37 F, hazy
Sydney: 64 F, rain
Tokyo: 57 F, clear
Riyadh: 59 F, PC
Berlin: 36 F, drizzle
Paris: 37 F, clear
Buenos Aires: 75 F, clear
Mexico City: 57, clouds

So I guess where ever you are, the weather today isn’t all that bad. A bad day in Hawaii is always a good day anywhere else. Heavens—its Hawaii!

I found a bunch of money in my closet today. Sad to say its kinda worthless to me in Hawaii as all the value is only in memory.

I don’t know where or who gave me a million Turkish bucks as I’ve never been. I wished they’d given me a bunch of Euros or dollars. I think it was Adrian in Switzerland.

The only real value is probably the Singapore $2 dollars. The rest is well, I shouldn’t say as the dollar isn’t too high and mighty right now. Yet I sure could use more of them.