Yankee Doodle

While in NYC, I made a side trip to our nation's capital...Washington DC.  I had never been to DC, so I figured since I had made it this far, what's another 3 hours on the Amtrak?

There is so much to photograph in DC. The only thing that wasn't so great was the heatwave I got caught in for the 2 days I was there. The temperature reached 99 degrees! The best way to describe what 99 degrees feels like is imagining yourself stepping into a sauna. The heat just "hits" you when you walk out of any doorway. I have never been so hot in my life! After experiencing my first heatwave, I realize that Hawaii isn't so hot after all. LOL!

Washington Monument

(My favorite photo of the entire trip!)

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 3 seconds

The White House

ISO 200, f/4, shutter 1/250

Jefferson Memorial

ISO 400, -1 EV, f/3.5, shutter 1/400

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

ISO 200, 1 EV, f/4, shutter 1/25

Lincoln Memorial

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 2 seconds

The dome from inside the nation's Capitol 

ISO 1600, f/5, shutter 1/80

One of many exhibits at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

ISO 400, 0.7 EV, f/2.2, shutter 1/20

Hey There Delilah

Sometime last fall, Hawaiian Airlines announced that they would be starting direct service from Hawaii to NYC in June 2012. Fares were dirt cheap...$212 each way! The direct flight to NYC from Hawaii was 9.5 hours long! That's as long as it takes to fly from Hawaii to Australia! The flight over was brutal! It left at 3pm Hawaii time and got into NYC at 7am EST, which is 1am in Hawaii. It took me about 3 or 4 nights to get adjusted to the 6-hour time difference, but even then, I still went to bed about 2 or 3am each night. The flight home was not so bad. Though it took a little more than 10 hours to get back to Hawaii, the ride seemed much faster...probably because I slept a lot on the plane and was excited to come home! 


A part of the reason why I bought a DSLR was so I could capture great photos during this trip.  That's why for the last 6 weeks, Reese and I had camera class every day during lunch. The first day of photographing NYC was hard on my own.  My photos weren't coming out the way I wanted them to, but I couldn't quite figure out how to fix them. Each day I sent samples of my photos to Reese to ask him what he thought of them. He would make suggestions on how I could improve my photos and as each day went by, I saw improvements...he did too! See Reese, all that money we spent eating out every day was worth it.  :)


I saw so many marvelous things in 9 days and took over 1,800 photos! I'm not sure how long it will take me to sort thru them all, but I didn't want to wait to share a few of the fantastic things I saw in NYC. 

FDNY Bronze Memorial

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 1/15

Metropolitan Museum of Art

ISO 100, f/5, shutter 1/250

View of the Empire State Building from the top of Rockefeller Center

ISO 200, f/4, shutter 1/50

The "new" Yankee Stadium

ISO 800, f/6.3, shutter 1/400

View of the Trump Building (green copper roof) from Hudson Bay

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 1/125

Ellis Island

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 1/160

Statue of Liberty

ISO 100, f/8, shutter 1/400

International Love

Each year, Hawaii plays host to the Pan-Pacific Festival. It is an annual international cultural celebration held during the month of June.  The Festival features cultural arts, crafts and stage performances at 3 different locations around Waikiki and Ala Moana. Hawaii has been home to the Pan-Pacific Festival since 1978. 

Prior to taking up an interest in photography and Reese taking me under his wing, I had never even heard of this annual event!! I am fortunate that photography is opening many doors of opportunity for me to really see and experience Hawaii how it should be seen and experienced. As the saying goes around here, "Lucky you live Hawaii."


The first 2 pictures were taken with my stock 55-200mm Nikon lens. The next 8 pictures were taken with Reese's $2,000 zoom lens.  Because Reese's lens is a much faster lens, the quality of the photos were so much better and I could really play around with the depth of field.  Maybe if Reese replaces this zoom lens with a better one he'll let me "borrow" it for a while.  
*hint, hint*  ;-)

ISO 400, -0.3 EV, f/4, shutter 1/100
(The sun was directly above the stage.  There was no way to avoid the over-exposure of this shot.)

ISO 400, 2 EV, f/5.3, shutter 1/125

ISO 400, 2 EV, f/5.6, shutter 1/100

ISO 400, 2 EV, f/4.8, shutter 1/100

ISO 400, 2.7 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/500
(A graceful performer from a hula halau from Japan!)

ISO 400, 2.7 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/500
(Another performer from Japan. My favorite shot from this event!)

ISO 400, 1.7 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/500
(Another shot where the sun was my nemesis, but I had to share how awesome this group was.)

ISO 400, 1.7 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/500

ISO 400, 5 EV, f/6.3, shutter 1/80

ISO 400, 5 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/160

La Isla Bonita

Living in Hawaii, I often times take for granted that I live on one of the most beautiful places on earth. I can't remember the last time I was truly able to take a couple of hours to just ENJOY the beauty of things around me. For a while, I've been feeling the need to make time to find some peace and serenity away from the craziness of everyday life - to take time to "smell the roses". I "listened" and did just that.  


My quest for peace and serenity took us to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Center. Ho'omaluhia was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide flood protection for Kaneohe. It also serves as a place for endangered and rare plants as well as providing visitors with hiking trails, camping grounds and a 32-acre lake for fishing. I have lived in Hawaii all my life and have never heard or been to this place before!  



Our journey also took us to the Byodo-In Temple at Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. The Byodo-In Temple is a Buddhist temple which welcomes people of all faiths to worship, meditate and simply appreciate its beauty. As a child, I remember taking our visiting relatives to this beautiful landmark.  


I was pretty satisfied with most of the photos I took on this outing.  I'm getting much faster at finding the right exposure for my photos. Hopefully photography will give me the opportunity to never forget how important it is to find peace and serenity once in a while.  

ISO 100, -1 EV, f/2, shutter 1/1600

ISO 100, 0.3 EV, f/1.8, shutter 1/2500

ISO 100, 0.3 EV, f/1.8, shutter 1/2000

ISO 100, 1 EV, f/1.8, shutter 1/50

ISO 100, -1 EV, f/5.6, shutter 1/50

ISO 800, 0.3 EV, f/2.8, shutter 1/320

ISO 100, 1 EV, f/4, shutter 1/60

Waikiki

One of Reese's photographer friends rented a Canon 5D Mark III to test drive this $3,800 (yes, you read right) camera. Reese suggested that a real test for this camera would be to see how well it performs in extremely low light conditions. They decided to venture out onto the streets of Waikiki and graciously let me tag along.  


I was having a difficult time adjusting the exposure with my Nikon stock lenses because of the extremely low light conditions. The biggest aperture on them are 3.5, which obviously isn't enough for these conditions.  Reese let me borrow his 24mm f/1.4 prime lens that's worth more than 2x all my equipment combined.  (I tell you, the guy has plenty trust in me...haha) Though I couldn't zoom in with the lens I was using, I was at least able to take decently exposed photos.


When I started this blog, I didn't post process any of my photos. This is something that we have not covered in our lessons yet. Anyway, for these photos, I simply hit the auto enhance and did minor adjustments to the exposure, contrast and saturation in iPhoto.  

ISO 800, f/1.8, shutter 1/30

ISO 800, f/1.8, shutter 1/60

ISO 800, f/1.8, shutter 1/60

ISO 800, f/1.8, shutter 1/60

ISO 1600, f/1.8, shutter 1/500

ISO 100, f/10, shutter 20 sec