More of Angela-2

With the weather so nice, we decided to head back to Liliuokalani Gardens and retake some of the previous shots we took under a very cloudy and rainy day. We discovered the back part of the restroom made for some pretty cool "urban"shots.

 F/8   1/50   92 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

 F/8   1/50   35 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

 F/8   1/60   92 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

 F/10   1/80   42 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

 F/10   1/60   42 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

F/10   1/40   42 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

More of Angela

Weather was much better for this photo shoot with Angela. Experimented with more angle shots and a higher F stop of 5.6-10.

 F/6.3  1/320  46mm    ISO 200   +0.3

 F/8 1/500  65 mm   ISO 200

 F/6.3  1/250  38 mm  ISO 320

 F/10  1/200  55 mm  ISO 400  + 0.7

 F/8   1/400   42 mm   ISO 400  +0.7

F/8   1/250   85 mm   ISO 400   +0.7

Dancer from Halau Hula O Leilehua

F/6.3    1/200   270 mm   ISO 500

They were students from Leilehua High School. Loved the expression on this performer's face.

F/6.3   1/200   240 mm   ISO 500

This little one caught my eye as she walked forward to get a closer look at the dancers.

F/5.6   1/200   25 mm   ISO 500

Angela at Liliuokalani Botanical Gardens

Got together with my friend Angela to take some portrait pics at Liliuokalani Botanical Gardens in Liliha. Very beautiful setting with lots of trees, shrubs and a flowing stream and mini waterfall. One small challenge was the on and off again rain. Between shots we kind of huddled under our umbrellas and at the first sign of the rain stopping, run out to shoot a few minutes and then it rained again. Angela was a good sport about it. I'm really happy with how they turned out, considering the challenging weather.

 F/6.3   1/320   65 mm   ISO 250

 F/6.3   1/160   65 mm   ISO 250

 F/6   1/60   140 mm   ISO 250

All the rain made for a nice waterfall but the water was brown from the runoff. I was using my Tamron 28-270 lens and was not about to make any lens changes with all the rain.

 F/6   1/100   140 mm   ISO 250

 F/5.6   1/80   100 mm   ISO 250

 F/8   1/60   55 mm   ISO 250

 On the way out there is a bridge that runs over the stream and a path that is above the stream. Both provided a gorgeous back drop for the next set of pics.

 F/8   1/125   240 mm   ISO 250

F/8   1/160   78 mm   ISO 250

F/8   1/125   120 mm   ISO 250

F/5.6   1/160   46 mm   ISO 250

F/8   1/200   60 mm   ISO 250

More Kawaii Kon-Last day

When I first spoke with Yaya, I had no idea how famous she is...honestly. She is a costume designer, model and cosplayer (costume player entertainer) known internationally with a Facebook page of about 10,000 loyal fans.

 Its not the best pic photographically speaking, but I like the POV.

I thought she should be on a poster for the next Kawaii Kon. As you know Kawaii in Japanese means cute and I thought she captured the "essence of cute" with her cute look and outfit.

More Kawaii Kon 2011

 Your guess is as good as mine as to who this guy was supposed to be...

 Many of the storm troopers and soldiers carried weapons as part of their character. So they actually had a booth for "weapons check", making sure they weren't real and fully loaded.

More fun costumes at Kawaii Kon. Does anyone know who these box things are supposed to be? Lot of people were rushing to take pics with them.

More Kawaii Kon 2011

Met Celia and some of her friends there on Saturday. Had so much fun, decided to return on Sunday. It was an excellent chance to learn to shoot under different lighting conditions. I just walked around and around the area and asked attendees to pose whenever I came across them. That meant outside semi dark meeting rooms where I had to up my ISO to 400-600. Or upstairs in the bright sunlight where I narrowed my F stop to F18 at times.

Most of the time I was shooting A preferred at f/5.6-8. On the second day I tried M with varying results. The challenge was remembering to set up correctly as you moved from extreme shade to bright sunlight to moderate sunlight to moderate shade.

Kawaii Kon 2011

Kawaii Kon is an anime convention geared towards Japanese animation and comics. Many of the attendees are cosplay or "costume play" fans. Character costumes are often drawn from popular Japanese and American cartoons, as well as sci-fi. Favorite sources include manga, anime, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. I went back on Sunday to take more shots of the many different character costumes. Great fun shooting people of all ages, shapes and sizes in some pretty wild and creative costumes.