Flo, the Photo taking Fool!!

Sunday Stills

2010-11-28T11:44:00.000-10:00

Can you believe another week has gone by already??? Ugh!!!

Today's challenge was to do a self-portrait. Here is mine:

So here's my dilemma.... I took a picture of myself so how did my Mother's face get there? Hmmm....when did I become my mother????

Off to Sunday Stills to see who else played today.

Sunday Stills: Hi Tech/Low Tech

2010-11-21T09:37:00.000-10:00

This week Sunday Stills called for some Hi Tech/Low Tech. I did think about this all week and came up with a number of different options but forgot to take pictures :) Then this morning, I was using my phone and thought of all the things I do with it. I use it to play music, watch movies, get directions/phone numbers, and that's just a couple of things I do. So here is my contribution to the event:

That's my phone in pink along side a phone book, a VCR tape and a cassette tape - seriously, do you remember these???

Anyway, I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what everyone else came up with.

Sunday Stills: Coffee Cups

2010-11-13T18:56:00.000-10:00

After a very long hiatus I am back. I love this one as it is something I use every single day. This is the cup I have coffee in every morning. I bought, actually my daughter bought it for me, on a trip to California when my granddaughter was born. She just turned 9. I love this cup. It's larger than normal and Tigger is one of my favorites. It's the perfect way to start the day.

I'm off to post this and I'll visit others in the morning.

Day 3

2010-11-08T18:25:00.001-10:00

Here's another one of the dogs. This was taken after our walk tonight. Please look at that tongue, can it get any longer?

Wow, 2 days in a row....I must be on a roll.

2010-11-07T17:28:00.001-10:00

Here is today's picture. We took the dogs on their Sunday morning walk and now it's afternoon - the time of their usual walk. They are pretending to just lie around but really are hoping we'll take them again.

So, it's been awhile....

2010-11-06T09:03:00.002-10:00

I really had great plans to follow through on this but that apparently didn't happen. Oh well. Moving on. I want to work on improving that. I have a phone that has an awesome camera and I have zero reasons for not taking a picture everyday. I generally do anyway. So I'm starting back at this.....

Photo a Day, Day 13

2010-01-13T18:43:00.001-10:00

Photo a Day, Day 12

2010-01-12T17:18:00.005-10:00

Photo a Day, Day 11

2010-01-11T17:18:00.000-10:00

Photo A Day, Day 10

2010-01-10T12:06:00.001-10:00

Photo A Day, Day 9

2010-01-09T12:05:00.000-10:00

Photo a Day, Day 8

2010-01-08T12:04:00.000-10:00

Photo a Day, Day 7

2010-01-07T12:04:00.000-10:00

Photo A Day, Day 6

2010-01-06T19:02:00.001-10:00

Photo A Day, Day 5

2010-01-05T15:33:00.000-10:00

This is the mama bird that hatched the three babies we now have. When I was feeding them this morning I noticed that she was huddled in the corner of the cage and she didn't' protest when I picked her up. Clearly something was wrong. I took her out and have her segregated in another cage. Hopefully she will recover.

Photo A Day, Day 4

2010-01-04T15:29:00.000-10:00

The serious packing has begun.

Photo A Day, Day 3

2010-01-03T18:41:00.000-10:00

Today you get a couple of photos. We went by the house and I wanted to document what it looks like now because I know that once we take possession we will start changing it. So here is the outside:

This is the front of the house and that's my car.

This is the rear of the house.

This is the view.

And this is the kitchen.

This place needs a lot of work and I can't wait to get started..

Photo a day, Day 2

2010-01-02T10:47:00.000-10:00

We are doing lots of things around the house getting ready to move and the dogs think they have to help us with everything.

Photo a day, Day 1

2010-01-01T16:24:00.001-10:00

So I tried to start this before and it didn't work. This time it will. I've found a great new site, Shuttercal, where you post a photo a day and it shows up in a calendar format. It's very cool. So I will be doing this. Today's photo:

After last night's fireworks there is a whole lot of this going on at my house. This dog, Lola, did not like the fireworks at all and it took her a long time to calm down. The birds didn't like them much either, they ended up sleeping in this morning too.

We all hope everyone has a Happy New Year.

Two Months!!!!

2009-12-22T09:57:00.001-10:00

That's how long it's been since I posted here. Two Months!!! What have I been doing in all that time? Well, not taking pictures. And I realized that my creative side is feeling smothered so I need to get back into it. A few minutes ago I just went out into the backyard with the camera and started clicking. It felt good. Here are a couple that I shot:

Some of the little baby oranges that grow on our tree.

The tree growing around a wire that's wrapped around it.

The pile of coconuts in the corner of the yard.

And a couple of bottles from my husbands beer bottle collection.

Okay, that felt good and I will be back.

Photo a day

2009-10-20T16:57:00.000-10:00

I'm determined to post photos more frequently and since I usually take hundreds of photos and only post a couple, this should not be a problem. This one if from a series I took the other day of the dogs playing;

I love how they go at each other with open mouths. They each try to be bigger then the other and it never works. They are too cute.

Macro Monday

2009-10-18T20:19:00.000-10:00

In an effort to post everyday I've decided to join the macro Monday fun.

This is a picture I took back in May and never posted. I thought it would fit the bill just fine.

Sunday Stills: the letter C

2009-10-17T19:32:00.000-10:00

Alright, I know I keep saying I'm back but I really, really am this time. I find myself spending so much time working that I have to incorporate something fun into my days. So I am going to post something everyday and that means getting involved in this stuff again. So seriously, I am back for real this time.

The letter C brought up a lot of possibilities but after careful consideration (okay, I thought about it for 2 seconds) I decided to go this way.

My new car!! It's Ford's breast cancer car:

It's a 2010 and it's fun. Mustang went back to the old school dashboard:

So I could go on and on but I'll stop here. That is my contribution. I'm now off to find something fun for Macro Monday. If you want to join the fun of Sunday Stills, head on over and join the party.

Photo Hunt: Anything goes

2009-10-17T08:11:00.000-10:00

After much time off I am back and will continue this every week. Since the subject was anything goes I decided to go back through my archives and see what I had that I hadn't published yet. Here is what I came up with:

I am standing on the USS Missouri looking at the USS Arizona. In Pearl Harbor they have them situated nose to nose, the beginning of the war and the end of the war. The Missouri has gone into dry dock for some much needed repairs and won't be back again until January. But I love this picture and think it's very poignant.

If you want to play along head over to tnchick to join in the fun.

Seriously this time

2009-10-17T07:59:00.000-10:00

I have said this again and again, I'm going to get more active and take more pictures, and then I don't follow through. Life gets in the way, too much responsibility and the fun stuff falls by the wayside. No more!!!! Starting right now, today, I'm going to post a picture a day on this thing. I am!!! How long does it take to take one picture and post it. It will get my mind off whatever is going on around me. It will be a fabulous mental break. So starting today one picture a day. I'm off now to take that picture.

Sunday Stills: The color purple

2009-09-19T09:54:00.000-10:00

Well I've been away quite awhile. Between teaching and going to school and working on a thesis and taking care of the animals I have not had a minute to myself. Over the last couple of weeks though things have settled down and I find myself with some actual time on my hands. WooHoo!!! I've decided that it's time to get back into the camera. So, for my first return to the world of the living I submit the following for Sunday Stills this week:

The first entry is one of my favorites to photograph, the plumeria. This is from a new tree and it just bloomed about a week ago. I love this flower with the yellow middle and the purple edges. I actually think they are supposed to be pink but on these flowers it's very dark and looks purple.

Here are flowers waiting to bloom. These appear much more purple then the flower itself.

Finally, this is a plant that grows in our garden. I'm not sure it's name but the veins down the leaf are definitely purple.

I'm posting this today so I don't miss out and I'll go and visit everyone's later or in the morning.

And some flowers

2009-08-29T09:56:00.003-10:00

The school I work at has a rock wall along the driveway that is covered in cactus plants. I thought they were just ordinary cactus plants until I came to work one morning and found this:

What first caught my attention was the incredibly sweet smell in the air. That was not a normal smell. But it caused me to look around and that's when I spotted the flower. I went over and took some pictures.

Those green things above the flower are the flower buds for more flowers.

This is the dragon plant, or the dragon fruit plant. It blooms only once a year at midnight. The flower I caught was the first bloom, the next morning the whole wall was covered in flowers but I had left my camera at home - figures!!! Anyway, it's a gorgeous sight, one I've heard about but never been able to catch. I'm glad I caught it this year and hopefully I'll catch it again.

Recent pictures

2009-08-29T09:39:00.005-10:00

I've been incredibly busy but I find that taking the time to notice things around me and take pictures really helps keep me balanced. So here are some from my recent adventures.

This was a mural on a mall across from where I had to serve jury duty a couple of weeks ago. At first glance it looks like a fairly ordinary water mural:

But wait, what's that in the center?

It's a cow!! Ummm.....okay.....Then I started looking at the mural more closely.
There were fishes selling kisses:

Swordfish kabobs:

Dolphin wearing lei:

And little merpigs:

I have no idea what the point of this mural is and it's located in the center of a fairly upscale eating mall, it's right around the corner from Ruth's Chris. I really like it though and thought it was a great additional to the place.

It's been a while

2009-08-08T21:07:00.002-10:00

A long, long while. At the end of last month I began my real teaching adventure. I've been so exhausted I haven't had the energy to do anything else. Today was different. I was forced to take a trip to the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri. I decided to take my camera and make the best of it. We went to the Mighty Mo first and all I can say is wow!! Absolutely wow!!!

I'm standing on the bow of the Mo looking back at the gun turrets. Those were 16" guns (I think) and the shells for it weigh 2700 lbs - as much as a Volkswagen.

This is the plaque in the deck where the surrender was signed. It's completely awe inspiring to think that Halsey, Nimitz, MacArthur stood right there and signed the document that supposedly brought peace to the world.

This is a copy of the instrument of surrender was signed on the surrender deck of the ship (that's what it's called). After the instrument of surrender was signed, MacArthur said "Let 'em fly" and 1,000 planes that had been circling over the ocean flew over the ships and Tokyo. I thought that was kind of a slap in the face to Japan.

This was interesting. This is the plaque in the floor and it's surrounded by a chain to keep people off it. That group on the other side is a group of Japanese. The tour guide is explaining to them what happened in Japanese. I can't help but wonder what is going through their minds when they hear this stuff. I realize it was 68 years ago but still, it was a moment of great shame in Japanese history. I can't help but wonder what they think of it all.

Finally, here I am having way too much fun playing with the machine gun. I liked it. I want one of these in my yard. :)

Sunday Stills

2009-07-11T21:05:00.002-10:00

It's that time again. I took some pictures this week just did not find the time to post them. But I'm ready for Sunday Stills. The subject this week is texture. Initially I thought, huh?? But then I remembered some pictures I took when I first got my DSLR.

This is a jackfruit. I have two trees in my backyard and they grow huge, up to 3 feet long.

This is the surface of the jackfruit. It's got little spikes all over.

This is the view from the side so you can see the little spikes.

So that's my contribution for this week. And before anyone asks, I don't eat these so really can't tell you what they taste like. They are ripe when they smell like turpentine so I'm just not attracted to them.

Sunday Stills

2009-07-04T19:23:00.002-10:00

I've been away for a few weeks, life just got too busy and got the better of me. But I'm back and ready to play. This week's theme is wildflowers. An interesting concept in Hawaii. Since most of our vacant land is lava and the wildflowers that grow are technically weeds. I decided to add my own twist to the theme.

This is the naupaka plant. It grows wild here in Hawaii, although this particular plant was planted. It has little flowers:

Notice the half flower. That is how it grows. There is a Hawaiian myth that talks of 2 lovers who were separated by their parents and forbidden to be together. One was sent to the ocean and one was sent to the mountains. They were in such despair they became naupaka plants. One at the ocean and one in the mountains. Each has a half flower and when you put them together they make a perfect flower.

That is my wildflower contribution. I'm off to see what everyone else did.

A day in the jungle

2009-07-04T17:58:00.003-10:00

Today I took a friend up to the ruins of Kamehameha III's Summer Palace. I went there for the first time 2 weeks ago and have been dying to get back with my camera. I did that today. I have to tell you I love history and all historic stuff. I love to stand where the famous and infamous stood and imagine what it was like then. I love it, so bear with me.

This is the trail leading to the palace. It is way up in the mountains and deep in the rain forest through the bamboo forest.

This is the path you would have approached the house from back in the day. You would have walked down that stone walkway while the king waited in front of the house to greet you.

This is looking through the front door into the house. It was not very large and this are would have been divided into 2 rooms with a wooden floor.

This is looking towards the house from the back of the property. This whole house would have been surrounded by fields, in this case taro fields, and it had it's own water supply and everything.

This is the rear corner of the house that is almost completely destroyed.

The young royals, King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani, Queen Emma, Prince Kuhio, they all would have come up here as children and learned about the royal ways from the king. Standing inside this building is positively spiritual. You can feel the ghosts of Hawaiians past moving all around you. Absolutely amazing.

Photo Hunt: Pink

2009-07-04T06:53:00.002-10:00

I've moved the photo hunt over to this blog. I've decided all photo things will now go here. Today's theme is Pink - my favorite color!!!!

This is from a wall of bougainvillea near my house. I like this one because there is pink and orange mixed together. It's hard to tell if it's the same plant but it sure looks like it is.

I'm off now to tnchick's to see who else played today.

I am back...

2009-07-03T09:25:00.002-10:00

I have been away way too long. Life just got so incredibly busy that I didn't have time to think let alone get out and take some pictures. But that has to change. I took my camera to the dog park this morning and I pretty much plan on taking it everywhere this weekend. Here are a couple of the shots I took this morning:

Axl and Lola running in the park

Running with the big dogs. Literally!! That's a Great Dane in the foreground. I love Axl's ears in this shot.

Axl and Lola playing with Indigo an Australian Shepard.

Axl and Indigo

This is the stand-off. They will stand like this for a seemingly long time, then suddenly on some mysterious signal only dogs can hear:

The chase is on.....

These two love the dog park and since I really can't walk them this is a great alternative. I'm working on the walking part but until that works out this is how they burn off their energy.

Okay, that's it for now. I have some things to do. I have a friend visiting this weekend and I'm sure we'll be traipsing all over the island taking pictures.

Sunday Stills: Yellow

2009-05-23T19:22:00.002-10:00

Today's theme is the color yellow. Initially I thought of all the regular things:

flowers, fire hydrants, signs, street lights, but those just didn't cut it. I wanted something different, something uniquely Hawaii. All it took was a walk around the town I live in. Heading out with yellow on the brain was all it took for the yellow all around to pop out at me. Here is what I found:

The custom made street sign that the house down the road has.

The yellow of the L&L Barbeque sign. If you haven't had L&L you haven't really been to Hawaii. So Ono!!!

The yellow button to get the walk light.

The yellow halo on St. George at the local Catholic church. I thought St. George slayed a dragon? It looks like he's got a giant gecko there.

The yellow rabbit on the Roberts Hawaii tour bus.

And finally, the emblem on the Waimanalo fire house. This is unit 27 of the Honolulu Fire Department. In a weird setup the entire island is the City of Honolulu, the little towns are really just districts.

Okay, that is it for me. I really enjoyed this one because it got me out and looking at my town with fresh eyes. I'm off to Sunday Stills to see who else played today. You can join in the fun by clicking on the button at the top of this post.

A walk through Waimanalo

2009-05-22T11:57:00.003-10:00

Yesterday I had nothing to do. Nothing. So I decided to take my morning walk with my camera. I walk and run this area a lot and just about every time I pass something and I wish I had my camera. So yesterday I went with my camera. It was great fun.

Let's start with my street:

My house is next to the blue one on the right but you can't see it because it sits back from the street.

This is the grocery store at the end of my street:

Doesn't that turtle look pissed?

This is the feed store next to the grocery store:

After just a short walk I see this wall of bougainvillea:

Look at those beautiful flowers;

Across from the bougainvillea is this fascinating coral wall:

This is not really at the entrance to town but it sure is cute. E Komo Mai is Welcome in Hawaiian:

Then you pass over a stream. This is one side:

This is the other side:
Which has lily pads and flowers:

Then I reached the polo fields and it was time to turn around and go home.

But there was one more stop across the street from the grocery store is a little strip mall. In that mall is this:
A statue to Akebono, a sumo champion from Hawaii. He is from my little town of Waimanalo and they are very proud of him.

More of my walk pictures will be posted for Sunday Stills.

Sunday Stills: Eyes

2009-05-17T06:36:00.002-10:00

Once again it's time for Sunday Stills. This week the topic is eyes. Because one of the things I love about all my animals are the eyes, I've been trying to get good pictures of them all week. Well, that hasn't worked out so well, they never seem to cooperate when I want them to. Luckily eyes have been a passion of mine for a while so I dug through the archives and here is what I found.

This is the eye of the recently deceased Nala. She had the most gorgeous eyes. They were amber around the outside with brown closer to the pupil. Beautiful.

The eye of a Moluccan Cockatoo. This particular Moluccan is one of the saddest birds I know and it really shows in his eyes. You can also tell the sex of a cockatoo by the eyes. Male eyes are jet black like this one while female eyes are brownish.

This is a female citron (I think) and you can see her eyes are much lighter then the Moluccans.

And then there's my Sammy. As you can see his eye is jet black because he's a boy and his eye is much happier looking then the Moluccans. Don't ever think that birds can't show emotion. You just have to know where to look.

And so ends our bird anatomy lesson for today :) I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what everyone else came up with.

Some mountain photos

2009-05-15T18:16:00.003-10:00

We've been in the 'season change' here in Hawaii. It's not as drastic as you folks on the mainland but it happens. One of the things that occurs is that the ground heats up during the day but gets cold at night. This causes clouds to form generally overnight around the mountains. The other morning this was my view on my way to work:

How cool is that???

Love the clouds on the mountains.

Then there was this odd little flower I found next to an auto repair place:

There's even a shiny blue lady bug on the side there. I did not see that until I downloaded the picture. I love surprises.

Sunday Stills

2009-05-10T07:04:00.002-10:00

This week's challenge it to use a previous theme, actually 2 previous themes, and take them in black and white. Since I am enamored of B&W photography and usually take them alongside my color photos, this was easy.

My first entry is the lovely Lola. Lola is a dog I am fostering, along with her brother, until she can find a forever home. Isn't she sweet looking?

So that was one of the early ones, the pets category.

My next entry is this plant:

I have no idea what it is. It's a weird little weed that was growing on the coast where I took a hike a couple of weeks ago. I found it fascinating for some unknown reason.

That's my entries for today's challenge. I'm going to check in but if you stop by I won't be able to visit until later. I'll be at the Pet Expo all day so I'll try to make my rounds tonight.

Yesterday was one of those days...

2009-05-04T16:32:00.002-10:00

That was just perfect. Hawaii has nice weather most of the time but we really only get a few days a year that are postcard perfect. Yesterday was one. I, of course, had to go out in it. I headed to a protected scenic coastline. This was the coast looking towards Waikiki:

This is a rock formation that is known as Pele's Chair:

When the goddess Pele is on the island of Oahu (read when the volcano is erupting) she sits in this chair because it faces the Big Island which is her home.

There were a bunch of hang gliders and base jumpers out in the nice weather too:

Notice how over the ocean there is not a single cloud, yet around the mountains there are lots. That's one of the things I love about Hawaii.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I'm heading off to class now for my "final exam."

Sunday Stills

2009-05-03T06:53:00.003-10:00

Today's subject is flowers. Now this is one I can totally get into. Flowers are, by far, one of my favorite things to photograph. Actually, nature, flowers, trees, leaves, are my favorite things it's just that flowers have so much color and they look so pretty. So here are just of couple of the thousands of flower photos I have taken recently:

This is my favorite flower, the plumeria (frangipani for you folks on the mainland).

This one is called a parakeet because it's like a bird of paradise only considerably smaller.

Here are just a few of the many colors of hibiscus we have. People have crossed and hybridized the hibiscus so much that they now come in almost every color of the rainbow.

They even come in double. If you look closely you will see this one actually has two sets of petals. This is a special hybrid.

Finally, here's a picture of my neighbor's Lantana. I know this is considered a weed in many parts of the country but I just love it. I think these are the cutest. They look like little bouquets.

That's my offering for today. Now I'm off to see what everyone else did.

Sunday Stills

2009-04-25T18:29:00.002-10:00

This week has just flown by, here it is Sunday again. This weeks challenge is barns and this lead to a big discovery for me. Barns aren't common here in Hawaii. There are ranches but no barns. The ranch we used to live on had lean-tos for the horses and cows to get shelter but there was no barn anywhere. I realized that might be due to our weather. There pretty much never a time when the animals can't be outside so having a building for them would be a waste. As for farm equipment there is usually a storage shed that stores equipment. Also, we don't even have to keep the feed inside. Inside or out bugs and critters are going to get into it, plus the ranch we lived on was so large they got feed delivered by the container load. So I failed on this challenge but it wasn't for lack of trying. Then I remembered this place:

It kind of looks like a barn and it houses the University of Hawaii's 2 submarines. They only hold two people so are actually called submersibles. The name of this place is Hawaii Underwater Research Lab (HURL) I love that name..... So that's the best I could come up with. I guess I'll visit everyone else and see real barns.

Sunday Stills

2009-04-19T05:18:00.001-10:00

I missed last week because Nala passed away. I was absolutely not up for anything last week. I'm still very sad but life goes on. Since the theme this week is religion I decided to play into my dark, sad side. This was taken a couple of weeks (months??) ago when I went to the cemetary. There were lots of religious symbols there but this broken cross really struck me. I took a bunch of pictures of it until I got the one I liked.

Now it's time to go see what everyone else came up with.

She's gone

2009-04-11T15:30:00.000-10:00

NALA 1997-2009

Sunday Stills

2009-04-05T05:38:00.000-10:00

I do believe the theme this week is animals of husbandry. Since I'm not exactly sure what Ed meant by that I decided to wing it big time. I actually went out to a working ranch here on Thursday hoping to get some pictures, but all of their animals of husbandry were in the back pastures and not accessible by the public. So I headed to my very large archives looking for some specific pictures.

We used to live on the working ranch referenced in the previous paragraph and would walk the dogs there every night. So we would frequently run into animals of husbandry. Sometimes it was fun other times, not so much. This was one of our friends, Picasso. This horse would see us enter the ranch and come running from wherever he was. I am really not a horse person but I loved this guy and would have bought him in a heartbeat. He was only about 2 years old and not broken.

One thing that Picasso really loved was the dogs. Here he is trying to say Hi to Nala. That other horse was not as nice as Picasso so we were trying to keep him away. One of the things I absolutely loved about Picasso was his half white mane. I love that!!!

So did I do okay Ed?? I got 2 horses, 1 dog, and a husband. Does that count :)

March Droppers

2009-04-02T17:02:00.001-10:00

A day or so late but here they are:

Zero
Photojournalist !
Tips and News on Healthy Lifestyle
How to make money on the internet
Yambol Daily Picture
Time Less Images
Comics Legends and Lore
Tom's Cats
Photographs From Here
Epicurean Health

Into the past

2009-04-02T14:36:00.002-10:00

Today I did not feel like sitting around the house again. I've been here for the two weeks of spring break and enough already. So I packed up my camera and headed out to a place I haven't been to in 3 years. My old house. The journey up there is like journeying back through time. Very little has changed in the 16 years since we moved up there. It's nice to know somethings are constant. Anyway, I tried to see things with a new eye and find interesting stuff to photograph. Here are a couple:

This is the boat harbor you pass on the way. I've always wanted to take a picture of this place and today seemed like a good opportunity.

I saw this laying on someone's deck:

This is the masthead off of some ship, I can't imagine what one or that they are going to put it on this little boat :)

Then I had to take a picture of the Hygienic Store. If you've ever driven around Oahu you've seen this store:

The store is at least 50 years old and the story goes that it used to belong to the Hygienic Dairy. When the dairy closed the store remained and kept the name. Don't really know if that's true or not but that's the general consensus.

Then I made it to my old house.

This is the back of it. We spent so much time hanging out on this beach with the dogs, with friends. It brings back so many memories.

Then I noticed this on the wall of the house next door:

How cool is that???

Just down the beach a little ways is this old bunker:

This area of Oahu was taken over by the military after the attack on Pearl Harbor. All these houses on the beach were built by the military as officer's quarters. They also built a number of these bunkers as observation posts. Only a few are still left and I don't think this one is going to be around much longer.

This is looking into the bunker:

There's a lot of garbage that the ocean has washed into it but look towards the back, there are rooms back there. How far back does it go??

Finally, across the street there is the remains of the first sugar mill on Oahu.

It was made out of lava rock. It's falling apart and clearly nothing is being done to preserve it in any way. Too bad. Another piece of history gone.

So that was it, my journey into the past. I have some more pictures I may post later. Or not. Who knows???

My new favorite subject

2009-03-31T10:20:00.002-10:00

I just had to post of some photos of my new favorite subject.

This is Ricci. He's a 9 week old Indian Ringneck. We got him last Thursday. He is still a baby, baby on hand feeding and everything. He is also adorable.

We have a ringneck already who is green. Ricci will be blue, hopefully a nice teal blue. His color will change slightly as he gets older.

He is just a little cutie!!! Today was the first day he let me get close with the camera. The pictures from the first couple of days are taken from a distance. Anyway, just had to share the newest addition. And there is nothing wrong with his feathers, he is wet on one side because he's is an incredibly sloppy eater.

Sunday Stills

2009-03-29T09:39:00.002-10:00

Is it Sunday already?? I'm on spring break and I'm getting far less done then I normally do. What is that saying, if you want something done ask a busy person. Well, I'm apparently working on proving the reverse, if you're not busy nothing gets done. Anywho....... This week's the subject is landscapes (I actually had to go look, I had forgotten). Since I have all kinds of landscapes from all around the island I decided to pull from the archives today. The hard part was finding one I haven't used before. But I did.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Aloha Tower:

and did something we haven't done in years.....Went to the top. From there I took a number of pictures on Honolulu and I thought I'd use one of those.

This one is taken facing east toward Waikiki. What you see is downtown Honolulu into Waikiki.

If you look really closely you can see the peak of Diamond Head between the buildings in the middle of the picture. There was a time, no so very long ago, when the law was there could be no building higher then a coconut tree in Honolulu. They had to pass a special ordinance to build Aloha Tower and that was the tallest structure in the state for a long, long time. I wish I could go back in time and see it when it was like that. I tried to find a photo from pre-statehood days and though I know they exist no one apparently has scanned them and posted them on the web. Anyway, that's my entry for today and I'm off now to see what everyone else did. If you want to join in the frivolity just click on the badge above.

I've been tagged

2009-03-26T07:15:00.003-10:00

I'm not big on tags and awards and such, but I like this one so I've decided to play along.

Sherri from over at Painting is just another way of keeping a diary (okay, could you come up with a longer name ;)) got me. The rules are you go to your pictures folder, open the 6th folder and post the 6th picture. I went and did that and here's what I got:

For those of you paying attention, yes this links to my Flickr account. I went to my folders, found the right picture and then took it from Flickr. The picture is too large for Blogger to load up. I didn't cheat!!!

Anyway, this is Cutie (I think) and she belongs to one of our bird club members. This picture was taken on November 9, 2008.

I've seen this floating around for a long time and I think just about everyone has played (I've played on two other blogs) so I'm not going to tag anyone specifically. If you see this consider yourself tagged.

Sunday Stills

2009-03-22T11:19:00.003-10:00

I dragged my feet on this one all week because I wasn't thrilled with the theme. Lines....bleah..... So I halfheartedly looked for lines but really didn't find anything I liked. I had some ideas for variations of the theme but I'll tell you the theme just left me unmotivated. So I sat down to look through my Flickr account because I knew there had to something in there I could use, and I found this:

I actually kind of like it. The lines of the light poles along the right side are actually quit interesting. I never really noticed them before and I didn't really notice them when I took this picture, I was taking the waterfall (which is also a line). Anyway, that's my contribution to the game. I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what everyone else did.

Sunday Stills

2009-03-15T07:58:00.004-10:00

Okay, I missed the last couple but I'm back this week. Life has been so completely crazy and I need to take time to do the fun things.

This weeks theme was water and I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do. Initially I thought I'd take some ocean pictures but it's been so freaking cold and windy here I wouldn't dare go near the beach. I had planned on just pulling some from the archives if I had to. But yesterday as we were heading out to go to a wedding, I looked down my street and saw these:

It's been raining a lot for the last couple of days and the mountains are just covered in waterfalls.

Then, as we were driving along, we passed this place called Enchanted Lake. It's usually a marshy area that attracts a lot of water fowl and it's usually nice and blue. All the rain lately has resulted in a lot of run-off and this is what it looks like now:

That brown spot in the middle is Enchanted Lake. Pretty ugly right now.

Then, of course, there is always my favorite - rain drops:

Okay, that's my contribution to the game. I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what everyone else did.

It was a darky and stormy night....

2009-03-12T15:17:00.003-10:00

Or maybe it was a sunny and windy day, in any case I headed off to one of my favorite places today. The cemetery. I have an almost abnormal fascination with cemeteries, I particularly like old ones. The older the better. This one sits not far from downtown Honolulu, the state capitol, and the city government offices. It is one of the older cemeteries but not the oldest, I've saved that one for another day. The entire cemetery is not very big, I walked it twice in under an hour, and near as I can tell they stopped using it in the 1920's. The most recent date I saw on a headstone was 1928 but I did not read each one in great detail. Some I just looked at briefly.

But this cemetery has been around a while as evidenced by the growth of this tree:

Oh yeah, I feel that photos in a cemetery should be taken in black and white, don't ask me why.

Except for this. I wanted everyone to see this and see if anyone knew what was going on here. This person died 106 years ago yet someone stills puts notes or whatever in this little pouch around her headstone?? That struck me as really weird.

Then I found this one:

This little girl died in 1917 when she was 4 years old. Yet behind her headstone was this:

I know, I forgot to switch to color, but these are boxes of candy hearts. They are not that old, maybe a month. Like maybe someone put them there for Valentine's Day last month?? She's been dead for 92 years,who could possibly be putting these there? And it's not like they put them at all the kids graves, just hers. These are why I love cemeteries, there is so much mystery if you look closely.

Finally, this was by far my favorite headstone and I think it should be like this on all graves:

This poor 12 year old died in 1924. His picture has held up amazingly well. I have a couple of other headstones with pictures that still look good. Anyway, look at the bottom of his headstone. Killed by automobile. I think that should be on all headstones so we know how everyone died. Of course, that would remove a lot of the mystery from cemeteries.

That's all for now. I'll post more in a few days.

What is going on here???

2009-03-06T20:25:00.002-10:00

I have not had my camera out in weeks now. Weeks!!!! I get done at 9:30 on Thursday mornings. Starting next week I'm going to take my camera with me on Thursdays and so somewhere cool to take pictures. I have a fascination with cemeteries and I think the old one in Honolulu will be one of my first stops.

For now, here is a picture from my last photo adventure:

This is from my last trip around Honolulu. This is the mausoleum of King Lunalilo, the last descendant of Kamehameha the Great to sit on the throne of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Sunday Stills

2009-02-22T07:40:00.003-10:00

This week the subject was architecture. Honestly I got real excited about this subject. Hawaii is kind of psycho about architecture. Prior to western arrival they lived in huts. They had no metal so building anything was pretty much out of the question. They make canoes from whole trees. Then the first westerners arrive and the Hawaiians are fascinated with their boats and things. When the first Missionaries came and they realized the Hawaiians didn't have 'houses' like they were used to, they literally had entire structures dismantled and shipped to Hawaii and rebuilt. Then, of course, the Hawaiians got into building stuff themselves out of locally available material. So Hawaii is a real mixture of strange architecture so I was looking forward to taking some pictures. Then, of course, life got in the way. I found it Friday afternoon with no pictures taken. I had however, found myself at the old Barber's Point Naval Air Station, so I took some pictures there.

I found this church there. I have no idea how old this church is but it is built in the missionary style. Very simple and narrow wood siding. It could be quite old. The missionaries built churches all over the islands and many are still standing.

Right next to the church I found this lovely example of 1960's?? military architecture. I find it hard to believe there was a time anyone ever found this attractive.

Then yesterday I found myself in downtown Honolulu where all the really cool buildings are.

This is Aloha Tower. It was built in the 1920's and at one time the tallest building in Honolulu. This is on the harbor and where the cruise ships come in. It also has a great little center around it where we went for lunch.

Then, just down the road from Aloha Tower, is the Iolani Palace.

There are only 3 royal palaces that sit on American soil and all are in Hawaii(one of them is the Hulihee Palace in Kona and Hulihee is my last name :) This palace was built in the late 1800's just before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy.

Just across the street from the palace is the Hawaii Supreme Court:

With a rather ornate statue of King Kamehameha I in front of it. This was built around the same time as the palace.

Finally, just a block away is the Kawaiahao Church:

This church was built in 1839 out of coral rocks that were harvested from the ocean. It is still in use today.

Okay, I'm going to stop there. I have tons more pictures which I will save for another day. I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what everyone else did.

Sunday Stills

2009-02-15T07:20:00.002-10:00

This week's theme is the moon. I was excited and worried about this one because I've been trying to get a good picture of the moon for a couple of months now. On the nights that it's clear here even a sliver of a moon looks very cool. But I haven't been having a whole lot of luck. Ed gave me some suggestions last week and I've been out almost every night trying to get the perfect shot. Here are a couple:

This one I took earlier in the month. It was a half moon and it was surrounded by clouds. I kind of like it.

This one was taken on Tuesday night. The problem (at least in my eyes) I was having is that it was not that dark. The sky was much lighter but nothing I did, no setting that I changed could I get it to look like I thought it should. I know that the camera doesn't see as well as the human eye but this was not even close.

Then on my way to work on Thursday morning I managed to capture this:

This is what I was trying to capture. Apparently there is a small window to catch a good moon shot and I was just missing it every night. Or I was in the wrong place. Could be my neighborhood is not a good moon shot taking neighborhood. Whatever. I like how this came out so I'm going with it. Now I'm heading over to Sunday Stills to look at the other moons.

Misc. Photos

2009-02-14T09:55:00.004-10:00

I've been taking pictures like a drunken sailor lately, and I plan on taking a whole bunch more today. But I have not really had the time to sit down and post some. Well, here's a couple that I particularly like. Not because they are great pictures but because the subject amuses me.

There is an artist gallery down the road from us and out front he has these:

They get painted differently depending on the holiday or occasion or whatever strikes the artist fancy. I love the second one because he's wearing an aloha shirt. The first one just seems to be random drawings on him.

I stopped to take these photos and as I was getting back into the car I saw the side window. It cracked me up and I just had to take a picture:

Poi, for those of you that may not know, is a local favorite. It's mashed up taro (a root vegetable like a potato) that has the consistency and taste of paste. It is absolutely disgusting and definitely an acquired taste. Some people like to leave it out on the counter and let it ferment a bit, then eat it. Thanks, I'd rather starve.

Okay, I'm off to get my pics ready for tomorrow's Sunday Stills. I've got some good ones.

Sunday Stills: Reflections

2009-02-08T07:51:00.003-10:00

Yes, I've been a slacker again this week. I did not get out once with my camera. As the bird says, bad, bad!!! Luckily I have tons of archives to wander through and look for something to fit this theme. This one was taken a couple of weeks ago. We were sitting in a bar having lunch and I was sitting right next to this award the brewery had won with my back to the outdoors. The sun was so bright that day I was almost blinded by the reflection coming off the award. I decided to see if I could capture it on camera. This is the result:

I thought it was a pretty cool photo, but my husband was not impressed at all. I'm glad I took it though because now I can get all your opinions.

I'm now off to Sunday Stills to see what other reflections folks had.

Zoo Photos

2009-02-01T16:37:00.002-10:00

I went to the zoo last week and have not had the time to go through the pictures and post some. I seem to have some time to kill right now though ?!?!?!? and thought I'd look at some of them.

I love this one:

These turtles were just sitting there. The one in the back looks like he's trying to figure out what the hold up is.

Okay, using Ed's suggestion of getting very close to the glass to avoid flash washout, I took some pictures of the hippos. They were playing with this giant ball and it really was too funny.

The pics came out okay but I did get reflection of the people.

I took a picture of this handsome boy:

I love peacocks. We have them wild here in Hawaii and their noise is horrible. They sound like a baby crying when they scream and it is freaky. Mostly people don't like when they live nearby. I really don't know if this boy was wild or lived at the zoo.

Then there was the cerval cat:

His enclosure wasn't very big and everyone was looking and couldn't find him. Then I happened to glance down and there he was sleeping in the shade.

Okay, that's enough for now. I have more but I'm bored :)

Sunday Stills: Go High, Go Low

2009-02-01T07:45:00.002-10:00

I can not believe I have not really posted since last Sunday. I've been a little busy this week, no time to play with the camera. By the way, I think I forgot to mention that I totally stole that button from Linda. Excellent job Linda :)

So this week the assignment was to go high or go low. Since I didn't have a chance to play around this week I went through the archives. I found these pictures of Mr. P. The birds have this little aviary they play in and he was on a branch above me. I was trying to get a picture of him for some reason and he just kept looking at me trying to figure out what I was doing.

When he got bored he moved to a higher branch to take a nap and I was lucky enough to check him mid shake. He ruffles his feathers and shakes, kind of like a dog, as he settles in for a little snooze.

Well, that's all I got this week. Hopefully next week I'll have a chance to actually take new pictures. Now I'm off to see who else joined in the frivolity over at Sunday Stills.

Entrecard Top Droppers

2009-01-31T20:25:00.002-10:00

For the month of January the top droppers on this blog are:

Tech Spotlight
The Everyday Adventurer
Vanilla Seven
Life's Perfect Pictures
Photojournalist
PhotoDito
Project Visual
Musings of a Vicks Inhaling Man
Australian Women Online
Hawaiinas

Thank you all very much. This will be a regular monthly feature from here on out.

Sunday Stills - Potluck

2009-01-25T07:38:00.003-10:00

It's that time again folks. Today Ed left us to our own devices to come up with a picture. And in a very round about way he is responsible for this picture :) I put together a collage of animal butts yesterday (see post below) and that got me to thinking about my Africa pictures and I just had to post this one today. It's a little racy, definitely not PG, so proceed at your own risk.

Animal Butts

2009-01-24T12:02:00.000-10:00

I was looking at Ed's pictures from the zoo and thinking I really need to go to the zoo to photograph some animals. Then I remembered I had my photos from Africa. When we were in Africa many of the pictures we took of animals ended up being their butts because they would see the jeep and turn away. So I thought I would share a collage of animal butts from Africa.

Sunday Stills: Color

2009-01-18T07:51:00.002-10:00

Today's challenge is color. This was an interesting one for me. I've taken tons of pictures of color, just scroll down and you'll see them. I love taking pictures of flowers and plants, all very colorful. But today I decided to take a little different route. I know many of you are in the frozen tundra, so I headed out yesterday to take some pictures of the colors of Hawaii.

It's hard to see but there are 4 different colors of blue in the ocean here. The different colors have to do with the depth of the water and what's on the bottom.

Here you can easily see 3 different colors.

Then of course, there are the various greens of the hills.

Okay, I'll stop there. My favorite colors though are the ones found in nature. Also, this gave me an excuse to play with the landscape (or whatever it's called) setting on my camera. This is the one thing I'm going to miss when we move away from here, all the beautiful colors of the ocean. But I bet there's some beautiful colors in Colorado too.

Okay, I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what color everyone else came up with.

D'oh!!!!! (smacks forehead with palm)

2009-01-17T13:52:00.002-10:00

I was cleaning up some computer stuff I had in a box. I have this fear about throwing computer stuff away and then needing it, so I keep a box of computer stuff in my closet. I was looking for something which I can't even remember now, when I came across a copy of PhotoImpact Pro. I had totally forgotten I had gotten this from someone 2 years ago and never used it. I quickly loaded it on my computer and guess what?? It does everything I was looking for it to do. Sometimes I can be such an idiot!!!

Does deleting images off your memory card freak you out like it does me?? I upload all my photos to my computer. Then the majority of them get upload to Flickr. So I have them in 2 places. Oh yeah, lots of them get uploaded into Picasa too for the little slideshows on my sidebar. So I have the vast majority of them in 3 places. Still, deleting off my memory card totally freaks me out and I think I'm losing something. What is wrong with me??

I ventured out earlier to take some pictures for tomorrow's Sunday Stills. I know that the rest of the country has snow and freezing temperatures and all that good stuff, but it's freaking cold here. I'm wearing sweats and a long sleeve shirt. And shoes. I never were shoes on the weekend but my feet are cold.

Well, this certainly turned into a rambling post. Here is a little preview for tomorrow:

Photoshop question

2009-01-14T09:23:00.004-10:00

I know a lot of photo nuts pass through here and I have a question for you all. I'm thinking of getting photoshop because the free programs that I now use for my photos, Picasa, Flickr, etc, don't do all the things I would like to do with my photos. My question to you is which photoshop should I get? Or, is there another free program I should be looking at for editing my pictures?? Thanks for your help.

Edited to add: Thanks for your input. As Ed reminded me I do have a program that came with my camera, and someone else recommended Photoshop Express. Between those two I can now do what I want to with my photos. Thanks all. I'm off to take some photos for tomorrow's Sunday Stills. It's a beautiful day in Hawaii and I think I can find lots of color :)

Sunday Stills - Closeup/Macro

2009-01-11T07:17:00.006-10:00

These are my favorite photos to take but I've quickly come to realize I need a true macro lens. I attempted to buy one yesterday but the camera store didn't have one that would fit my camera :( So I'm still using the lens I have. Anyway, here are my entries for today:

This is a protea. They are succulent type plants (think cactus type) with these beautiful vibrant flowers. They grow on the Big Island in the volcano fields (hence the succulent characteristic).

This is what it looks like most of the time.

I've taken a whole bunch more macros this week you can look at the previous posts to see some of them.

Now I'm off to Sunday Stills to see everyone else entry.

A full moon

2009-01-10T19:33:00.004-10:00

I've decided that I need to carry my camera all the time and I need to be ready to stop everything to take a picture. I had to head out this morning at 6 am. It was still dark out and cold, the cold means that there are no clouds in the sky (clouds hold the heat in). It was beautiful. As I turned a corner the moon was low in the sky, perched right over a mountain, and absolutely huge! It was yellowish-orange and looked like you could just reach out and touch it. I, of course, did not have my camera with me and I have been kicking myself all day.

So when I went out just now to take the garbage out I couldn't help but notice the full moon rising in the east. I ran and got my camera.

I took this with the night photo setting on the camera (I guess that's what it's called) and I was steadying the camera on my neighbors mailbox :) I like how this came out but it has more of a halo then it does in real life. So I decided to play with my camera a little.

This one I took with the camera set on no flash and steadied on my neighbors mailbox. This one caused the shutter to stay open a looooooong time. It's interested but even more of a halo so that didn't really work. This one almost looks like the sun.

On that note, tomorrow we are expecting a big storm and I'm going to try and get some rain shots, not falling rain but things with rain drops. Interesting huh??

Time for a new post

2009-01-09T17:16:00.002-10:00

I haven't posted since Sunday but I've been taking pictures. The Sunday Stills assignment for this week is macro and that's my favorite photos to take. I've been playing around taking everything in macro. Since I won't be using most of them on Sunday I decided to post some now.

I love this picture of Mr. P. He was trying to sleep and I was all up in his face taking pictures. He was not happy with me.

This is Mr. Chubbers. It is so hard to get a good picture of him because he is white and tends to blend into the background. This is about the best picture I've gotten of him.

Rocco's eye. Another animal trying to sleep while I have the camera out. Silly dog.

This was our street on New Year's Eve. This is the only picture that really came out because the fireworks are over so quickly it was very hard to capture them.

Okay, that will do it for tonight. I have more photos to upload to Flickr and I want to do a little playing with a couple of them.

Sunday Stills

2009-01-04T07:55:00.004-10:00

This week the theme is sunrise/sunset. Wouldn't you know it we have been overcast all week and there has not been a sunrise/sunset to be seen. Figures. But we used to live on the beach and I took lots of sunrise pictures then. This one was taken after a series of storms that lasted for 41 days. The island of Oahu was flooding all over the place, our place flooded - that was not fun. But the first morning I woke up and saw this I ran outside to take some pictures. I felt like someone who'd been stranded on a desert island seeing signs of rescue.

I'm standing right outside the back door of my house.

This is another one that is one of my favorites:

If you look you will see it is almost the exact same angle. The islands are off to the right there and the buoy is off to the left. In the bottom picture if you look in the distance on the left side you will see the outline of another island. That rise of darkness on the horizon is the island of Molokai. When it's clear you can see 4 other islands. This is a summer sunrise and I don't remember but I'll bet it was really hot that day.

Okay, I'm off to Sunday Stills to see what others posted.

Sunday Stills - Luck

2008-12-28T08:07:00.003-10:00

After the craziness of the past couple of weeks I'm back with time for my camera. This week's theme for Sunday Stills is LUCK. I am a person who believes in not so much luck (I really beieve you make your own luck) but in omens and signs that things are going right. I believe that if you make a decision and then things you never even dreamed of go wrong, you might want to rethink that decision. I'm not saying if something is hard you shouldn't do it, but if something is near impossible you might want to reconsider. I'm not making sense but I believe there is an order and a flow to things and when following the 'correct' path things usually work out right. For example, I decided to go to grad school. I decided late in the summer when technically I shouldn't have been able to get in, yet everything fell into place with almost a divine speed. I knew this was what I was supposed to do at this point in time. Make sense???

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to make a break from work. I was thinking that I'd go part time so I could focus on my schooling but work thought I could be let go completely. At first this scared me. UNEMPLOYED!!!! Then the more I thought about it I realized it wasn't the end of something but the beginning of something new. I got very excited about it and really started to look forward to it. Then, I drive to work the next day thinking about what my new life will look like and as I get out of the car I see this. We get rainbows a lot here in Hawaii, but usually when it rains and generally not in this direction. I had to be there at just the right time to see this and with what I was thinking about I took this as a sign that things are going as they should be.

So I took this as a sign that I was doing the right thing. Some might call that lucky.

Now I'm off to see who else played in Sunday Stills.

Finally, some new photos

2008-12-18T14:11:00.002-10:00

This afternoon I found myself with nothing to do and a sunny day outside. It seemed like heading out with the camera was just the thing to do. I've been meaning to take a walk around my street because there are lots of pretty flowers all around. I took about 65 pictures but I'm only going to share a few now. This house up the street has lots of hibiscus out in front in all different colors. When I headed out the door that's what I had in mind. Unfortunately the rains of the past few weeks have wiped out the plants, but I took pictures of what was left.

Hibiscus come in a wide variety of colors. This is the most traditional one, the red.

The yellow is pretty common too. There are actually 2 types of yellow hibiscus. There's this one with the red center and there's one that's yellow all the way to the center.

Then there are one of my favorites, the pink. I love the dark red center.

Here is another type of pink one. If you compare the two you will see that the petals are thinner on this one then the previous one. Also, the pink isn't all the way through the petal. There are white edges that the other one doesn't have.

Then I found this one. It's red with pink edges and a yellow center thingee. I've never seen one like this. It is no doubt a cross I just wonder if it was an accident or on purpose.

Finally we have the orange one. This comes in a couple of varieties too. There are various shades of orange, red center, orange center, yellow thingee or red thingee. On this flower, if you look real close (or click to enlarge) you'll see it has a friend in the center. There's a bee in there. I tried to get him in the picture but he ran inside as I got close.

Well, that's all the flowers for right now. I have to go take the dogs to the vet.

I'm a terrible blogger/photographer

2008-12-11T18:19:00.003-10:00

It's funny, when I was really busy and stressed I would make a point of heading out with my camera to take a mental break. But since it all ended I'm a bit of a vegetable, just recovering from the semester. So I haven't been out recently, but I have taken some pictures.

This is Lala the umbrella cockatoo.

And this is Ziggy and the other grey.

Our bird club put on an event this weekend and these were some of the pictures from that. I have a ton more but they are not especially great and would probably bore anyone but club members.

This weekend I WILL head out with the camera for some R&R.

Sunday Stills

2008-12-07T08:53:00.002-10:00

Linda has put together this cool weekly photo thingee that I just had to get in on. Ed gives us a topic every week and we post our pictures on that topic. Linda explains it better than I do, so if you're interested head over to Linda's and get all the details in understandable English :)

This week's subject was pets. I take a lot of pictures of all my pets but getting one that was really good was really hard. All of my animals are so adorable it's hard to choose just one.

There's my friends birds:

There's my Sammy:

There's my Rocco:

Or there's Mr. P:

But my current favorite photo subject has got to be Nala. I have so many adorable pictures of her but I chose this one because I took it in the last week with this project in mind.

Nala is an American Pit Bull terrier who is 12 years old. She has been recently diagnosed with brain cancer so I've begun taking lots of pictures of her. She frequently gets cold, even here in Hawaii, and she likes to lay on the couch with a blanket.

So there we have it, my adventures in pet photography. I'm off to look at the other pictures.

Last weekend

2008-11-29T19:53:00.002-10:00

Well, I didn't get out today. I had to finish up some schoolwork and that took the majority of the day. The good news is it's all done and I'm going to devote 1/2 hour every day to photography. I'll either read and learn something or actually take pictures. I'm very excited about that. But I still have some pictures from last weekend to post.

I saw this tree and wanted to stop to take pictures of the white flowers.

A closer look showed that those weren't flowers but white leaves.

The interesting part was look at the white and the green leaves. They are different. Cool huh???

Then I noticed this orange flower that was the actual flower of the tree. Fascinating.

This is one of the things I love about photography, not only does it make you look at things differently but you see things you might never otherwise see. I love it!!

Rainy weekend

2008-11-23T20:28:00.002-10:00

We had our first big storm of the season this weekend. Rainy days are not the greatest for getting out and taking pictures, but they do provide some interesting things to see.

Where I live on the windward side has very steep mountains. When it rains this makes for some fantastic scenery.

Those white lines on the moutains are waterfalls. This whole range gets striped with them when it rains hard.

The clouds were so low all the pictures look hazy. In this picture you can actually see the clouds hanging down. If you look closely you can see there are 2 waterfalls at the top and they merge into one big fall.

This picture shows how every crevice has a waterfall when it rains hard enough.

There are more rainy day pictures as well as some other things I took photos of, but I think that will do it for tonight. Over the 4 day weekend I'm going to try to get some additional pictures posted.

Where I live....

2008-11-16T18:12:00.000-10:00

I wasn't able to get out and take any pictures this weekend, too much going on. But I still have tons from last weekend.

These two are taken where I live. This is Waimanalo. This first one is called Rabbit Island. If you ask why it's called Rabbit Island you will get all kinds of answers. There used to be wild rabbits on the island. Someone had a rabbit ranch on the island. It's named after someone called Rabbit. I don't think any of those are true. I think it was called Rabbit Island because it looks like a lop eared rabbit laying down, but that's just my opinion. Feel free to suggest another reason.

This is just past Rabbit Island, it's called Makai Pier. The first building you see, in the middle of the pier, is the home of the University of Hawaii submersibles. They are called Hawaii Undersea Research Lab (I think) or HURL - LOL!! The building behind it, at the end of the pier, is actually a business office We do business with the company in that office. In the distance you can see some mountains. The one behind HURL is the Marine Corps. Base Hawaii in Kaneohe.

Okay, that's it for today. We are heading out to dinner and I've got to throw some pants on. The weather has gotten too cold to wear shorts at night :)

More weekend photos

2008-11-13T16:33:00.000-10:00

Here I was trying to take a picture of a flower that was taller than me.

It doesn't work.

This is a monstera. It is a real nuisance here in Hawaii. In other parts of the world it's kept as a house plant, but here in Hawaii it grows to monsterous proportions. It wraps itself around trees and kills them. It is a bad, bad plant. The problem is, I like them. I think they look really cool and jungly.

This is one of the leaves close up:

Although it's hard to tell with no size reference, these leaves are huge. This one is probably 3 feet long. Again, a real nuisance plant but very cool.

Finally, we have some red berries. Don't know what the plant is but the red was nice in the green of the rain forest.

Weekend update

2008-11-11T15:18:00.000-10:00

This Saturday Hubby and I went for a drive around the island. I took my camera and since I live in paradise, I decided to try some landscape type pictures. At a couple of stops I was having a great time trying to catch a wave series it was big fun.

This picture was taken from the top of Round Top Dr and there are some serious views from up there. This is Diamond Head.....

This is looking the other way, towards the leeward coast.

The following is a some of the series of waves I took at the Halona Blowhole.

I have more but I'll stop here for now.

Our grateful thanks

2008-11-11T06:35:00.001-10:00

I've finally had some time to play

2008-11-08T11:31:00.000-10:00

I've been pretty busy for the last week or so and have had no time at all to take the camera out and play with it. I've been noticing some things I want to take pictures of though and I finally got a chance to go do that this morning.

First, is my neighbors bush. This is a Lantana bush and I know in some places it's considered a pest weed. Here in Hawaii we cultivate it and keep it neat.

I love this bush because of the flowers. These are the greatest flowers:

Then there is these little purple flowers that grow in the Lantana. I'm guessing they are a weed but I could be wrong:

Finally, my neighbor has this beautiful double hibisicus. Unfortunately I was unable to get a good picture because the plant is much taller than I am :)

If you click the picture you will get the bigger version and you can see there are the darker, outer petals, and the lighter, inner petals. That is a double hibiscus.

Okay, that's enough for now. I have more but I want to play with them a little and I'll put them in another post.

Rainy Pictures

2008-10-29T06:36:00.000-10:00

Here are a couple of more rainy pictures I took over the weekend. I have decided that I really, really love photographing nature and animals. I love those pictures and get excited trying to capture just the look I want.

Aren't the raindrops hanging off the leaves cool??? I love this stuff I really do. I just wish I had more time to devote to it. Soon enough I will.

Plumeria revisited

2008-10-26T11:13:00.001-10:00

Here are some pictures of the plumeria I posted the other day, only today they are in the rain.

Unfortunately the white one fell off the plant, but this is a new white one unfolding. It picked a crappy day to open.

Flowering plants

2008-10-26T11:10:00.000-10:00

I went outside to take some pictures in the rain, and I got some pretty cool ones. But, did you know that Aloe Vera plants flower?? Me neither!!! Here it is though:

Here is close up of the flower:

Interesting huh?? You learn something new every day!!!

Not much chance to play

2008-10-26T07:59:00.000-10:00

with the camera that is. I've been pretty busy and the weather has been kind of crappy. I think I'm going to go out later and take some pictures in the rain. That should make for some interesting shots.

Meanwhile, here's some shots I took the other day.

This is a jackfruit that growing in our yard:

Yes, the bugger is big! Some people eat them, I don't. But the interesting thing about this fruit is the skin. Here's a close up:

Cool Huh???

Hopefully I'll have some more pictures later.

Some time to kill

2008-10-23T15:05:00.000-10:00

I got my school work done quicker than I thought I would so I thought I'd play around with this blog a little. I've updated the buttons up top for my other blogs, Now I want to post a couple of the pictures I've taken that I like with some notes about them.

I love this picture of Nala. I got down on my knees, lower than her, and set the camera on macro. It was taken in the morning in natural light. I just love how it came out.

Another one of Nala that I just love. I got down on the floor with her and set the camera on macro. It was taken in the natural afternoon light of the carport, a lovely setting :) I wish it had her whole head I would use it as my tattoo.

This is the chatty Mr. P. I took this in the afternoon while he was in the birdie house. He was above me and I used a macro setting.

Okay, that's enough for now. I actually want to go take more pictures.

Just what I need, another blog

2008-10-22T18:40:00.000-10:00

Yes, another blog. I've added a photo blog to my list of blogs. I got a new Sony DSLR and I really want to become a decent photographer. I think a lot of it is just trial and error, and that's where this blog comes in. I will take tons of photos and most will be garbage. I can critique them here. I will also have some that come out amazing. I can put them here and write what I did so I'll remember. Let's begin with some flowers:

I won't be posting every day since I won't get to play with my camera every day, but I'll post as often as I can.