alpharon's posterous

After finishing up Project 365 for the month of January, I saw February as a fresh start to the project.  I realized that I was going to have to keep this project fresh in order to stay motivated and committed to completing it.  I think I'll be treating each month as a fresh start to keep it going forward.

Well, here are the pictures to start off February!

[032/365] :: Island Style. It's my birthday month and I was beginning to feel my age after coming back from vacationing in Hawaii.  I was missing it a lot...especially the food.  My coworkers had just happened to be having lunch at a small Hawaiian restaurant serving up some home cooked ono foods.  This is probably the closest I'd get to some delicious island food without having to get on a plane.  The spot is called Island Style Cafe and I would advise you to try it out if you're in the San Diego area.  I ALWAYS order their Korean Chicken plate (pictured), but I've tried everything on their menu and it's all delicious.  I want some now...

[033/365] :: Lens Tester.  Being a parent, my son is probably my most photographed subject.  I've got thousands of pictures of him and he hasn't even turned 2 yet!  Here he is helping me test out my new Sigma 85mm lens.  I've been waiting to acquire this lens to start some portrait photography projects that I've had planned for months.  For the time being, I've unleashed its potential on my son and he doesn't seem to mind at all.  We shot this while he was playing around in the kid's section of IKEA.  The environment is very well lit and I had no problem dialing in the proper exposure for the picture.  This was shot wide open at ƒ/1.4 to blur out the cluttered background behind him. 

[034/365] :: Texture.  With the purchase of the Sigma 85mm, I now have possesion of the Sigma Trinity at 30mm, 50mm, and 85mm.  All of them have a max aperture of ƒ/1.4 and perform just as good, if not better, than the Canon "L" counterparts I tested in the past.  For my daily walk around lens, I'll usually have the Sigma 30mm attached to my Canon 7D to give me a "normal" focal length to work with.  It provides me a focal length close to what I see with my own eyes.  I really like the texture of the pillow in this photo and wanted to see if the Sigma 30mm could capture it in the low light environment I was in.  This is the kind of picture quality that the fast aperture provides me.  I shot this wide open at 1/60s without having to bump up ISO.  I got the sharpness, quality, and performence I expect from these Sigma lenses demonstrated in this one shot.

[035/365] :: Cold Night. It really was a cold night.  We were sitting outside of Studio Diner waiting for a table when I snapped this shot.  We were being lit by multi-colored flourescent neon lights from the diner sign, streetlights on the sidewalk, headlights and breaklights from passing cars, and powerful signs from businesses accross the street.  It was a lighting nightmare and there was no way I could have fixed it.  The boys posed for me anyway and waited for me to take this shot.  I had to use a relatively high ISO 3200.  I did some noise correction in post processing and I selectively reduced the saturation on the warm colors to get this final image.  It might look a bit overprocessed, but I think I was able to get the COLD look I was looking for in this photograph.

[036/365] :: Tree Model.  Another picture of my son!  He is so used to having a camera pointed at him now.  We were taking a walk around our neighborhood when he suddenly decides to pose by every tree we pass by to take a picture.  It was pretty hillarious!  I'd snap a few shots at each tree and he would quickly run over to me to review the pictures.  If he didn't like them, he'd go back to the same tree and pose a little differently.  HAHA!  All this was done with no direction from me.  What a funny kid.  I should start "A Kid and His Trees" series.  There were some funny poses in this set, too.  But I decided to choose this shot because it really looked sincere.  His eyes are in perfect sharpness and they look directly at you.  They really drew me into the image.  I'll post the other shots when I have some time to process them and maybe revisit these trees again with him soon.

[TIP]

Viewing EXIF data :: I've been asked a few times about the camera settings used to take some of the shots I've posted in this blog.  I don't extract any of that EXIF data because I like to be able to share what I've learned.  I don't have a problem with it because anyone can take my settings, but you can't take my eyes.  :D I shoot what I see for the most part and set up my camera to get the shots I want.

You can find that information by clicking on the pictures so they take you to the picture page on my Flickr.  From there, you will see text just to the right of the image saying something like: "This photo was taken yesterday using a Canon EOS 7D."  There will be a link on the text for "Canon EOS 7D" if you hover over it with your tracker.  This link will show you the camera settings used for that particular photo as well as a handful of other information that could be helpful.

Aloha!  I'm back from Hawaii with a little tan and a lot of pictures to sort through!  Fortunately, I've already selected and uploaded my daily photos for Project 365 on my Flickr and I can share them all with you here! 

[020/365] :: Waikiki Lights.  Our first night in Hawaii and I desperately needed a shot for the day.  The flight got in later in the day and we spent a lot of time getting checked in and situated with everything.  I didn't remember about having to take a shot until the end of the day.  Luckily, we had a great view of Waikiki from out balcony, so I set up the tripod and shot a few long exposures of the city.  This one came out pretty good with nice colors and contrast.  The light trails from the passing cars was an added bonus to the shot.  I really like how the street lights turn into bright shining stars for long exposure shots.  This was my first real try at this type of shot, so I'm happy I was able to get a good result out of it.

[021/365] :: Broken Board.  We made our way to Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu to check out the huge waves that arrived the day before.  Everyone had anticipated the running of the Quiksilver Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational to run with the previous day's monster swell, but the waves weren't consistent enough to run the event.  The waves were still huge and there were plenty of guys out there paddling into some crazy drops.  Stay tuned to this blog for a separate post of all the surfing shots I took in Hawaii.  I got really lucky with this particular shot.  This shot is straight out of camera with no extra editing done to the image.  I noticed the surfer peddling by on his bike, but didn't notice the broken board until he had passed me by.  I quickly turned my camera to shoot him as he peddled away.  I really like how the shot is framed by the green foliage along each side of the subject. 

[022/365] :: High Five.  Our hotel room in Hawaii had a cool parchment screen between the bathroom and sleeping area.  It created a nice backlit shadow effect for people inside the bathroom standing close to the screen.  I had my wife place her hand on the screen with the backlight on in the bathroom.  The light wasn't completely covered up, so it created a bright spot in the photo, but I was still able to get the effect I was looking for in the shot.

[023/365] :: Vanishing Horizon.  The sun happened to be setting as we were walking along Waikiki beach, so we decided to post up and take some pictures.  I had to shoot this with the huge sky and very low horizon line to eliminate a lot of the tourists that were standing in the foreground.  I like how it turned out as it really draws your attention to the sunset without too many silhouettes distracting from the subject.  One thing that I do find distracting is the watermark I have placed just below the horizon line.  I'll have to remember to move that watermark or get rid of it altogether for these type of shots.

[024/365] :: Hanauma Bay.  This is a shot of the famous snorkeling location just past the entrance to the bay.  The vivid blue water and the green foliage really add a lot of color to the image.  I'm not really a huge fan of snorkeling here because a lot of the coral reef has been trampled on by tourists making for a mostly dull time in the water.  My friend Brian and I decided to make it a little interesting by swimming out just past the shallow reef safe zone and into the deeper waters of the bay.  It was a pretty sketchy experience as we were getting tossed around by waves close to some hard coral formations.  We were able to find some larger schools of fish not normally seen in the calmer waters.  There was also a healthy population of corals that were untouched by tourists in this portion of the bay.  It's definitely worth a swim out there if you feel confident swimming in the open ocean.  Just make sure you use the buddy system and watch your backs for large shadows coming towards you in the water.

[025/365] :: Turtles Attack.  Our group decided to check out a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center in the North Shore.  It was our first time at the center and we had a good time checking out some shows and learning about the South Pacific Islands and their people.  This shot was taken at the gift shop while we were waiting for their finale show to start.  My son was playing with a couple stuffed turtles next to a display.  I rolled him over closer to the display and dumped a bunch of the stuffed toys on top of him and snapped this shot before he got overwhelmed.  We all had a pretty good time at the PCC and I would recommend it to people wanting to learn a thing or two about Polynesian Culture.  The new finale show they have is called 'Ha - The Breath of Life'.  We all were impressed by the performances and left well fed and well entertained.

[026/365] :: Pineapple.  This is a shot of a pineapple growing in the garden of the Dole Plantation near the North Shore.  I'm not sure what variety pineapple this is (I should have taken a shot of the label), but I like how it almost gets lost in the leaves surrounding it.  It's probably fully mature and ready to be eaten on the spot.  I learned that you could plant your own pineapples by taking the crown and placing it in a jar of water, not unlike planting a potato in a jar.  I'll have to try it the next time I have a pineapple around.

[027/365] :: Wipeout.  Day 27 was the last day of the Volcom Pipeline Pro competition at the Banzai Pipeline in the North Shore.  This is one of the scariest places in the world to surf.  Period.  We started the day with a big breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe and desserts from Ted's Bakery.  Then we drove on over to Ehukai Beach Park to check out the contest.  It was sick.  Pro surfers really know how to negotiate that wave and get themselves into the perfect position for a nice barrel ride.  The poor guy that fell off his board in this shot was a free surfer that was surfing at Off The Wall, just a few meters south of Pipeline.  I have other shots of him before he hit the water, but I decided to post the one not showing his face to save him from embarrassment.  HAHA!  You can pretty much tell from this shot that it was a bad wipeout.  He's falling into just a couple feet of water with a sharp coral reef below.  Luckily, he made it back up unharmed and quickly paddled back into the lineup before the next wave broke over him.  I've got a lot of respect for any surfer that paddles into these dangerous conditions. 

[028/365] :: Flight.  Sadly, all vacations must come to an end.  The family hopped back onto a plane and headed back to the mainland.  Hawaiian Airlines treated us good and we'll be looking forward to flying with them again for another trip to the islands.  This is a shot out our window seat during blue period.  The sun was setting faster since we were flying east, so I had to remember to get this shot before the sky turned completely dark.  Mahalo Hawaii for another good time.  Stay tuned for all the other pictures I took of the trip.  Aloha!