The World Is Not Flat!

This just proves the world is round! :-D

Playing around with a 15mm fish-eye lens at Kaka‘ako Park.

Wow! The first half of the year is complete ... so soon! Oh my gosh! Have a blessed second-half of the year!

Size Matters

Kathy & I buy our eggs from Peterson's Upland Farm, in Wahiawa, and its one few places where people can get super jumbo eggs. The last time we had gone to buy our dozen super jumbos, they gave us two pee wee eggs.

Today's photo shows the size difference between a super jumbo and pee wee eggs.

Sharing The Lord's Message

At our home church, New Hope Leeward, Senior Pastor Mike Lwin gives the message during one of our worship services.

In the short time, over a year, we've been attending there full-time, Kathy serves in the Keiki Zone (Sunday School), and I serve in the video ministry. I took this photo from the top of the director's console for our video cameras while directing that particular service.

Where Do I Park?

This Hainan Airlines 737-800, B-5482, looks like its trying to find a parking spot ... actually it's taxiing out to HNL's "Reef Runway" for departure to continue on its delivery flight to Haikou, China (Hainan Island).

Castle & Cooke Aviation, the company doing the ground handling the aircraft at HNL, has only two parking spots: one (fronting their hangar) was already occupied, the other is an alleyway between their hangar and hangars on the other side of the taxiway. This 737 parked in the alleyway nose first, but was turned around earlier that morning.

Open Flames

During the Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony, dignitaries lit this cauldron via remote control, to symbolize unity.

Longboarder

During last week's south swell, Kathy let me take an afternoon after work to get some surf shots. What an awesome wife! I took a spin to Kaka‘ako Park, and found high tide with a couple of dozen surfers in the water. This surfer on a longboard cuts across a head high wave. He's even got the Michael Jordan tongue-wagging thing going on.

Sunrise Rays

The sun's rays rise above the trees, clouds, and the Ko‘olau Mountains one morning right after Kathy left for work.

Decadent Dessert

While playing tourist around Wailea (on Maui), Kathy & I stopped at the Shops At Wailea shopping center. One of the stores there is Tommy Bahama, which includes their clothing store and a cafe. Kathy and I had lunch there ... suffice it to say, the food was yummy!!! Dessert was a tough decision ... we decided to share this concoction called Blackbeard's Butterscotch. All Kat & I can say ... if you ever go to a Tommy Bahama's Cafe ... you gotta have one of these desserts!

Palm Flowers

These palm flowers were in bloom on a tree in our subdivison ...

Happy Father's Day!

To all the dads out there ...

Happy Father's Day!

Lanterns

Wrapping up the Lantern Floating Hawai‘i theme week is a shot of ... the lanterns.

Lanterns honoring the dead are floated to sea, a Japanese Buddhist ritual called tooroo nagashi. For this event, people write the name of a loved one, and sometimes a short message on the paper walls around the candle.

Normally, the winds are off-shore which will carry the lanterns out toward the open ocean. However, this year, we had southerly (on-shore) winds throughout the weekend, though weather forecasts had off-shore winds for Memorial Day. The winds did not shift, and when the lanterns were released, they floated back toward shore. I got this shot right after the broadcast ended, and before we began to break down our video equipment.

KGMB has the broadcast of the event on their website.

Hula

The young ladies of Natalie A‘i Kamau‘u's hula halau perform a hula that was written for King David Kalākaua. Like yesterday's photo, it was taken during the dress rehearsal.

Taiko

Taiko are drums from Japan which have been around for a few centuries. The taiko group from Shinnyo-en usually leads off the the Lantern Floating Hawai‘i Festival, and their first number sounds like a huge rock band drum solo.

I got this shot during the dress rehearsal the night before the big event, as the sun was setting.

Show Whites

All those involved with the cameras ... shooters and cable pullers had to wear white. The normal stage attire we wear is black, but since the stage area was all white, we the camera crew were told to wear white. The stage managers and stagehands also had to wear white.

We got tagged as painters, bakers, waiters, and staff at the Kekela Ward at Queen's Medical Center. :-D

In The Water

Hawai‘i Stage & Lighting Rentals constructed this light and camera scaffolding which towered almost three storeys above the the water's surface. It held two TV cameras, the lighting control board, some of the stage lighting, and a platform for photographers and observers. A forklift was needed to get the equipment on and off the scaffolding.

Chain Gang

Well, sort of ... our impression of one, when we had to dig a trench to bury cables in the sand for a LCD monitor, and for the TechnoJib. We had to either dig by hand or by stick, since there were no shovels around.

TV Land

This month's theme week is the Lantern Floating Hawai‘i Festival, that was held last month.

Leading off theme week is a shot of our TV broadcast compound. The trailer on the left is our control room on wheels. The scaffold on the right is our cable bridge. The large bins hold our video cables, which must have stretched out to a few miles. We all had to wear hardhats, because finishing touches to the stage were still being hung from the light rigging and stage.

Sorry for starting this month's theme week so late ... I had a brain cloud.

Menchies

Kathy and I love to eat frozen yogurt ... and our favorite place is Menchies.

Today's photo was taken at the Kapolei store a few days after its grand opening.

Techno-Jib

The Techno-Jib was one of the mechanical cameras used in the Lantern Floating Festival broadcast, the arm can stretch any where between nine and 24 feet out. The Techno-Jib shown here is owned by SteadiCam Hawaii, whose owner Mark Morgan, is a top SteadiCam operator.

Clothing Malfunction?

The mannequin that's seated seems to have an issue with her dress ... is it too big? Or something wrong with the dress? Oops! Thankfully, it happened to mannequin and not a real model.

Kathy and I had gone shopping, and she stopped in this women's wear store, which will remain nameless, unless you women know which store we were in. While walking around, I noticed the dress faux paux ... I tell you, cell phone cameras sure come in handy ... especially since I wasn't carrying one of my cameras.

"Clothing Malfunction?" is the 900th post of the Blue Wave Pix photo blog ...

Archer

The Patsy T Mink Central O‘ahu Regional Park (commonly known as CORP) features an archery range near the swimming complex. This archer just let one of his arrows loose toward the target.

Wave On Sand

A wave breaks on the sand at Kaena Beach.

Late Night Departure

A small inter-island cargo plane makes a late night run ...

Graduation Day

'Tis the season for high school graduations! These seniors from Aiea High School celebrate after receiving their diplomas this past Friday night at Aloha Stadium. I was the hand-held video camera, and got this shot when the diplomas were handed out. Our other two cameras covered the diploma part, while I had cover ... just in case. Aloha Stadium hosts five high school graduations, which our video crew captures the ceremonies to broadcast on the JumboTron, and to record for sale.

To all of the 2009 graduates ... Conrgatulations!

Station 29 Re-opened!

After almost two years of construction, the Honolulu Fire Department's new Station 29 is opened! The McCully-Mō‘ili‘ili Fire Station was totally re-built from the ground up to this modern facility, that began in July 2007, and recently re-opened on June 1st. Not only did they get a new firehouse, they got a new fire engine (above)! Thanks Nick for the info!

I was running errands in the neighborhood yesterday, and noticed that Station 29 was up and running, so I took a detour to document it. In the process, Ladder 29 received a call out as I parked my car. I got a few shots before Engine 29 received their call out, seen above. Both trucks bolted up University Avenue, followed by two police cars and an ambulance.

Matching Colors

When Boeing introduced the Aviation Partners Boeing Blended Winglets on their 737 Next Generation series, a few airlines leave them grey, some airlines choose to paint these performance enhancing additions to match their color scheme, while others choose to match the design on the tail.

Hainan Airlines is one several airlines to match their tail logo design with the winglets on their 737s. I got this photo when Hainan took delivery of their latest 737-800, B-5466, last week.

June Brides

June is a big season for weddings ... June Brides ... Here in Hawai‘i, there usually an up-surge in weddings. From local couples to couples from all around the world, our island state is a magnet for wedding couples and honeymooners.

Today's shot is from Kirk & Merilyn's wedding taken a couple of years ago as Merilyn repeats her vows from Gabe, before putting Kirk's ring on. I was the second photographer, hired to shoot alongside Jayson Tanega, to capture alternate angles and candids. I added a spot focus, and desaturated the blurred section through Photoshop.

When Kathy & I tied the knot a couple of months ago, we asked Gabe, the minister, to perform our wedding ceremony, and we hired Jayson to take our wedding photos. I've known Gabe for over 20 years, he's a great friend, former co-worker, and former associate pastor to us. I've known Jayson for over 10 years, and have always liked his photographic eye.

Jacaranda

Jacaranda flowers are in bloom all over the state of Hawai‘i ... Up Country Mau‘i was where we really noticed these purple flowers, though there are several places around O‘ahu that have Jacaranda trees.

Yogurtland

Several months ago, Yogurtland opened their first franchise in Honolulu, near the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Kathy & I had gone to check it out ... to which the line had gone out the door ... even after we left, close to 10pm(!). People patiently waited their turn to make their own desserts. It was the launch of other self-serve frozen yogurt franchises to pop up all over O‘ahu.

I got this shot with my cell phone's camera ... one of the few instances it came in handy.

Long Shadow

Wide-angle lens + afternoon sun = long shadow ...

It was taken a few minutes after I took the shot I posted yesterday.