October 5, 2009
June 9, 2009
March 24, 2009
Tutu Goose
In a post last December I have a picture of a participant in the Honolulu Marathon from a recent year. He’s wearing a goose tutu. Look for yourself if you don’t believe me.
It never occurred to me I’d see the same outfit again. I was wrong.
Maybe they are part of a not so secret society.
January 17, 2009
December 15, 2008
What a way to spend your Honeymoon
I mentioned in my last post the Japanese are great participators. This year I saw several couples dressed as wedding couples. I guess if you can finish a marathon together you can stick together thru just about anything. Plus it’s one long trash your wedding dress opportunity.
This years marathon started off in rain. Fortunately it stopped after an hour or so. By the time the bulk of the runners came thru my Hawaii Kai neighborhood the skies cleared and gave us a few hours of sunny weather.
I got into a conversation with one of the event photographers. These are the guys you see clicking away as the runners go by. Fred told me he can snap upwards of eight thousand pictures for an event. My poor digitus secundus! Can you imagine the work it requires to view all those pics times the number of photographers. Just thinking about keying in the bib numbers gives me carpal tunnel. They must use a heavy duty Digital Asset Management program for the process.
October 23, 2008
High Five at Makapuu
You never know when someone’s gonna be flying by.
October 10, 2008
September 22, 2008
a700 Firmware update V4
I missed it when it first came out. So I’ve only just updated to the new firmware. I like they added the option to turn off noise reduction for high ISO’s. If the DRO improvements are significant it will make post processing in Lightroom easier.
Sony eSupport – DSLR-A700 – Software Updates & Drivers.
This utility updates the DSLR-A700 Camera Firmware to version 4 and provides the following benefits:
Benefits over firmware version 3:
* Adds a “2 steps/3 shots” option to the “Bracket: Single” and “Bracket: Cont.” Drive mode settings for auto exposure bracketing.
* Adds an “Off” option to the “High ISO NR” (Noise Reduction) setting.
* Provides improvements in picture quality when using a high ISO setting; color noise is minimized in images captured using an ISO setting of 1600 or higher.
* Provides improvements to the Auto White Balance (WB), especially when taking pictures using the flash.
* Improves performance of the D-range Optimizer (DRO). The ability to discriminate between scenes has been improved, and the scope to which the advanced DRO effect can be applied has been broadened.
* Improves the ability to make a successful connection with the VG-C70AM vertical grip.
Additional benefits over earlier firmware versions:
* Resolves an issue where the Access Lamp remains lit and the camera stops responding when several pictures are taken in rapid succession.
* Resolves an issue where powering the camera off while in “MR” mode may cause some registered settings to carry over to other shooting modes.
* Sharper images for pictures taken under low contrast conditions
* Reduced noise for pictures taken at ISO 3200
* Improved flash control for objects closer than 1 meter with non ADI controlled lenses
September 12, 2008
Luau in low light
If you ever visit Hawaii, take an evening and enjoy a luau. It’s a pleasant way to get a quick introduction into cultural icons of Hawaii and Polynesia.
Earlier this week I attended the Paradise Cove Luau – Hawaii’s Best Luau. It’s next to the Ko Olina Resort on the Waianae side of Oahu. I can’t speak to it being the best since the only other Luau I’ve gone to is at the Hale Koa. The food and entertainment was good but it doesn’t have the additional activities of Paradise Cove.
One entertainment item Luau’s have in common is the fire-knife dancer. It’s a challenging subject for low light photos. I shot this hand held at ISO 3200 at 1/25 sec and f/ 7.1 with my AF 28-300 3.5-6.3 IF Sigma lens.
Fire-Kife Dancer
This image caught my eye because if you look closely just below the dancer you can see others working on their low light photography too.
September 4, 2008
Lucky you live…
There are several expressions you’ll hear in Hawaii. Lucky you live in Hawaii is repeated when we see people struggling in hip deep snow in the midwest or sliding down an icy street in the southwest. Plus we’ve been fortunate not to get pummeled by hurricanes like the Gulf Coast and eastern seaboard. Sitting above Makapuu Lookout waiting for my hang gliding friends to fly by I considered myself lucky indeed
