Kiting Practice

Actually the paraglider in the foreground is practicing.  The other paraglider just landed and is walking up the landing zone to move out of the way in case someone is landing behind him.

Nose to Nose

In an effort to find an alternative to LightRoom (I don’t want to pay a monthly fee to use it. I prefer a Perpetual License.), I’ve been looking at other programs.This pic I developed with the latest version from ON1. I liked the ease of using the Develop section.  The different options available to develop a photo are straight forward and show fairly quickly in the preview. Plus there are plenty of presets you can play with to get inspiration.  I’m still learning the ins and outs of the program.

The one negative occurred when I exported this image.  First it took forever and a day to actually export.  When it did the bottom portion up to the bush was cut off. Eventually I changed the photo size to just the long edge and the image came out as you see it.  Also during the export process the program hung up on me and I had to wait for it to work again.  If you force close it the history for the image is lost. 

Beach Day

This is a pic I got almost three years ago.  As you can see it was a beautiful day.  We’d recently gotten a lot of rain.  You can see the effects of the runoff with the slightly discolored water along the beach in the lower left.  The trade shower is about to drop its water on the Marine Corps Base.  Last Tuesday the Base got pummeled with an intense Lightning storm that dropped hail on the base and on Kailua.  A funnel cloud formed just about where this trade shower is in the pic.  It came ashore at Lanikai and voila it becomes a 25 yard wide tornado and went inland a couple of miles before falling apart in Kailua.

First Post of the First Day of 2012

I witnessed the beginning of the day and it’s end.  I’m pooped.

 

 

Wide View

No Parking-1

Whale watching spot

Hawaii is over half way thru Whale Watching season.  A prime spot to see whales on Oahu is Makapuu Point.  Here’s a panorama I took standing on the lookout directly above Makapuu Lighthouse and facing mauka. To the right is the Windward side of Oahu.

 

Makapuu Panorama

                                                                               A panorama of Makapuu looking across the Molokai Channel to Molokai and West Maui

Fishy Sentinals

Fishing Poles lined up at Makapuu

Training Flights

Driving around Makapu’u Point on Oahu you might notice Paragliders and or Hanggliders flying above the beach.  The Landing Zone at Kaupo Beach will have a gaggle of just landed PG or HG pilots swapping stories about how great the flying was.

This time of year another group of flyers will be taking to the air from the same place.  This group doesn’t need flying harness, variometer, or parachute.  They use what God gave em.  Feathers.  They are racing pigeons getting in their preseason workouts.  In August their owners will send them over to Molokai or Maui or the Big Island and have them released to fly back to Oahu.  The fastest ones will be high on the pecking order.   

I didn’t realize how popular pigeon racing was until I talked to the breeders while they released their pigeons. For instance, South Africa is the home of the richest One-Loft Race in the world, the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race. The Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race pits 4,300 birds from 25 countries against each other for a share of $1.3m in prize money. The runners-up win cars and smaller monetary prizes, while the overall winner can expect to pocket $200,000. Sun City’s "one-loft" race, sees birds from across the world air-freighted to South Africa as squabs, months before the race, and trained to orientate to a single loft. On race day, after being released 550 km (330 Miles) out on the South African veldt, the birds all race back to the same destination.

The next time you see a flock of pigeons beating wing from Makapuu you’re watching athletes in training.

                       

Crashing Surf