Hello All,
Some of you may remember that I left about a week and a half ago
for a spring break trip to warm, sunny Hawai'i... well, unfortunately
I have returned to uh, well, warm, sunny Boston (I'm not sure what's
going on with the weather, but it's better than the snow the day
I left) so I'm back to the list. I haven't actually received any
messages since leaving (just resub'ed), so I wonder what's been
going on...
Warning: this message is long and probably boring. Feel free
to ignore it if you like. It does include the drama of one
camera problem and a potentially OM-ending tragedy, though,
so consider that before you hit delete. Hahahaha.
Although my photographic style was somewhat cramped by the 5
friends with whom I was traveling, I managed to shoot 6 rolls of
slides and 2 of black and white during the week that I was
there. I'm pretty happy with those numbers -- I pretty much
used up everything I brought with me. Hopefully the gods of the
US postal service and the Fuji processing lab will see fit to
safely return my slides to me soon. Actually, I only mailed
5 of the rolls to them, I've still got the last roll of slides
and the b&w to deal with. I think I'm going to take it to a
"real" lab tomorrow and pay a lot to ensure that I get at
least something in case the planets have aligned against me. :-)
Plus, I'm impatient.
Most of the shots were landscape / water / sky... some people
when I could get my friends to pose or when I could catch strangers
doing photogenic things in the telephoto lens. :-) That's an
easier task on the beaches there than it is around here, I'd
have to say... heh.
First destination was Pearl Harbor Memorial, which was nice. They
have a short (~20 min) movie followed by a ferry trip that takes
you out to the memorial. The memorial itself is a white bridge-like
structure that is built over the sunken wreck of the USS Arizona.
>From inside, you can look into the water at the remains of the
ship and at one end is the "standard" wall engraved with the names
of those who were killed in the attack. You can also see the
USS Missouri, or the "Mighty Mo'" which is on display nearby
(no connection with Pearl Harbor attack). I'd say the memorial
is worth the trip if you are on the island. It is free, which
is nice for traveling students. (the Mighty Mo' involves something
like a $15 ticket, btw... we didn't feel like paying so we didn't
check it out). Between the memorial and the museum there, there
were a fair number of photo ops... especially if it is your first
day on the island. :-) If you happen to be trying to find it,
you want the USS Arizona Memorial.. if you just follow signs that
say "Pearl Harbor" all the way, you end up at the military base
and they send you away. Not that it happened to us. :-)
We then headed out to the Dole pineapple plantations to see what
they were all about. Lots of pineapples, surprisingly enough.
Also, a large gift shop selling.... pineapples and pineapple
products. Plus, they boast the world's largest (as of guinness
1998) hedge maze. Kind of amusing. Not terribly photogenic
(other than the "this-is-my-friend-running-through-the-maze"
shots and the "this-is-what-my-big-bearded-friend-would-look-
like-as-a-dole-pineapple-babe" shot) Oh, they also had a small
pond packed with very hungry, rather large koi. If you paid
50 cents to get the fish food and dropped it in, a truly amazing
thing happened. Where once you saw the water, suddenly there was
nothing but a wall of koi, struggling frantically to reach the
top and the food that was there. Several hundred (at least)
foot-long goldfish trying to climb over each other out of the
water, wriggling and flopping and generally being insane.
I hope my pictures of this phenomenon come out.
Hmm, then came a couple days split between the beaches near
Waikiki (the main tourist strip). We actually hung out on
Ala Moana beach, just down from Waikiki beach... got some
nice pictures of the beach, including some sunset and night
shots, and managed to narrowly avoid sunburn. It was my
first time actually entering the water at an ocean (too damn
cold up here, and the oceans around Indiana leave something
to be desired...) so that was exciting. It was very nice,
but I wish it didn't taste so damn salty.
After one afternoon, we decided that it was time to find a
nice spot to sip Mai Tai's and look out over the ocean. Being
students, hotel lounges were out of the question, so we hoped
we could find somewhere less expensive. Well, we did, and
much to our surprise, it was at a _Denny's_ right across the
street from the beach. It had a great view of the ocean and
a bar that made decent Mai Tais for $2.64 each. Wow. I
think I've seen everything now.
One day was spent at the Polynesian Culture Center located on
the north side of Oahu. It's sort of an amusement park-style
setup where natives of the various polynesian islands give
demonstrations of various elements of their cultures. For
the admission, you get to see an Imax movie (they were showing
a polynesian culture one, as well as everest and something
about the living ocean), hang around all day (from noonish
until 6pm), eat dinner, and attend a big live show at the
end. While there, I shot a whole bunch of pictures (of course)
and toward the end of the last show, noticed that I was about
to spend the end of the roll of film I'd been shooting. Hmm,
there went frame 36... 37... 38... hmm, something's wrong.
Apparently the film had not loaded properly on this roll.
It's happened once before, in about the same manner. I'm not
sure what's going on -- my loading procedure is: insert roll,
stretch leader to the take-up spool, insert it in the slot, wind
slowly and ensure sprockets are in holes in film, turn rewind
knob until slack is gone, close back, and advance until frame 1
reached, verifying that the rewind knob turns. I'm hoping it's
just that I was in a hurry and somehow misloaded, but I don't
know... I'm usually pretty careful. At any rate, I noticed
this just in time to panic, reload, and shoot some emergency
photos of girls dancing in grass skirts. Of course, none
were even remotely comparable in artistry and magic to those
that were lost on the misloaded reel, but I'm hoping they'll
do. Isn't it funny how every frame on the lost roll was
absolutely perfectly composed and exposed? :-)
Of course, the girls in grass skirts were vitally important to
this trip. The two long lenses I brought (zuiko 135/3.5 and
a sigma 80-200 zoom) were borrowed in exchange for a print
of a hula girl in a grass skirt. :-)
Anyway, the Polynesian Culture Center was very cool, very
informative, very entertaining. I learned how to husk and
open a coconut into two pieces and then make coconut milk,
and how to start a fire using a coconut husk and a
wild hibiscus branch. (this was in the Samoan style)
Hmm, we spent a morning walking up to the top of the diamond
head crater, which afforded some nice photo ops, though it was
very crowded and not quite what I'd expected. That afternoon
we went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, which was great... I didn't
bring my camera at all, since I wanted to concentrate on
the snorkeling. :-) (plus there's that whole salt water issue,
but anyway) The highlight came just as I was preparing to
get out of the water for the last time -- we were working our
way back toward shore when a sea turtle swam by. Very cool,
hard to gauge size underwater, but probably 2-3 feet across
the shell. We watched him for a little while, but he seemed
shy, so we wandered off to let him do his thing. Quite a nifty
thing to see.
Then, on the last day we were there, we drove up to the North
Shore and stopped at Sunset Beach. Neat, big waves, noisy
surf, no-swimming signs and lifeguards on ATVs to enforce it.
Lots of photos... and a near tragedy.
I had my little tripod with my camera and the 80-200 zoom on it
down a few feet above where the waves were surging... not too
surprisingly, a big one came in and I barely had time to sweep
the camera up out of harm's way... I almost tipped over, but
barely managed to stay upright... scary... but not as scary as
what happened next.
The water just kept right on cruising up the beach, a good 20
feet beyond where it'd been previously while we were there,
and I watched helplessly as it splashed across our towels and
bags on the beach. When the water receded, I started back up
the beach and remembered _my camera bag was open sitting in
the middle of the pile of stuff that just got salt-soaked_.
Butterflies, panic, etc, etc, etc...
Quite astoundingly, however, a random passerby had seen what
was about to happen and grabbed as much of our stuff as he
could to keep it from getting soaked or swept away... somehow,
luck was on my side and it included the camera bag. The lens
cap to the lens I had been using got wet, but otherwise all
of my stuff was saved... *whew* Very sick feeling, very
much rejoicing...
Anyway, we drove farther on to another beach that was more
amenable to getting in the water. I burned a lot more film
there (with the camera stuff safely out of harm's way)
and played in big waves and had a great time.
Then we got on a plane, sat for 10 hours, and arrived back in
Boston and now I have to write my thesis.
And all I can think about is playing in the big waves. Urr.
But at least I will get pictures back soon. :-)
When I have a chance, I will scan the good ones and put them
up where they can be seen. I don't know how soon that
will be, though, since I'm pretty booked until I graduate.
But, for now, I'm going to go to sleep. :-) If you've read
this much, you are probably insane. :-)
joey
ps, since I'm not sure when I'll start receiving OM list messages,
please CC me directly if you reply to this message so I can be sure
to hear you. :-)
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