Fisherman’s Hat Sunrise

6/10

(Note: I am still processing photos from my Hawaii trip. I am really enjoying summer and want to spend as little time in front of computer as I can.) 🙂

5/3

K & R headed out early at 5am for a sunrise shoot.

I opted to sleep in to get much needed rest. :ohzzz:

I got up at 7am, walked out to the garden and saw this spectacular sunrise.

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The island in the photo is called Chinaman’s Hat.

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Tranquility!

Facing the sun, I sat on the grass and meditated for while. The sun slowly warmed up my face and showered my body with energy.

On my way back to the cottage, I didn’t forget to tease the “shy grass” (mimosa pudica).

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Touch the compound leaves

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The leaves fold inward and droop, re-opening within minutes.

Hmm!! What a beautiful morning.

Sunset on Banzai Pipeline Beach

We drove up to North Shore for a sunset shoot today.

We didn’t have any particular destination in mind. Our plan was to drive along the coastline on the curvy Kamehameha Highway until we found a good location.

We stopped by couple beaches and they didn’t really work out for us. We kept on driving, and passed by the very tip of North Shore. We saw some cars parked by the roadside indicating that there was a beach although there wasn’t any sign indicating which beach it was.

This beach was no ordinary beach. The waves were no ordinary waves!!

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See what I mean?

I have never seen such rough water. The hollow barrel-like shape of waves were enormous and fierce. Since the waves were very close to the shore, I could feel the energy of the powerful waves pounding on the beach and I could smell the saltwater.

“What beach is this?” I asked someone

“Pipeline.”

OMG. This is THE famous Ehukai beach, also known as Banzai Pipeline beach. It’s named Pipeline for a reason! Look at the enormous tubular waves!

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Guess what? I was told that these waves were actually baby waves. In winter, the waves could be of thunderous 30-foot or more! No wonder this place attracts the the world’s most daring surfers.

The beach community here is friendly. This is where the locals stay. I didn’t see many tourists here.

Ladies, feast your eyes with dark chocolate “brownies” who have tattoos on their back, arms and legs.

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Tattoos are quite common here and there are no shortage of tattoo parlors. My feeling is that if I live on Hawaii long enough, I will end up getting one or two tattoos.

I am not trying to discriminate, but the North Shore surfers seem to have more characters than the Waikiki surfers. The surfers here have a sense of pride. Of course! You better have some serious surfing skills in order to surf here. You have to be the daredevil whose adrenalin rushes when surfing next to waves that are double/triple/quadruple/++ your height.

For a nonsurfer like me, I joined the spectators on the beach watching the surfers working the waves. The waves were pretty close to the shore, so I could appreciate the surfers up close. :rtdance3:

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If you really have to bring your kids with you, please keep them contained in a safe area. They can always play with the sand.

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Unless, they were born of Hawaiian Water God. Then, you can let them loose, and let them throw themselves into their papa waves over and over and over.

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I watched these local kids playing in the waves that were at least twice their height. They were unbelivable in water. They knew exactly how to handle the water. Their parents just sat on the beach, chatting and laughing, didn’t seem concerned at all.

I wonder if the lifeguard had to count the number of kids on the beach every five minutes, just to make sure.

Although the water was quite rough, it was incredibly clear. It’s definitely a good swimming spot when the water is not so rough during summer months.

R & K picked a couple spots for the shoot. The sunset was gorgeous.

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What is the most romantic thing to do on the beach?

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There was an Asian guy starting a hipachi grill on the beach while watching sunset. Awwww…! :rtlove: Now, that’s romantic! (No, he is not single. His girlfriend was next to him.)

If you are visiting Oahu (especially in winter), remember to stop by here! There might not hipachi, but the spectacular waves will be here!

Check out more photos by clicking on the album cover below.

Sunset on Banzai Pipeline Beach

Holo Holo Stop

5/2

After the Kualoa Park shoots, we were starving :kedizzy: ! On our drive back home (Kahalu’u, a few miles south of Kualoa Park on Kamehameha Hwy.), we passed by some interesting signs on the roadside.

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Apparently there was a farmer’s market happening. And there was food! :ohseediamond: Oh yeah!

We quickly parked our car and assessed this very tiny farmer’s market.

There was a van selling roadside snacks under a huge banyon tree.

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There are a few rules that I follow to increase the probability of getting good quality street food. First, observe the customers.

There were a line of local customers and they knew what they wanted to order (except the two tourists in the photo, can you spot them?) .

Good sign.

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The stall name is Holo Holo Stop.

Second step, chat with the stall owner.

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Keoki, owner of Holo Holo Stop

“What does Holo Holo mean?” I asked

“It means cruising, going places. We say I holoholo to the shopping mall. I holoholo here, I holoholo there. When you holoholo, stop here!” Keoki replied

“How long have you been in business?”

“Oh… long time. 15 years. 3 years at this location. I only open during weekend. Other days, I prepare food.” Keoki said

Wow. 15 years and still in business with line of customers to order his food, that’s a REALLY good sign.

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Best shot of the menu. Keoki’s customers probably know the menu by heart and they don’t really need to see this menu.

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R & K placing orders

First of, cooling coconut juice!

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Coconut juice rules!

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Laulau pork, kalua pork, tamale, coconut juice, Lomi salmon, poke

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Laulau pork (pork wrapped in Luau leaf) with rice

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Luau leaf is edible

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Tamale

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Yum!

All three dishes were very flavorful. My favorite dish was the laulau pork. The luau leaf had very soft texture and went well with the laulau pork.

So far on Oahu, I found more pork dishes on the menu than beef and chicken dishes.

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This is not chili powder. It is Li Hing (prune, sweet) powder for pineapple and fruits.

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Flower vendors under the huge banyon tree

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Friendly local

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Who doesn’t like flowers? Although I think buying cut flowers is a waste of money, we gotta support the farmers once in a while. Thanks, darling:)


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A pair of birds of paradise and ginger flowers

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The flowers are now gracing the dining table – adding so much colors to the space.

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Next to the farmer’s market, there’s this ultimate outdoor gym. How refreshing it is to work out next to the mountain and water?

We enjoyed the food at Holo Holo Stop so much that we stopped by there twice during our Hawaii trip. Thumbs up.


Kualoa Park Afternoon Shoot

5/4

We came back to Kualoa Park for a beach shoot today.

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Chinaman’s Hat island can be seen from the park

There are many facilities on the park – picnic tables, restrooms, showers and BBQ grills.

We set our stuff on a picnic table.

The sandy beach is narrow and it’s just a few feet away from our picnic table. 🙂

This park really is a great place for picnicking, fishing, camping and swimming.

Want to see what a dirty lens could do to your photos?

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Fishing (I need to remember to clean my lens daily, it gets dusty real fast.)

I brought my boogie board with me. There weren’t any waves, so it wasn’t the ideal place to boogieboard. But since I barely know how to swim, I felt safer having a boogie board with me.

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Let’s go boogie! :rtdance1:

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Mommy, I am safe!

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Hmm … peace …

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Trying to sit on the boogie board

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Ooops! Maybe not.

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Happy time! :ohhappyshake:

Mom is not going to be too thrilled looking at these photos. Asians (can’t speak for all, but at least the Chinese) generally prefer fairer skin, and we avoid getting tanned.

When I first came to USA, I had a hard time understanding why Americans are so crazy about tanning while we tried our best staying out of the sun. I guess people desire what they don’t have.

I personally don’t care much about the fair skin mentality, but I’m not crazy about tanning as well. Just let nature do its thing.

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The water was so clear and blue, how could I stay away from it?

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Love, love the water

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The beach wasn’t crowded at all so I had my own “private beach”. 🙂

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Radim – Scouting

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Radim – Go snorkeling

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Sculpture- by Nature

We played some frisbee before we called it a day.

What a super fun and relaxing day — for me. 🙂 It was a little stressful for R & K because the RED camera malfunctioned at the end, although they still managed to capture several hours of great footage in the morning. Malfunction reason — to be figured out.

See ya, Kualoa Park. :ohbye:

Kualoa Park Morning Shoot

5/2

Just when I thought I no longer had to bother about the traffic noise and could finally have a restful sleep. I was wrong.

I got woken up at 4:30am today. First, a rooster decided that he had a very important announcement to make. Then, a family of birds disagreed with him and offered their ideas. That woke up the whole neighborhood of bird relatives. Soon, everybody had something to say. Finally, a bullfrog (or whatever that was) decided to do a protest 24/7!

I rolled my eyes and told myself to enjoy this symphony of nature. But with the lack of much needed sleep, I couldn’t help but to curse at the birds. They were really not so cute when they started to chat away so early in the morning.

“Someone please arrest those birds and kick the bullfrog into the ocean.” I thought.

Anyway, it was impossible to sleep in. The sun rose at 6am. Then, the sunlight started to beam through the skylight in my bedroom. By 8am, the sun was at 70degree position. How could the sun rise that fast??

Did you know that Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving? So, the time difference between the mainland and Hawaii could vary throughout the year.

Anyway, today was the first day of shoot.

It was not my job to shoot. I was simply tagging along happily and helping out here and there when I felt like.

We get in the car and started driving north.

10 miles later, we reached Kualoa Park.

“Let’s check it out.” Radim said.

This park wast not crowded at all.

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Kualoa Park parking lot

It is primarily open lawn with some palm trees. As you can see, there was someone camping there.

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Radim and Karan immediately spotted a good place to shoot.

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Mountains with low hanging clouds, pond with clouds’ reflection, some palm trees, simply perfect.

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Karan and Radim were setting up the video equipment.

Apparently the video equipment, a.k.a RED Camera is all capitally VERY EXPENSIVE. We’ve been told that the car break-in rate in Oahu is high. So, we never let the equipment out of our sight.

I also had a very important task at hand –setting up the … beach chairs and umbrella (got them from the cottage). 🙂

The park with Kualoa Moutains in the background is stunning. The mountains are so majestic.

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I have never seen something like this. They are so different than Bukit Matang and the mountains in Boulder.

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Wait a second. Don’t you think these mountains look somewhat familiar?

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Where have i seen these mountains before?

Hmm… where???

Think harder….

Where???

…….

Bingo!
Bingo! It was the Jurassic Park!

Did you know that part of Jurassic Park was shot at the Kualoa Ranch? 🙂 Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? 🙂

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A family came here for a picnic. I love the mountains in the distant.

Ok. Ok. Back to setting up the camera.

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Getting ready

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Checking the microphone
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Checking the sound

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Scouting

The thing about outdoor shooting is that we can never know how the clouds are going to look like today. Clouds are constantly moving and changing. As for today, as soon as K & R finished setting up the equipment, the sky started to turn a little gray and drizzle. 🙁

We had to protect the camera with the beach umbrella. The one who brought the umbrella must be a genius. ^_^

At the end of shoot, I volunteered to jump in the bush to retrieve the microphone. While I was in the bush, I “kindly suggested” Karan to snap a few photos of me. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a good photo.

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I jumped out from the bush. More photos, please, with the mountains!

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“Mountains! Mountains! Make sure the mountains are in the photos, okay?”

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And all Karan had in mind was “turkey”. So, I was reluctantly crowned Miss Turkey (not the country, think turkey the bird). Thanks, Karan. “Great shot.”

We were pretty much done with the shoot by 11am. Not bad for the first shoot!

We came back to this park on another day for a beach shot. I will cover that in the next post.