North Shore Always Feels Good, #68

So Cool, Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge.


Aloha.
No matter how many times you stopped there, North Shore of Oahu always feels good, always delivers. This statement is 100% correct, not stretched even a bit. There is some magic about it. We are going to take a slower route, drive there from Waikiki, along the east coast of Oahu, stopping very often, and reaching North Shore in the early afternoon. Good time to leave for this all-day long trip is in the morning, shortly after breakfast. From Waikiki, there are several possible routes to the east side; we are taking today Like-Like highway. Once already on the east side, we turn up north and drive slowly along the coast stopping frequently to take pictures, swim for a while in the ocean, and stop for lunch. There are indeed many quite good places to swim. The water is always warm in early October, and there is plenty of sun as well. No strong winds, means there is little to complain about. Just realized, that we never shoot any video at those intermediate places, but only at our final destination for the day. This makes subsequent editing easier since all clips are on the same subject, and there are no discontinuities in the story line. However, adding clips from different places could make the videos more interesting to watch. Need to sit down next time, write a script, something we never do before shooting, and try that second approach.

The whole fish is for lunch, cannot remember the Hawaiian name of it, with vegetables, and fries, and iced tea. Tastes fine, but we had to wait about half hour longer because one of the cooks did not show up for work! Now, try to write that into the script ahead of time. After the lunch, we drive along the coast; passing many food stands along the road. The sun is shinning, the local rock radio station is playing good music, we are singing along, pictures look decent – actually upon a second look, we need to delete many of them because of fuzziness. One more stop, another twenty minutes of drive, and we are at the Sunset Beach of Oahu’s North Shore, our planned destination of the day. The weather could not be better, nice surf, not too crowdy. We are taking some beach pictures, and then start to shoot video. It will be called Shouldn’t Have Fallen Asleep At The Sunset Beach, simply because we fell asleep during filming and probably missed some good action. The YouTube traffic is slower now, and getting people to watch your videos became increasingly difficult to achieve. Aside the video, we also make good quality audio recordings, just in case the video audio cannot be used, and we have to substitute it with something else.

The evening comes, the sun is out, and people are slowly packing and leaving in their cars. This was an excellent day, almost stress free, with some good camera work, and with good-recorded audio. Now we are on our way to Haleiwa, then turning south to Honolulu and Waikiki. Later in the evening, after eating something bought at ABC Stores, we head for Waikiki Beachwalk. As always, plenty of people there, we mingle with them, trying to take good pictures at low light conditions. Some advanced skills are necessary; otherwise, nothing can be useable. At 11pm crowds are beginning to thin, shops are beginning to close, but not restaurants. We are going back to the hotel, a cold Steinlarger beer is waiting, taking a shower, and about midnight call it a day. Tomorrow we are going to go somewhere else, everything will be decided in the morning before the maid knocks on the door asking whether to replace sheets and towels. Of course!
Mahalo everyone.

Photo book: Michael Freeman, Pro Photographer's D-SLR Handbook, Lark Books, ISBN 978-1-60059-422-9. An excellent photo book to read.

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
On twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .

First New Video From Hawaii, #67

Local Kids At Windy Nuuanu Pali Lookout, Oahu, Hawaii, October '08, artistic view, click to enlarge, map.

Last time we wrote a blog, it was about the early state of Wall Street troubles. Things did not look all that bad at that time, but started to look truly awful in the coming days and weeks. “Meltdown” were newspaper titles, followed by even deeper downturns in the following days. How much smaller are your 401k, 403b or other retirement accounts, quite a bit? How much longer this slide is going to continue like that? Nobody knows, but one thing is certain, we do not like to see new records being broken on the downside anymore! Warren Buffett is saying, “It’s time to buy”, will you?

Aloha.
So, we arrived in Honolulu on a sunny day. We didn’t know that at the time, but all of our days would be mostly sunny with hardly any rain. After a good night’s sleep, actually it was only a B-grade sleep because of time difference, and temperature plus humidity changes. In addition, setting the right room temperature takes at least two days. And, did you remember to hang that “Do Not Disturb” card outside your door? And, we hope nobody towed our car! Leaving hotel’s parking garage remains a challenge, perhaps a life-long challenge. Taking a Pali Highway will get you from the west side to the east side of Oahu. You are going to drive near the Pali lookout, and it is always a good idea to stop there. Usually it is very windy there, something you notice while looking at your photos and videos shot on top. The east side of Oahu is visible for miles along with the Pacific Coast. Hills and tall trees obscure the west side. There are usually many people there, and easily recognizable big tour busses. Sometimes the strong wind and light rain make that place quite cold, so be prepared.

Several miles down the road, and you are in Kailua. If you follow first the Pali Highway, then 61, then go about a mile forward up to the last light stop, you will find yourself near the Ocean and feel that. Turn right, this road will take you to Kailua Beach Park, which is quite nice in itself. Actually, there is little reason to go anywhere else in our opinion; the water is near still, just enjoy it. The only reason I went forward, was because of the beach name – Lanikai, that ended up in the title of my first video shot in Hawaii in the early October. So, we are going forward, reading signs, and now trying to find a good place to park our rental car. In October, this is no problem; in summer months some parking space hunting techniques learned on the mainland may have to be enforced! We are not about to disclose those, will keep those to ourselves, though!

So, we are at the Lanikai Beach, taking some pictures – one or two may end up on twitter, swimming for two hours, sitting and walking around the beach, and then shooting the video. Slight cloud interruptions need to be taken into consideration. Should have swum for no longer than an hour, and should have started filming an hour earlier – crosses our mind. However, it is too late for that. Will have to work with the available light, too late to change anything. We could come back again on a different day, but this changes the mood of the video, unless today’s session is all thrown out. Let us work with what we got, and turn it into yet another masterpiece; it is the final decision. Tomorrow we are going to be in another spectacular place.

Mahalo everyone.
(As always, I did spell checking on this blog, accidentally the above words “Mahalo everyone” were replaced with “Maalox everyone”. Funny, but no thanks!)

YouTube videos: youtube.com/Vatsek .
On twitter: twitter.com/Vatsek .
Flickr photos: flickr.com/photos/25951201@N07/ .