Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
The Last F-15 Eagle Training Sortie
Thanks to PACOM, PACAF, and the Hawaii Air National Guard, we were invited to watch Hawaii’s F-15s fly their last training exercise before they are replaced by the new F-22s. Here are some of my photos from the day, enjoy! (And yes, I was feeling a bit black-and-white while processing!)
While the fighter jets were doing their exercise, we escaped the hot sun to go inside and look at some of their equipment, including their helmets and flight simulators.
We then headed back outside to greet the landing planes and congratulate the pilots.
The pilots were greeted with a traditional hosing as they got out of their F-15s.
Afterwards, the various media people interviewed the pilots while the maintenance crews got to work on the planes.
We had some fun with the F-15s too!
Thanks to Jasmine for another fun opportunity to observe and document our military!
RIMPAC Amphibious Assault Exercise
These are late, but I’ve been a bit busy with life. Here are my photographs from one of the later RIMPAC exercises, an Amphibious Assault Vehicle exercise done by the U.S. Marine Corps and the Australian Army. Enjoy!
Pacheco Family Shoot
This week I was lucky enough to shoot a totally awesome family! Sarah, of Sarah la Glam makeup, and Fernando, of the local ska punk band Pimpbot, have the most adorable little 3-month-old girl, Lola. Here are some of my favorites from the day, so enjoy!
San Diego – May 2010
This May found me in San Diego for about a week, visiting my friend Cameron for her birthday and meeting up with my soon-to-be mom and sister-in-law! From seeing the cast of Glee perform live in Hollywood, to photographing the sunset in La Jolla, I found a lot of great photo opportunities while I was there, and here are some of my favorite shots from the trip! Enjoy!
Cameron at her campus, CSU San Marcos.
Architecture at CSU San Marcos.
Kawaii Kon 2010
Well, another Kawaii Kon, Hawaii’s own anime convention, has once again passed, in all its geeky glory. I was actually fortunate enough to have one of my photos from last year’s Kon on the cover of Metromix with a few additional photos accompanying the article!
Webcam shot of me with my second Metromix cover!
The guy wearing black on the cover actually came and found me during this year’s Kon to thank me for having the photo published. Apparently he’s a teacher on the Big Island, and several of his students brought the paper in to show him they’d seen his picture! Fun times.
While I’ve been going to the Kon since 2007, Ed’s first year of going was last year’s 2009 convention, during which he can actually remember seeing me in costume.
In costume as Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII. Gun not related. Kawaii Kon 2009.
I, on the other hand, have no recollection of seeing him, but that’s probably because he wasn’t in costume himself! But, this year, circumstances found me costume-less myself, and so I settled for photographing others over the weekend, especially my friend from Maui, Caleb, whose Star Wars inspired Mandalorian armor is always a huge hit at Kon.
Adventures on the USS Chung-Hoon
Thanks to my Twitter connections, I was lucky enough to be one of the blogger/tweeter/photographers…well, ‘New Media People’, to be invited by the US Pacific Command’s Public Affairs to the Navy’s Family Cruise day on the USS Chung-Hoon. It was great to share this adventure with my fellow social media people, including Damon Tucker (Who has an amazing detailed blogpost about our day), Kaimana Pine, Burt Lum, Christie Shimabuku, and Shauna Goya.
The day began with meeting up at the Nimitz Gate of Pearl Harbor. Once we got to the docks, we walked around a bit, taking photos of the other ships, including the USS Port Royal.
Finally, we approached the ship we were sailing on for the day, the USS Chung-Hoon, named Rear Admiral Gordon Pai’ea Chung-Hoon, whose Hawaiian ancestry gives this ship a special connection with our state.
After boarding, we were were taken on a tour of the ship led by one of the junior officers. He showed us all over the ship, down steep stairs, through hatches, and even in the command center (where we were not allowed to take photos, unfortunately.
Then, we got some demonstrations of the equipment and weapons kept on board. I got to hold a shotgun, which made all my little FPS gamer dreams come true! (Photo of me with gun courtesy of Burt Lum of Bytemarks.Org!)
Afterward, we checked out the aft of the ship, where some sailors were beginning to prepare lunch, but we left as a promotion ceremony was beginning.
We continued touring around the outside of the ship before making our way to lunch. After lunch, we were fortunate to witness a re-enlistment ceremony.
Finally, we got to meet the ship’s captain, Commander Michael McCartney, who talked to us about the ship’s history and connections to Hawaii, as well as some of the humanitarian projects his crew partakes in while deployed, while we made our way back into Pearl Harbor. On our way in, we passed a submarine that saluted our ship because it outranked theirs. Before we left the ship, the commander presented each of us with a challenge coin!
Though I am marrying an Army man in July, my brother is in the Navy, so it was fun to learn more about that branch of the military. I’d like to thank all involved for giving me this unique opportunity to photograph something like this, and I look forward to the next tweetup of the newly-named #808MilTweeps!
To see more of my photographs from this day, check out the SmugMug Gallery.
Gavin and Nikki – Portrait Session
Another couple I got to photograph on Maui was my old friend Gavin and his girlfriend, Nikki. This adorable high school couple is just too cute for words, so I’ll let the photos say the rest!
Mike and Jenna – Engagement Session
A couple of weekends ago, I went back home to Maui to shoot engagement photos for my friend and partner in Cariño Studios, Mike Carino, and his fiancée Jenna. We started up on the mountain at Poli Poli, then worked our way down to the beach by sunset. Although Mike is like me in that he finds it easier to be behind the camera than in front of it, I think we got some great photos. Enjoy!
Orbito Family Tweetup/Shoot!
My fellow Hawaii Twitter photographers and I have started doing this new thing where we plan a tweetup asking people to take photos. Ed and I did this before he left just to get more photos of us together, and it worked out great! It can almost be treated as a workshop where we all share techniques and ideas. The most recent of these tweetups was for photographer Marc Orbito and family. There were around 5-6 photographers there at Kakaako Waterfront Park, but I somehow managed to avoid catching them in my shots!
Aerials – Photography From The Sky
Sometimes it is through complete chance that I get to do unusual things in my life, and the fact that one of my father’s many hats is that of ‘Federal aviation safety trainer’ has allowed me early opportunities in my career to do aerial photography. Though I’ve grown up having the occasional helicopter ride thanks to his connections, my first time doing aerial photography was during the summer of 2007, when I photographed Kipahulu valley for Haleakala National Park. (Note that these shots were taken with a Canon Rebel XT with my eventually-stolen 17-40mm f.4L lens)
I even got to capture a near-perfect circular rainbow!
Having seen my dad don his flight suit for various helicopter operations for the National Park, I was quite proud to put one on myself and join him in the sky. Plus, it was just cool!
One of the best parts of the experience was getting to fly with no doors! Being 10,000+ feet in the sky and looking over the edge is an amazing thrill. (And my dad is posing in the pilot’s seat in the following photo – he’s not a pilot himself.)
(I don’t care how geeky those helmets look, it’s totally awesome!)
Fast-forward three years to 2010, and I’ve finally taken my first helicopter tour of Oahu, my home-away-from-home for the last six years. I was joined by my father, naturally, as well as my great-aunt, for the tour provided by Blue Hawaiian Helicopters.
It was fascinating to see Oahu from the air! Unfortunately, because this was a tour helicopter, there were doors present, and thus my photos were of an infuriatingly degraded quality than they would have been otherwise. The aircraft was also moving very fast, so if I missed a shot, the opportunity was gone within a few seconds. The tour was a good refresher in being aware of keeping my shutter speed fast enough to compensate for the movement of the helicopter. I was using my 5DMKII with a 24-105mm f.4L lens for its focal range and Image Stabilizer. Here’s a sampling of some of the practice shots I took today:
Finally, here’s a shot of Kaʻaʻawa Valley, though there is some glare from the helicopter’s plexiglass. This is the valley, a part of Kualoa Ranch, where several productions, including George of the Jungle, Jurassic Park, and parts of LOST have been shot!
Hopefully the next time I’m flying, I can do it doors-free for optimal image quality! If any of you ever have a chance, take a helicopter tour and practice some aerial photography! I highly recommend bringing a polarizer and swift reflexes for balancing ISO with aperture (for as much depth-of-field as possible) and shutter-speed (for compensating for hand-holding in a moving helicopter).
Finally, check out my 365 Photo Blog for one more shot from today!
© 2010 Dallas Nagata White
