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!

Here’s a super cute digital camera bag styled to look like a retro camera! (This is the one Appi showed me first.)

So, I went to further investigate Fred Flare, and found several more photography-related goodies that I just have to share! (Because I can’t afford to go splurging on them now, haha!)

First, how adorable are these mini camera zipper pulls?

They even come inside a little old-fashioned film canister! I love it!

Along the theme of mini cameras, here’s a couple of tiny wooden cameras that are actually rubber stamps for old-fashioned camera graphics:

Of course, vintage camera love is never complete without Polaroids. Here are some beautiful notecards inspired by Polaroids, using actual Polaroid images:

And finally, an actual camera, and something I intend to get eventually, an action sampler camera that shoots 35mm film!

I love that retro-camera-inspired things are so in style right now!

Cameron at her campus, CSU San Marcos.

Architecture at CSU San Marcos.

Cameron and I at Torrance High School, aka Buffy's Sunnydale High!

Cameron's kitty, Cassidy.

Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Rachel (Lea Michele) from Glee performing 'Defying Gravity'.

Panda Cub at the San Diego Zoo.

In the San Diego Zoo aviary.

Tiger at the San Diego Zoo.

Studio doors in the Spanish Village Art Center at Balboa Park.

Lotus blossoms at Balboa Park.

Cameron, backlit at Balboa Park.

Rose at Balboa Park.

Old Town, San Diego.

Awesome coffee and tea shop in Old Town.

Oceanside, San Diego.

Oceanside pier.

Oceanside coastal view.

My friend Bryan, movie director and musician.

Cave at La Jolla.

Sunset at La Jolla.

Evening wave.

Sneaking a photo of a wedding couple getting portraits taken.

Cameron in the evening light.

Beach stairs.

Evening colors of La Jolla's coast.

Sadly, I was pretty sick by the end of my trip, but overall I had a good time! Hope you enjoyed the photos, and yes, I am open to being your trip’s official photographer in exchange for airfare/lodging.

I had another article published on Metromix a few weeks back, this time a visual tour of some of my favorite places to go in Honolulu.  I used it as an opportunity to support a few of my favorite local businesses, as well as show some of my less-seen photographs, including a few from my daily photo blog…

…and, by the way, I’m up to Day 91 on Visuals.  This is the one-a-day photo project I’m doing while Ed is gone, and it’s helping each day go by quicker…especially when I’m scrambling at the end of the day for a photo! I totally intend to make a book of the photos and entries once he’s home for good.

I’ve been better about updating our couple-blog, ProAwesome.Com. Yes, the name is a joke about us striving to be professionally awesome.  A good goal, right? We can try, at least! This is also where most of our wedding information will go. Speaking of…

…We got featured in an article by the Honolulu Advertiser‘s Mike Gordon! (Photos by the lovely Lisa Hoang of Windwardskies Photography) Thanks go out to everyone who’s helped us and supported us with the wedding – we really hope it’ll be a fun time for everyone!

I’m going to San Diego soon to visit a friend for her birthday, and I’m looking forward to photographing a change of scenery. Also meeting the mother-in-law and sister-in-law for the first time…exciting! (And nerve-wracking, but I’ll get over it…)

One of the more random and entertaining things I’ve done lately is walk in a UH student fashion show, wearing a shirt by one of my friends who’s in the APDM (Apparel Product Design and Merchandising) program. I’m no model, but it was fun to pretend for a night (honestly never thought my hair could do that!):

Finally, I am also going to be back home on Maui for the first couple weeks of June, and I’m having a portrait special while I’m there:

…and I guess that’s all for now! Hopefully I will have something more substantial to blog about soon.

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.

I also got to photograph Caleb alongside my old friends in the 501st Pacific Outpost, who I always look for at every Kon! The 501st is a great Star Wars costuming club that do a lot of charity and convention appearances. They’ve been trying to get me into armor for years, but so far I haven’t felt it would be a reasonable investment for me. Time may change that though, because they look so darn cool!

Unfortunately, because I spent much of this year’s Kawaii Kon sick, I did not get as many photos as I did last year. In fact, besides shooting Caleb and the 501st, I only took serious pictures of the only people who wanted to hire me for photographing them in costume. (Was hiring myself out for $20 for a set of full-resolution processed photos…a good deal no one took advantage of!)

Hopefully next year, when Ed’s back, I won’t be sick, and I’ll have a lot more photos to show for my time at Kon! One of the most exciting parts of the weekend was registering for next year’s Artist Alley table and badge under what is soon to be my new name.

Yes, I was giggly with excitement when filling out my registration form!

Can’t wait until next year’s Kawaii Kon, when Mr. and Mrs. White will take the Kon by storm in all their geeky glory!

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.