I’ve just spent the weekend in Hawaii. Sort of. It was hot and sunny and we were near the water and there were Hawaiians everywhere, playing music, making food, dancing, sharing songs and chord progressions for the ukulele, oh, and lots more. I’ll come back and write more once I’ve caught up at home, but for now, here are some links.
- Brittni Pavia: 17 year old vituouso, a delightful young woman and sweet as pie. I’m listening to her CD – Hear – right now.
- Bill Tapia: At 98 years old, still touring and giving workshops. It’s something to hear this gent of Portuguese decent sing Young at Heart. Also, he’s a snappy dresser.
- The Nisqually Tribe: Linked to the Hawaiian community by the marriage of John Kalama – somehow tied to Hawaiian royalty – to Mary Martin, the daughter of a Nisqually chief. I now have beads – a gift from the Nisqually – hanging in the car.
- Kamaka Ukuleles: Koa beauties from the islands – I have an 8-string and it’s a stunner. Chris Kamaka plays the stand up bass (among other instruments) and oh yes, he can sing.
Notes from the photographer
I shot hundreds of photos and learned a lot of interesting things about my camera – a Canon Digital Rebel. Like, if you use the automatic bracketing, you WILL burn through the memory in no time. And while that stuff is writing to your card, the camera will not take pictures, it’s actually busy thinking. Also, cleaning your lenses before you head out of town is a much better idea than using your t-shirt while sitting at a picnic table in a campground. Lens speed is a significant thing and when your telephoto is working overtime, it might just be quicker to use manual focus. When there’s a ton of crap going on in the background, one should really stop up to blur that stuff – all that depth of field just gives you too much to look at. Shooting under flourescents is crappy work and you get better results if you toss in the flash, but I hate shooting with a flash, it’s so disruptive. So I have to remember to check my speed and make sure I’m not shooting so slow that the pictures are blurry.
On the less painful side, I also learned that you can almost always find a place to plug in your battery charger and if you remember to bring an extra battery (which I DID) you are unstoppable. Musicians and dancers are excellent subjects because they’re already in the spotlight and they will not stop doing what they’re doing just because you’re pointing a camera at them. In general, I have found that most folks really don’t seem to mind when you take their picture, and often, they look right through you – or, funnily enough, look around to see what you’re taking a picture of. (Dude, it’s YOU!) If you offer to share your pictures, people give you stuff, like tickets and CDs and other fun things.
It was quite the photo boot camp, actually. I wish I could say I love the results, though I did get a few winners.
Anyway, here’s a tiny subset of the pics I took this weekend.
Please share more about the camera–which model of the Digital Rebel? How much memory are you using? Are you using the kit lens? Do you notice shutter lag? Do you have any surprising pros or cons about the camera now that you’ve become more familiar with it? I am enjoying your site. Thanks!
I have never heard of Brittni and just checked out her site. I listed to the CD clips–I can’t believe she’s only 17!!!!!
@mosker, a whole TWO YEARS later… I have the Rebel Eos, the first model, I shot with a Sigma 20-200. There’s never been any shutter lag on that machine, ti’s great.
I’ve since upgraded to a D200, but I still have the Rebel and wouldn’t hesitate to use it though I like the extra control I get from the Nikon, now that I have a better idea how to use it.
@Uptake: I guess she’d be 19 now, you’re commenting on a 2006 post. 🙂 I find the samples on her site a little, um, easy listening, but she really can play that uke.