Sunday, January 3, 2010

A Fun Day with My Buddy Erick

Yesterday, Erick and I went to check out Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden as a possible site for an upcoming family photo session. Except for this dramatic growth of bamboo though, nothing there really grabbed me.

On our way back to the car Erick spotted this HUGE chameleon. At this exact same moment 10 million mosquitoes started attacking us. I had only brought a wide-angle lens with me which is the total opposite of what I really needed. With the lens I had, I needed to get really close to the chameleon to get even some kind of decent shot . . . and he was s-l-o-w-l-y making his way up the tree and out of my range. So in total panic, I went like, "OH MY GAWD!" slap, slap, slap "ERICK, GRAB IT!!" slap, slap, slap "Look Erick, I got two mosquitoes with one slap!" "GRAB IT, GRAB IT!!" Erick goes, "NO WAY!" I go, slap, slap, slap, "Susie would grab it. GRAB IT! Where's Susie when you need her?" slap, slap, slap. I thought, should I grab it? I started looking for branches or some kind of stick . . . Erick used his tripod to try and make him turn around. It didn't work. The chameleon s-l-o-w-l-y worked his way beyond our reach, leaving us with only choke mosquito bites for our efforts. Aaaaaggggrrrr!!!! I shoulda grabbed it.All that action made us hungry, so we went across the street to Joyful Garden in the Windward Shopping Center for some dim sum.

This fried wonton was loaded with shrimp.
Char siu bao . . . good.
As you can see Erick REALLY liked this shrimp with fried garlic. He said he liked the garlic.
This stuffed mochi rice thing was good to me but coulda used more filling. Erick complained that it tasted more like regular rice than mochi rice.
This fancy looking item turned out to be fried fish cake/shrimp. I was too full to even try it, but Erick said that it was good.
This had a filling of chives and scallop . . . choke chives and small itty bitty scallop.
Lumpia-ish, typically oily, but still ono. After lunch Erick said that he was meeting Shun Wah in the evening to get some final City Lights photos. I doubted that I would have the energy to go join them but . . .

wouldja believe I did!
I usually hate, hate, hate to lug my tripod with me, but I thought it would be a good time to practice some long-exposure shooting so I did.
Here's a self portrait.

13 comments:

Betty Townsend said...

Oh, I am so glad you decided to go with Erick to get pictures at City Lights. They are outstanding!! The self picture is pretty awesome! Gerry and I visited that Botantical Garden. We didn't stay long because of the mosquitoes! hahahaha!! That chameleon is beautiful!! Your food looks yummy too. I like the baked char siu bao instead of the steamed ones.

K and S said...

that was a huge chameleon! what an exciting day :)

jalna said...

Thanks Betty I'm glad I decided to go too. The lights are so pretty, and it's challenging trying to capture what your eyes see. That chameleon was unreal. I never ever saw anything like that. It was pretty hilarious trying to take pictures, keep him from going too high up and slapping mosquitoes, all at the same time. I also prefer baked manapua rather than steamed.

Kat, it was soooo big!

Randism said...

wow! dat blue christmas tree look wuz spinning 500 miles an hour!!! funny mosquito story! u crack me up!

jalna said...

I know Rand, after seeing other people's pictures of the spinning tree, I thought it was whizzing too, but it's not. The 8-second shot makes it look like it though.

Funnyface said...

Hello Jalna, fantastic photo's, the food has me dribbling..Mmmm yum! The night shots are brilliant, what a lovely day you had.
Big Love
Jaynee X

Erick said...

Ha, ha, who is that wimp under the bamboo, is he the one afraid of chameleons? Those chameleons are so slow I thought I had lots of time to turn him around. I was so fasinated by his baseball glove like feet. He looked like he was in slow motion, he kept slowly clamping those toeless feet on the tree I was hypnotized. When I snapped out of it he was too high to reach. Oh well, the food was good! Great shots of Honolulu City Lights!

Leslie's pics said...

where the heck do you get all of your energy from? I did absolutely NOTHING all weekend. It was great. Cool chameleon!

jalna said...

Thanks Jaynee! I did have a really nice day!

Hey Erick, thanks for the fun day. I so wish we got more shots of that chameleon.

Les, I looooove doing nothing too!

SW said...

Nice day of shooting..just reading about the mosquitos made me itch...I think that chameleon was someone's pet. you night shots had great colors .. I really like the shot of the hanging bells chandelier..it had really great depth of field...

jalna said...

OMG Shun Wah, I was still itching when we were eating. I got so many mosquito bites. I had to small-kine cheat for the chandelier picture. The bell portion was too dark, so I dodged it in Photoshop . . . sooo cheat yeah!!

susie said...

Great pictures!! Glad you're bag in a really BIG way. Why didn't you try to catch that chameleon????

jalna said...

Ahaha Susie, I'm sooo not in tune with nature like you are. I was too chicken.