10 days in Waikiki (day 3): Golden Sunrise Photo Tour

October 17, 2018

sunrise18-1-5 2

Woke up at 4:30 early in the morning for an early pick up of 5:30 to catch the sunrise at sandy beach. Crazy? yeah ! to some but not to me, why waste time, I won’t be in Hawaii forever 🙂

Rise and Shine!

sunrise18-1-2
Sunrise at Sandy Beach

This is a perfect tour for a female solo traveler who loves to take photos everywhere! Who doesn’t? Well ? If you are reading this, you’re guilty ! 🙂

Nope? alright I did not say anything.

I don’t drive so this tour was a triple treat! I got a transport, a friendly professional photographer and a lot of tips for taking a scenic places in Oahu. Perfect combination indeed!

sunrise18-1-5 4

Sandy Beach located at south shore of Oahu, located between Hanauma Bay Nature preserve park and Makapuu’u point on the East.

Lisa was bubbly and pleasant to talk with, we were only two, so that’s even make the tour better, all women 🙂 I’m glad I took two lenses with me a 50mm and 18-105mm lens. Lisa advised to use the 18-105mm lens. I hesitated for a while because I like the images that comes out with 50mm, I feel it’s more sharper but at the end, I followed what she told me. She gave me a tri-pod to use and I asked , should I use polarizer? Nope! and why they asked me to bring it anyway 🙁

What is circular polarizer? What does it do?

  • It cuts glare, when shooting water  – ok no need for it bec it’s only 5 am and it’s still dark.
  • for the Sky, it changes the color significantly, rotating the polarizer can make it dark or light blue

There’s no amount of bright sunlight yet so it won’t create an impact if I use polarizer. Got it!

Alright, I set up my camera and again..it was acting up, I look at Lisa camera (Canon) we have the same setting, aperture priority mode  we tried F5,F8, F11 , my camera (Nikon) doesn’t give the same outcome. One tip I learned  in this tour is about Exposure compensation setting.

Adjusting the Exposure Compensation can add drama to the scene or add more brightness to the scene. I was in Aperture priority mode, so adjusting the exposure compensation will adjust the shutter speed. By the way, my Cam D90 has little button on top with a positive (+) and negative sign (-) by pressing on it and moving the main dial to right or left will change the exposure compensation setting.

sunrise18-1-8

Makapu’u Point Lookout

As the sun rises up, we moved to Makapu’u point located just off Kanalianaole Highway on Oahu southeastern tip.

sunrise18-1-7“Rabbit Island” the Mañana island is across the Makapu’u look out point. Does it look like a rabbit head? I was told it was once inhabited by introduced rabbit after a rancher released them there.

sunrise18-1-10 2

Waimanalo Beach approximately around 3 miles long of white sand, I can sit here for the whole day, doing nothing , go home relaxed and re-energized. Perfect place to have a beach stroll and eat cold pizza 🙂

sunrise18-1-11

The beach is backed by iron wood trees which provides a lot of shades.

sunrise18-1-12 2

I forgot to ask questions about photography, I just took photos here and there…enjoyed the sun and shades, the sweeping of the breezy air gave me goose bump , remembering my friend who recently passed away.

sunrise18-1-15

After Waimanalo, we headed to see the Ko’olau mountains, actually we didn’t hike to the mountains, we just saw it on the road.. the Ko’olau range – dormant fragmented remnant of the eastern or windward shield volcano of Oahu

IMG_6190
Ko’olau range photo credit by lisa
sunrise18-1-23
Ko’olau range photo taken by me and edited

The long trip leads us to Kalapawai market for breakfast. This has been in Kailua since 1932.

sunrise18-1-24

To get to a more panoramic view of the Ko’olau cliffs, we headed to Nuuanu Pali lookout – is a site of deep historical significance, the battle of Nuuanu 1775 where King Kamehameha I, won the struggle which lead to the unity of Oahu under his rule.

sunrise18-1-27

IMG_6213

Before we end the 5.5 hrs. trip we went to Tantalus lookout, it’s long winding road through the lash of Manoa, sometimes steep inclined on the way to the top!

sunrise18-1-34

sunrise18-1-30
Pu’u Ualaka’a State Park

sunrise18-1-32

And that was the end of the tour, forget the settings and enjoy the scenery 🙂

A wonderful day!

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

©Copyrights protected

I thought life would be cheaper when you’re fifty and beyond

my golden year without shoes!

Does life gets better after you reach fifty and beyond? well, it depends, on how far you’ve been.ahhh, you can say that again!

I was filling up the form for our yearly medical insurance, as usual,name, date of birth, gender etc. the bracket of payment was at the end of the form. I always thought that I am fifty ( sorry ladies, i stop counting at age fifty).

35-40 yrs. old (SR 1,149) 41-50 yrs. old (SR 1,349) 51-59 (Sr 2,649) 60-69(Sr 15,000)

Whoa! SR 2,649 for 51 yrs old and above! I thought when I reached fifty and beyond, I will have a discount but NO! your body will eventually be less resistant to sickness,not to mention the menopausal syndrome … thus need more medical attention and so your medical insurance increases in anticipation of this predicament.

I thought , I don’t care if my face has wrinkles, anyway, I am fifty and beyond but NO! looking at the mirror everyday makes you wonder, do I need a Botox? a filler? or a face lift? who cares!

I travel a lot and my suit case is full of clothes I need on every occasion, every weather, every conferences..so no need to buy stuff, but NO! It doesn’t fit anymore, I grew three sizes bigger..oh my! good thing my shoe size doesn’t change but NO! the style change, the fashion change..who cares!

My little handy bag used to have my lipstick,foundation,eyebrow pencil,mascara and lotion.Guess what’s the additional item? concealer! yes! to hide those dark circles around my eyes, sides of my nose and my dark pimples (which sometimes, let me feel I am still young! at least in my dreams! ha ha ha ha). What else? medicines! I have to add more medicines in my bag (headache,cramps,allergy,eye drop etc)

Eyeglasses! I have sunglasses, medical eye wear (i got two, one is spare just in case ..you know what I mean, beautybeyondfifty is getting old and forgetful)and not to mention, I have my loop too! Contact lens? no , I don’t wear one.

Gadgets! whoa, I used to have desk top computers only, but I needed a lap top so i can do my work at  home and at the office, clang! there goes another net book, easy to handle but got to have an extra hard disk..no no no still too heavy, i got an iPad so i can just put it in my everyday bag still not contented? here we go..iphone4, it goes to my purse easily ,ahhh do you think ,I wont carry my camera and MacBook air when I travel the next week? Think again! 🙂

My hair is turning grey…got to color it and made some high lights and low lights ahhhh additional expenses too! what else?

Oh well, got to park my pen, I won’t do anything at all if I find living expensive after all when you die, I guess its more expensive to buy a coffin and a place to bury the dead.

And so I therefore conclude, Life and living is still the best!