solo female traveler – ThE DeNTal AeStHetic Clinic

October 17, 2018

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!

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!

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!

1/80 F11 ISO 400

1/100 F11 ISO 400

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.

Makapu’u Point Lookout

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

“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.

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 🙂

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

A wonderful day!

Cheers,

jamilamimi@beautybeyondfifty

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October 16, 2018

I have two days before the ADA convention starts so I decided to meet Nicole, a family and wedding photographer in Honolulu, to get some professional tips in photographing. We met at the entrance of Honolulu Zoo at 7:30 in the morning, I found Nicole already waiting for me, I readily like her the first time we say hello, soft-spoken and polite.

I have the classic Nikon D90 and a 50mm lens (1:1.8G). I noticed Nicole have a Canon and 50mm lens (1:1.4G). Mine was a handed down Cam from my eldest son which coincidentally his first camera and was bought from Honolulu year 2009 🙂 yep! brand new, if I am not mistaken D90 came at the later part of 2008 replacing D80. At first my Cam didn’t cooperate well, huh! after all the blurry photos I’ve been getting was not from my hand but rather from the camera itself 🙂 Isn’t it D90 has a built-in auto-focus motor? I know…I can hear you..all excuses huh! She suggested that I should maybe tune it up or just buy the body, anyway I already have a good lens with me. Carrying this big camera was also heavy, hmmm maybe I should just consider buying an Iphone X. what do you think?

I am hobbyist in photography and I would like to learn how to use it in manual setting. I always consider myself as a beginner in DSLR (digital single lens reflex)camera. My son would always like to note that having a good camera is one thing but to have an eye and a story is another thing , of course this is not his words, I just gathered my interpretation of what he told me. However, being in a right place and point the camera in the right direction and at the right time with emphasis on lighting will give a good if not better photos. Right?

Maybe 🙂

Anyhow, let’s talk about the ‘Exposure Triangle”

ISO – measurement of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light

Aperture – the size of the opening in the lens when taking the picture

Shutter speed– the amount of time the shutter is open

Hence, its early in the morning and we’re outside, my ISO was set at 200. It was a beautiful day, from the zoo , we walk towards Waikiki beach. My aperture was set at F2.8 and F5 depending on what I want to achieved. My camera was acting like crazy so Nicole told me to set it to Aperture priority.

So, if it was cloudy or dark, I would increase my ISO to 400 or 800 or even higher. The higher the number, the more it is sensitive to light but the images would be higher in grain or noise.

Aperture is the “F’ or F- stop or F/number. My camera was set to aperture priority, so the shutter speed is automatically chosen by the camera. When I choose F2.8, the opening of the lens is bigger, the smaller (shallow) the depth of field (DoF) meaning only a part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be blurry. I love to take photos of flower so this was a good tip for me, I can focus on the petals and the rest of the parts like leaves are fuzzy. If I want to have a bigger focus I will increase to F5 or F11 and all the images will be clear resulting to a bigger (wider) depth of field.

Before we end the one hour walk, Nicole was able to figure out what was the problem with my camera and as I walked home, I tried many settings. Hence, it’s a 50mm lens, I have to move closer to my subject to get a clearer image.