A few weeks ago I put a monetary hold on buying a paddle board from a very kind woman. I got the impression that this paddle board meant a lot to her so I offered to take pictures of her boarding with her dog before she moves. She took me up on that offer and came to Lanikai yesterday. Brian took his paddle board down with me (this was his second try, his first was way too windy).
It was still windy, but he managed to stand up momentarily and got some practice in. Shortly after the last picture he fell into the water. In fact that might be mid fall.
I then walked to find Megan and her dog. I captured some really great moments of them together, I’m really proud. It was dark and cloudy which was disappointing, it made for some high ISO settings (this makes images blurrier). I also used a lens that I LOVE but doesn’t have great zoom, so when I did edit and zoom in the photos get even blurrier. But I think the essence is captured and I’m still happy with how they turned out.
It was really challenging to get this next photo because the dog was very interested in a coconut and not very interest in posing. So I managed to get the coconut to Megan, which is behind her back, but the dog was not interested in looking at the camera… I’m also bummed about missing the framing by a bit and cropping the top of the board. Enough with the critiquing, though. She loved them, and in her generosity charged me $100 less for the board.
Glad to provide some memories and can’t wait to use the board myself. We went and picked it up later and she taught me how to get it on top of the car and strapped on.
This a picture of Brian using the straps we bought to help lighten the load. He found it very helpful. Hopefully I will, too.
We had a pretty busy, but low key 4th. We started with running the Run the Runway 5k at 6:45, which is put on by the Marine Corps base by us. We ran all the way up one side of the runway and all the way back down the other. The race organizer said to “chase the ocean then chase the mountains”. Chasing the ocean was far harder because of the wind. Chasing the mountains was prettier and included a rainbow (my second sighting).
Chasing the oean
Chasing the mountains
My time was significantly better than the last one, 38 minutes vs 48. Still a long ways to go from my sub 30 minute time. I did feel like it was more my legs than my breath preventing me from running faster, which is a huge improvement. Lungs are still not back to 100% operational. I ran it with Brian and a friend Caitlyn.
We went and got breakfast from Morning Brew and I grocery shopped to make this black bean and mango salad to bring to a BBQ later. The friends hosting had it at their last BBQ and it contained peppers. My friends is allergic to nightshades, so she was really excited to try it until she realized there were some in it. As a surprise I made it again nightshade free, until I realized when we got there I had put diced jalapeños in it (ugh!). But she continually exposes herself to nightshades in low doses so she won’t become deathly allergic and they weren’t that dense in the salad so she ate it anyway and did fine.
Then Mrs. Eng came over and we went swimming in Lanikai with her pup, Hudson, who is turning 1 year in a couple weeks. He does NOT like the water. He was very hot and she was trying to work on exposing him, so in he went.
It was unfortunately on and off rain pretty much all day and very windy. It was *kinda* cold to be swimming. We didn’t stay too long. We came back and as we were cleaning up I stepped on a bee and was stung. That hurt pretty good and my toes swelled. Thankfully now it’s merely wicked itchy. After I recovered we cooked and ate pizza and after she left we took a pretty long nap.
Then we went to our friends place for the BBQ turned into fireworks watching. They are up on a hill overlooking a valley. Again it was rainy and cloudy, so thankfully we were under the roof cover but viewing the fireworks show at the Marine Corps Base was less than ideal.
Back to front Chip, Caitlyn’s leg, Dan, Jess, BrianMarine Base fireworks were hazy
This was my first crack at photographing fireworks. I understand the philosophy of being in the moment and just watching vs. trying to photograph and missing being in the moment. However, this was more about learning the technique and having some fun experimenting. I probably won’t photograph every firework, but this was a cool experiment. I improved as the night went on.
Those close fireworks were lit off from inside the neighborhood. Fireworks in Hawaii are illegal… They are in MA as well, but you need a mere adventure over the border to NH to get around that one. Word on the street is in Hawaii you make friends with guys working in the shipping yards. Brian and I aren’t enthusiastic about checking out that theory.
We slept in really late today (7:45, ha) and I am “working” this morning. I am the backup to the backup to the backup for a manufacturing run. I need to be within 5 minutes of my work computer from 2am-11am and have my phone on in case I get a call. So I am here writing and Brian left to go try to pick up the SUP we bought. By try I mean I threw out the receipt, so hopefully they acknowledge it was him who bought it, and hopefully he can get it on top of the Venza strapped ok.
