Monthly Archives: January 2017

Carl – The Year of the Rooster (2017)

CARL THE ROOSTER

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #258

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The day Carl was made henhouse rooster had to be the proudest day of his life. Oh, how he strutted and preened outside the little hut where all the chickens lived. From the corner of his eye he could see them nervously peeking out to see the new cock of the walk. You could hardly blame him for smiling so smugly. He knew that from that moment on, if a chicken wanted extra feed, well, she had to ask Carl. Same thing for pecking privileges in the yard. And of course, when it came time to lay eggs, the premium spots nearest the warming lamps were handed out by you-know-who. Yep, life was good for ol’ Carl. Up at dawn, a loud clearing of the throat, a largely ceremonial patrol of the perimeter, and then, an afternoon and evening of doling out favors to the chickens. And the best part about it was he never had to actually ask for anything in return. He would simply tell each chicken to decide for herself what, if anything, she should give him to ensure his continued friendship. But let me tell you, it’s no accident he named his rooster hut “Casa Quid Pro Quo.” Yep, Carl had it knocked. At least until he was forced out of his job by a class-action paternity suit that was entirely without merit and probably politically motivated by bitter, eggless chickens. (1st Aired: 28 September 2009)

Posted in Birds, Hawaii, Impressionisms of Hawaii, Photography by Douglas Walch

Lighting Storm over Maunakea

Lighting Storm Over MaunakeaAfter our recent Kama’āina Observatory Experience on Muanakea, I was inspired to visit the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFTT) website where I discovered their wonderful work with time-lapse movies.

With permission from CFHT, “Lighting Storm Over Muanakea” is a “derivative” work from the Time-lapse Cloud Camera mounted to the catwalk of CFHT. The digital rendering is a composite of three separate individual frames selected from a 1 minute, 56 second MPEG4 clip with a final layer of my impressionistic interpretation.

 CFHT’s Cloud Camera is an experimental high sensitivity camera which takes pictures every 30 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those pictures.
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More information about CFHT, their work, their Cloudcam and some wondrous time-lapse movies can be found here.

Posted in Astronomy, Hawaii, Impressionisms of Hawaii, Landscapes, Photography by Douglas Walch, Tropical Exposures

Kama‘āina Observatory Experience

After four months of trying, we were lucky enough to get seats on the January 2017 Kama‘āina Observatory Experience which is offered by the Maunakea Observatories and ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. Sign-up for the monthly tour is done online and fills up in 30 seconds. Additionally, you have to be Kama‘āina (Hawaiian resident) to sign up.

Introduced in October 2015 during a speech by President Barack Obama at the White House Astronomy Night in Washington, D.C. The Kama‘āina Observatory Experience starts at the Maunakea Visitor Information Station at 9,200 feet where you spend the 2.5 hours getting acclimated. During this time you are treated to a wonderful orientation and lunch. Because of the elevation and dry air, hydration is key to a good experience and it is highly recommended that you drink 500 mls of water per hour.  This, over the course of 4.5 hours is a lot and I was well aware of where the restrooms were along the way.

The terrain at the summit on Mauna Kea (or Maunakea) can best be described as “Other Worldly.” And the view is breath taking. But at 13,803 feet, where there is 40% less oxygen than at sea level, you cannot take breathing for granted. Even with the acclimation and hydration I found myself feeling like I had two too many Manhattans, which I’m told is common. The good news is that I now know what to expect for our spring trip to Cusco, Peru which is at 11,152’ and Machu Picchu at 7,972’.

When we arrived at the summit our group was split in half and each group was treated to a tour of the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope and the Gemini Observatory. At both observatories, we toured both the control rooms and the observatory domes. In a word, AWESOME!
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“Mauna Kea Ko Kāpou Pili’ana Iō Ke Ao Holo’oko’a”

Maunakea is our connection to the Universe – Naea Stevens

Posted in Hawaii, Landscapes, Photography by Douglas Walch, Tropical Exposures

Cabana Boy and the Golden Paddle

Sitting on the veranda of the Daylight Mind Coffee Company, nursing his double short latte, Cabana Boy had to read the email from Kialoa Paddles one more time. It had been over a week since he had sent Kialoa one of the images he had recently captured of a Kialoa paddle with his GoPro.  Now, there it was, their reply, looking crisp and clear on his cell phone screen.

“Aloha Mr. Boy. I brought up your name and website in our Marketing meeting yesterday.  Thank you for sending along your wonderful paddle photo — if you have any others we can see, that would be great. I am not sure of our ‘need’ at the moment, however, we are very interested in keeping lines of communication open. Beautiful work.

 Sincerely, Carrie Allan, Marketing Manager.”

The same day he had sent his photo to Kialoa, he also posted the image to Nat Geo’s My Shot blog, GoPro’s Photo Upload offering and his own Tropical Exposures blog. The general consensus from viewers was more than flattering. One person wrote, “That’s very nice.  It conveys power, but at the same time a sort of softness, the softness of the water.  And a dynamic complexity, as the eye follows the vortex from its source at the edge of the paddle upwards, expanding and dissipating.  Yeah, I think I could look at that for quite a while. Wonderful!”

But when people asked how he had managed to capture such an unusual image, he could only shrug and simply say, “trade secret.” Cabana Boy smiled as he read the email one last time reflecting on what really had happened. “OMG, if they only knew…”

Two canoes had left the Kamakahonu beach around 6:15 on a beautiful Saturday morning. Cabana Boy was steering the Laulani (Heavenly Leaf) and Jo Mahjong was steering the Nalu Kai (Sea Wave). Cabana Boy was pleased his crew were all good paddlers because there was a three foot swell rolling in and breaking at the narrow mouth of the harbor. Getting out of the harbor was going to be tricky.

One-up Jerry was stroking, sitting in seat one. Chatty Kathy was in seat two, Way-To-Go Walt was in seat three calling out the “Huts.” Chicago Tommy was in seat four and Dancing Girl was in seat five, looking beautiful as usual. Cabana Boy’s only concern was that Way-To-Go Walt had announced earlier in the morning that he had, just yesterday, been fitted with new six-thousand dollar dentures. Cabana Boy had asked Way-To-Go if he was going to be ok with calling out the huts.  Way-To-Go replied by saying “Na roblemo brah, UUT!”

“’K den, potentially memorable.” thought Cabana Boy.

And so with that, Cabana Boy powered up his GoPro, set it to time lapse mode with a 5 second interval and checked to make sure the camera was securely fasten to his chest-mount harness. Good to go, he hollered out, “Paddles up, set, paddle!”

Cabana Boy’s canoe was the first to leave the beach with Jo Mahjong’s hull three boat lengths behind. On the 14th stroke, half way to the harbor entrance, Way-To-Go Walt got the first hut out, loud and clear, and Cabbie’s crew efficiently switched their paddles to the opposite side of the hull like a well-oiled sewing machine.  “Perfect!” thought Cabana boy as he steered the canoe to the sweet spot of the harbor’s opening.

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As they quickly approached the narrow opening, Cabana Boy spotted a strong four foot swell approaching the entrance of the harbor. He immediately realized they would be taking on the swell about the same time Way-To-Go would be calling out the next hut.

Wanting to power through the breaking swell with force, Cabana Boy yelled out “One-up! Power on the blade! No Change! Keep paddling!” But the sound of the waves breaking on the pier 10 yards to the left and on the rocks five yards to the right drowned out Cabbie’s commands.  Just as the bow of the canoe nosed into the oncoming swell, Why-To-Go hollered out “Huuph!”  And, that’s when Cabana Boy saw Why-To-Go’s new choppers eject out of his mouth, sailing into the ocean.

“Uh oh,” thought Cabana Boy, as he and the crew took one more strong stroke to get through the swell and into clean water.

As the canoe passed by where Why-To-Go’s choppers had splashed down, Cabbie turned to see the choppers slowly sinking toward the coral heads below the mouth of the harbor. “Shit,” he thought, “George Washington would never have had this problem.”

With the canoe now safely past the swell zone, Cabana Boy yelled out, “paddles up!” Handing his steering blade to Dancing Girl, he rolled over the side of the canoe, kicking furiously to get down to where Why-To-Go’s choppers had luckily come to rest in a sandy spot between two coral heads.

Although the choppers were only in about eight feet of water, Cabana Boy had not taken a full breath of air before diving in. With the choppers in his grasp, he turned quickly towards the surface and pushed off the sandy bottom, kicking and stroking furiously to get to the surface.

The real problem though was that Cabana Boy could see Jo Mahjong’s hull closing in on the exact spot where he was about to surface. Thankfully, Jo also saw what was about to happen and poked her steering blade in deep on the starboard side of the hull, turning the canoe just enough to the right that when Cabbie popped to the surface he was between the hull and the ama.

Holding Way-To-Go’s dentures above his head, as he watched the Nalu Kai passed by, Cabana Boy gleefully called out, “Got ‘em! Epic!”

Later that afternoon, drinking a Baja Fog, as Cabana Boy reviewed the footage from his GoPro, the one and only frame worth a damn was the golden paddle that had nearly missed his skull before he had surfaced alongside the Nalu Kai.

Epic indeed!

Posted in Hawaii, Outrigger Canoes, Tropical Exposures

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Posted in Birds, Hawaii, Photography by Douglas Walch, Tropical Exposures

Pau Hana Wisp

“I continue to get further away from the usual painter’s tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc.” – Jackson Pollock

My first posting in 2017, an abstract, digital rendering of a lonely, fading, passing pau hana cloud, made me consider the thought that so many things in life are fleeting. The cloud was there and then it wasn’t. But while it was there I was able to take the time to see it and appreciate it.

Today, when I ran across Pollock’s quote, I considered that when strung together all those fleeting moments contribute to one’s ability, as an artist, to grow. In Jackson’s case, as an artist, he migrated from tradition and embraced free form abstraction. I get it and so did the Impressionists.

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In my case, while I still love and strive for crisp sharp images I continue to find myself gravitating to the freedom and diversity abstracts provide in creating what I’m calling Impressions of Paradise. In the Impressionists case, they actually rebelled against artistic standards. They painted with the intent of providing the viewer with a sense of feeling or mood rather exact detail.

In the coming year, I plan to continue exploring the rendering of mood while mixing in traditional photography. I hope you will follow me in this adventure. As always, comments and thoughts are encouraged.

Posted in Abstracts, Hawaii, Impressionisms of Hawaii, Sunsets

Lēʻahi (Diamond Head)

What would a Tropical Exposures website be without an image of Diamond Head?  The iconic silhouette of Diamond Head can be found in much of Hawaiian art and is one of Hawaii’s most famous landmarks.

Wikipedia tells us that  The Hawaiian name for Diamond Head,  ʻahi came from a combination of lea (brown ridge promontory) plus ʻahi ‘tuna’ because the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna’s  dorsal fin.  When the British arrived in the 19th century, the sailors mistook calcite crystals found along the beach as diamonds.

When ever I look at Diamond Head, I have to wonder what Lēʻahi looked like as a fully formed volcano before the eruption occurred that created the crater.

 

 

Posted in Hawaii, Impressionisms of Hawaii, Landscapes