Ukulele Exhibition

Yesterday was a fun day. We had a ukulele “jam” session at the Wailoa Center. The locals call these sessions “kanakapila”. We played from noon to 4:00 with one break! Here are a few shots of the ukes on display. The Guild had 41 ukes there.

I have two ukes in the show. Both tenor size The one I am standing by I call "Paniolo 4"

The other one I call "Port Orford 4"

The interior of the center.

In this shot you can see how the hangers were designed

 Thinking outside the box

The show will be up until Oct 25.  We have one more "Kanakapila" Oct 20. Come on and join us!

If you click on the images they will enlarge

Thanks for looking.

Zoo Flower Revisited

My very smart friend Don Pepiot identified the flower as a Red Spider Lily. There are lots of versions and colors including white.

Zoo Flower

We went the the zoo for the tiger's birthday party. I spotted this flower. I have no idea what it is.

House Of Blues

The Big Show

The Big Island Ukulele Guild will have their big show in Oct 2012. I will have two ukes in the show for sale. Click on the poster to make it bigger. Book your flights now before it is too late!

Foggy Morning

Woke up to a foggy morning. I like the way the light is on the flowers and ferns on foggy low contrast days.

This is Wild Ginger

I don't know what this flower is but it is pretty

I like the color of this small fern

Thanks for looking!

Strange Cactus

About a month ago this "spike" began to grow out of this cactus. It grew very,very rapidly, maybe six inches each hour. You could almost watch it grow in real time. Click on the image to make it bigger.

After it reached full height it developed "flowers" Small at first but then in a few days they got larger

In the last couple of days they are changing color and getting larger. They are turning yellow

You can also see, by comparing them to the other cactus that this one is dying.

Jennifer cooking on her new stove/oven

 Jennifer cooking dinner at Julia's 18th birthday party on the 4th of July. Clicking on the images will make them bigger.

She cooked chicken, vegie kabobs, shrimp. This is the shrimp part. 

The juggler

This fellow was performing at the 4th of July parade at the Cooper Center in Volcano.

Ala Moana Hotel

Ala Moana Hotel

Barbara and I had a nice one week trip to Honolulu. We stayed in the Ala Moana hotel. Here are two views from standing on the balcony of the 27 floor. Panasonic G3 20mm 1.8

Torch Ginger

Para Sailing In Kona

The bunch of us went to Kona so Clara could receive her birthday present; a para sail trip.

The Boat Driver

Barbara and Carolyn will be here in a minute. They are walking down from the hotel.

There they go! Kate and Clara, two brave souls!

That's them! Airborne!

On there way back to port

Exotic Bird Photography

I am really getting into this Exotic Bird Photography stuff

Clara's Pink Pig

Clara made this little pink pig New Years Eve 2011. It is about 3 inches long. I took this with my Pany G2 with the 20mm f 1.7 wide open as close as it could get.

Flowers For Paula

Paula liked this arrangement and asked me to make a print of it so she could use it for making a painting.

Red Bench

Cambria

Cat Face

I found a way to adapt a 25 year old Pentax 50 mm f1.2 lens to my Panasonic DSLR. Once upon a time that lens hung on the front end of a Pentax K1000 35 mm. I am surprised I still have it. I sold the K1000 body years ago. I wanted a portrait lens for my Panasonic G2 but they are too dammed expensive ($400+). A 50 mm on my little 4/3 DSLR is about the same as if it was a 100mm on a 35 mm camera. A 100 mm is a good portrait lens if it at least will open to f1.2. Wide open at f1.2 the background is defused and the face stands out from the background. The adapter cost me $10.00 from ebay. The daily rate for the model in the test shot was considerably more.

My Mom, Uncle Bill, and me

I am back at working on the pictures from my moms album. I really like this one. There are not many pictures of my Uncle Bill in her album. This was taken on the porch at the 109 South 10th St house in Yakima. Do I look to be a year old? Maybe 1936.

Port Orford 4

This is my latest ukulele. I call it "The Port Orford 4" It is a 4 string tenor. The soundboard is Port Orford Cedar. It is a beautiful color with a slight vertical grain pattern. The fretboard and bridge are Rosewood, the neck is Spanish Cedar the peghead is Walnut. The rosette is Paua shell.

You can see the grain pattern in the Cedar in this shot

In this view of the peghead you can see the Gotoh sealed tuning machines

This book matched California (Claro) Walnut really turned out nice. I love working with this wood. It cuts, bends and sands like a dream.

In this 3/4 view you can see the beautiful grain pattern in the California Walnut sides. If you click on these images they will enlarge

The Paua shell rosette turned out pretty nice
Thanks for looking!

My Moms Parents

Mattie McDonald and John Alexander Vann.
I am going through a bunch of pictures that were my moms photo album. I am trying to put them in some order while I still remember who most of them are. Many of the photos were ruined from water damage. A lot of the people in the album were their friends and she did not caption them. I am trying to make a collection of those that I can identify.