Stan's Shots: 12-03-04 Honolulu Festival Parade & Nagaoka Fireworks Display

This past Sunday the Honolulu Festival concluded with a parade and the Nagaoka Fireworks Display in Waikiki. In conjunction with that OPMUG met to photograph the events as well as to meet and shoot with Dino Morrow of the Big Island. We also planned on joining up with the Tom Anderson / Trey Ratcliff Honolulu Walkabout if our schedule worked out.

It was a full day beginning with lunch at Big Kahuna's Pizza with Dino, Kelli, Wes, Ryan and myself. After lunch we went our separate ways agreeing to meet on Magic Island around 3pm.

Initially only Ryan & I were at the Magic Island parking lot and it was looking like only the two of us would be shooting together, when Henry (formerly Jhames aka Henry) and Myk showed up. Ryan called Wes just as Wes and Dino pulled up to park behind us, so now we had a small but fun shooting group.

We decided to walk down to Kalakaua Avenue and shoot along the way. It was fun and interesting to see what all these great photographers were looking at and shooting. As we walked across Ft. Derussy we notice the parade participants all gathered at the staging area down Kalakaua Avenue & Saratoga Road.

Standing on the corner of the Kalakaua Avenue & Saratoga Road intersection proved to be the best location to shoot the parade. We caught the participants while they were fresh and still excited about having their pictures taken. Many posed as soon as they saw a camera pointed at them.

While taking pictures we also ran into Carolyn, Kelli, Marshall, Terrance & Milton.

Around 5:45 we gathered together and began walking back to Magic Island in the hopes of hooking up with the Tom Anderson / Trey Ratcliff group. We got there in time for a meet and greet and Tom & Trey's opening remarks. There were quite a few photographers there so we looked for other familiar faces. We found Tim and Kyle with Tim shooting with us for the rest of the evening.

Our group stayed with Tom & Trey's group till they left Magic Island and the Ala Moana Beach Park. We were all hungry and decided to head to the Ala Moana Shopping Center with the idea of getting something to eat. The only place still open when we got there was the Dairy Queen...so we ate there.

The last thing we did was head on back to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Lagoon for a spot to shoot the fireworks from. I'm not sure how it worked for everyone else but I was pretty pleased with the location.