Waikiki isn't all sand and surf...

[ShaneS]

There is a good dose of consumerism as well along Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki...some shots from a walkabout I did last night.


f3.2 1/60 ISO 800 50mm

While some might enjoy this becoming hula statue on its own, I found the her pensive gaze on the t-shirts in this shop quite a sad statement on what a vacation to Hawaii has become for many visitors. Waikiki was once the home to the Ali'i (royalty) and where hotels a retail establishments now sit there were once taro fields and fishponds.


f1.8 1/60 ISO 200 50mm

A little more modern in this window display but still trying to sell Waikiki's heyday in the 40's and 50's with the vintage inspired sign.

Any comments and/or suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.

[Karm Redland]

Shane, like the first pic. I think your take on her gaze.

karm

[RustBeltRaw]

These are neat. Vaguely creepy. The hula girl in the first shot looks pissed, and the strange shadows over her face add a dark vibe. Second shot reminds me of The Stepford Wives and the style of art from the Bioshock or Fallout series.

Both shots look a little less than critically sharp to me - might be from downsizing. But other than that, I wouldn't change a thing. Great work!

[ShaneS]

Thank you Karm & Lex. Despite the festive atmosphere I found a lot of what I saw to be very contrary to the idea of Hawaii as a tropical paradise (unless you love shopping and I don't) and I tried to express that in these images.

I must admit to having challenges with hand held shooting at night on these shots. It really wasn't feasible to use a tripod for these shots due to the crowded sidewalks in Waikiki.

I bumped up the ISO to get the shutter speed higher and used my fastest lens (50mm 1.8) but I guess I still got some camera shake. I also added a slight Orton effect to the images in PP. I checked the PP files today to see if removing the Orton effect improved the crispness but there was no marked change ad I do like the glow that it gave the images.

Given my body (the Nikon D40X) is about six years old and doesn't handle noise as well as newer models I was hesitant to go above ISO800 (on the first shot) but certainly could have bumped it up from 200 in the second.