Kawaii Kon 2012 with Bleached Bypass Day 2

Back at the Convention Center to shoot more costumed characters. Also, still experimenting with the bleached bypass process. Turns out there are many ways to do this. The process I am using is Bleached Bypass in RAW, it has too many steps, I might try a different simpler method.

This is part of a para-military verses zombie skit some of the attendees put together.

Kawaii Kon 2012 with Bleached Bypass

Attending Kawaii Kon is like walking into a Manga magazine or Science Fantasy movie. There are costumed characters from Japanese animation magazines and movies, Star Wars storm troopers, puppets from Nine, Final Fantasy and many others I have no idea who they are.

I've been experimenting with bleached bypass the last few weeks. I tried applying the process to this post. It is very time consuming and requires a lot of tweaking depending on the original exposure.

Puppet from Nine.

Snow White.

Star Wars storm trooper.

Smooth Jazz with Keiko Matsui

Keiko made her first visit to Hawaii after performing in Washington DC and Siberia. She said it was so cold in Siberia and she kept thinking to herself "I am going to Hawaii". She is an incredible jazz pianist, I never heard anyone play like her. Amazing!

This was an extremely tough shoot, it was the darkest place I ever shot. The lighting guy used only blue or red or used a low white spot light. The camera had a difficult time focusing in the low or dark colored lights, I ended up with a ton of slightly blurry shots. Good excuse to get the new Nikon D4 or D800.

Honolulu Festival 2012 Day 2

I shot the whole day at Ala Moana Shopping Center. One of the lenses I used was an old 70-210mm constant f/4 I bought used on eBay for $150 5 or 6 years ago. This same lens is now $350 - $650 depending on condition. That is what I call inflation. I think this lens is over 20 years old. I was surprised at how well this lens works.

Day 2 of the Honolulu Festival was great. The performers are full of energy and so much fun to watch. This is a amazing annual event and it free too!