Finally finished the Narcissus Archiving

Still dealing with some sort of nerve or muscle irritant. Walking real weird right now. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.

Spent almost 20 hours scanning a multitude of Narcissus Souvenir books and who knows how many hours creating the layouts and posters. It was a challenge to get it done in less than a month but hopefully all those who get to see it at the Coronation Ball will have good memories of the years past.

Here's some of the stuff that was done:

1. Court Photos - mostly scanned from the old souvenir books.



2. Contestants Posters - Some posters were still intact but others needed to be recreated such as this one.



Then the Narcissus Souvenir Book Covers - 59 Covers total of which I've photographed a little over half of them.




And lastly, memoribilia posters such as this one which featured sisters who ran in the pageant. There was even a Mother/Daughter combo.



To view the whole set, stop by the Narcissus Coronation Ball at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom on Saturday, January 26 starting about 6:00 pm.

The Complete Set will also be on line once the Coronation Ball is completed.

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a LONG time

Dealing with a bunch of stuff but that's besides the point.

We now have a new Narcissus Queen and Court and this is my 33rd year (or thereabouts) with the Pageant.

The new Queen is Catherine Wong Jayne. Her Princesses are from left, Theresa Lu (3rd Princess), Jacklyn Ma (1st Princess), Leilani Soon (2nd Princess) and Chantel Ching (4th Princess). The official portraits have been taken and I'm just waiting for them to decide which one they want for next year's souvenir book.

I've also been involved with archiving 59 years of Narcissus Souvenir programs. Had to go down to the Chinese Chamber offices and scan 59 books, 59 Queen portraits, and about half of the contestants (those we didn't have posters for). Then those scans were compiled into posters and display pieces to be exhibited at the Narcissus Coronation Ball at the end of the month. I'll post some of the images after the Ball is over.

I also needed to get off this rock (Oahu) so I went to another rock (Kauai) for a day. Visited a photographer friend there (Herbie's photography) and he and I secured a model and went on a photoshoot.

The model is Gena from Hanalei and we all got wet. I was sitting on the sand doing some low level shots when a gentle wave came in and managed to douse me (camera remained dry).

This is to prove to Herbie's wife that he was working. LOL!

Back to work for me. Hopefully the pinched nerve in my back will resolve itself soon...

Miss Chinatown Hawaii 2008

Ok, I haven't posted for a LONG time. So, here goes. On November 4, 2007 at the Historic Hawaii Theatre, a new Miss Chinatown Hawaii was crowned. The new Queen is Sherilynn Chang and she will be competing in the Miss Chinatown USA pageant in February.





I'm sure she'll be a great representative for Hawaii at the National Pageant.

My Niece - getting taller/older/sassier

I get to see my niece at least twice a year (or I try to). She and her Mom and Dad came to Hawaii to visit so of course I had to take her portrait. Got my regular makeup artist to make her a little more glamorous but being the rascal she is, getting her to stand still was a challenge. One of the better shots is the Featured Image on my website's home page.

I'll be taking Grandma to Dallas in October to spend time with the kid again. Of course if she stands still, I'll be trying to take her photo again.

Pregnancy Photos

Trying something different. Lot of photographers are taking photos of pregnant Moms to be. Since many of them are similar in style, I thought I'd try something different. Here's a sample or two:

It was a dark and dreary day

I've been photographing Yesenia (aka Jessie) since 2002. Except for the first hiccup, she has been an enthusiastic and dependable model for me and I truly enjoy working with her. She's exotic and intelligent with a unique sense of humor. After she got married, she left Texas for a while but we still managed to get together once to do a photoshoot in Lost Wages. She's driving over 100 miles to do a shoot, I've driven over 100 miles twice to her place to do a shoot and finally she's settled down in a community about 30 minutes from my sister's place in Dallas.

Well, I traveled to Dallas earlier this month to visit and spend time with my niece and managed to schedule a photoshoot with her on a Sunday. The day started out nice but by the time I left to meet her, it started to rain pretty hard to the point of thunderstorms. As I sat in the parking lot, it started to hail. Fortunately, by the time she got there, it was still raining but not so hard that I figured if I could find some covered areas, I could still do the shoot. After all, I flew over 4000 miles and to not do the shoot would have been a waste of time.

We drove over to the town of Grapevine (about 5 minutes away and discovered that the streets were completely deserted since it was already Sunday evening. Here are the results of the shoot.

OMG, she's getting TALL!!!

This is my 10 year old niece who lives in Dallas. I swear last time I saw her (Aug), she wasn't this tall. I guess it's just a matter of time before her height shoots above me. Her California cousins are pretty tall too but she may surpass them. These shots were taken a couple of blocks from her house.