B&W Hawaii: New Album

[bakubo]

I have made a new photo album called B&W Hawaii. The photos are larger than the ones in my other albums. I used LR 4.1 to process all of them and that is very nice because I can easily go back and make a slight tweak or undo something and also I can export a new version of a different size.

I used a new version of the JAlbum Chameleon skin. For those of you who are not familiar with JAlbum it is a photo album generator. There are many skins you can select and the skins usually have many configuration options. I am using an older version of JAlbum so not the current version. The Chameleon skin has a ton of configuration options and you can change the color schemes also. The new version of the skin has a few nice features.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. I have not linked this album to my website yet because I may make further changes to it, maybe use a different skin, or something else.

http://www.bakubo.com/Galleries%202/B&W%20Hawaii/



By the way, I again decided not to use Flash. JAlbum has some Flash skins and I also looked at the album creation function of LR 4.1. I didn't much like them.

[Dr. Harout]

Some of the guys on Dyxum use that and I do like it. It's a neat way to show your shots. In other words a nice exhibition method, going back and forth from one album to another and so on.
By the way, it's a very nice album, I mean your shots are great (as always).

[Birma]

The album works great Henry - very quick to display. Nice to revisit your great portfolio - love your beach shots - such a mixture of beach life

[bakubo]

Some of the guys on Dyxum use that and I do like it. It's a neat way to show your shots. In other words a nice exhibition method, going back and forth from one album to another and so on.

I have been using JAlbum with the Chameleon skin since 2006, but for this new album I used a later version of Chameleon and changed some of the configuration parameters. Even with this skin there are many color schemes you can use. I used the same one again that I have used since 2006 though.

By the way, it's a very nice album, I mean your shots are great (as always).

Thanks, Doc. It is the photos that I was most interested in hearing comments about. I just mentioned JAlbum as an interesting aside.

[bakubo]

The album works great Henry - very quick to display. Nice to revisit your great portfolio - love your beach shots - such a mixture of beach life

Thanks, Birma. I am there everyday since it is less than a 5 minute walk from home. It is always different everyday and yet it is the same everyday. Do you know what I mean?

For some time I have been thinking I would create some new albums and the first one I had been wanting to do was a B&W one of some of my Hawaii photos. I had also been thinking of using a bit larger photos since everyone has broadband these days and much larger monitors then a few years ago. My first website in 1997 had 500 pixels for the long dimension. In those days lots of people had dialup and also the website didn't have as much storage as these days. My next one in 2000 used 640 pixels and the next one in 2003 also used 640 pixels. Then for my current website that I created in 2006 I continued with 640 pixels. It would be too much work to go back and redo the approximately 11,500 photos on the website to make them larger since they were mostly done before LR. Maybe for some special albums though I may start using the larger size, 800 pixels, that I used for this experimental album.

[Dusty]

Looks good, Henry. I like the bigger pics.

Dusty

[Greg Beetham]

You’ve sure got some variety there Henry, some intimate moments, fat ones (lots of fat ones) thin ones, tattooed ones (the tattoos show up well in b&w, like the bat lady), I like the surf action you must have found a great vantage point for some of those some really outstanding shots there, and the various silhouette shots, I like the one with the sun? in the background of the shelter, all very enjoyable.
The B&W treatment didn’t seem to limit my interest in the content as much as I thought it might.
Greg

[bakubo]

Thanks, Greg. I am thinking that in addition to my B&W Hawaii album I might make S&M Hawaii, Q&A Hawaii, and T&A Hawaii albums.

I have loved B&W photography ever since I was a kid. I love color too, but it is a different thing.

[John David Cubit]

You caught some great expressions. The black and white worked very well for this.
On the human subject side, didn't you get push-back from the people you photographed? Or does everyone at Queens Beach--the tourist magnet of Waikiki-- expect to get photographed? The reaction on a California beach would be irate.
---John

[bakubo]

You caught some great expressions. The black and white worked very well for this.

I decided that since Hawaii is such a colorful place and most of the photos we see of Hawaii are color that it would be cool to make a whole album using B&W. I have a lot of B&W mixed in with color in my other albums.

On the human subject side, didn't you get push-back from the people you photographed? Or does everyone at Queens Beach--the tourist magnet of Waikiki-- expect to get photographed? The reaction on a California beach would be irate.

No. I think a whole lot depends on the photographer, the photographer's attitude, and the photographer's shooting style. Waikiki may be easier than some places, but I shoot people in many places and almost never have any problems. You can see other places here:

http://www.bakubo.com

[aster]

I remember most of those photos in your new B&W Gallery, Bakubo. : )


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[bakubo]

I remember most of those photos in your new B&W Gallery, Bakubo. : )

Yes, these are a selection of photos from 2007 to now.

[Juanito200]

That is a wonderful gallery as always Henry. When most people think of Hawai'i, they think of the bright lush colors there. Your B/W conversions really accentuate the people well..
I have hesitated doing much street photography in the past, fearing the 'push-back' John described. Having done much more myself, I totally agree that the attitude of the photographer has much to do with it. The worst I have ever gotten is a guy turning around and walking the other way. That was a shame, as it was an older gent by himself, smoking in front of an American flag mural in San Francisco...
John

[bakubo]

That is a wonderful gallery as always Henry. When most people think of Hawai'i, they think of the bright lush colors there. Your B/W conversions really accentuate the people well..

Thanks, John.

I have hesitated doing much street photography in the past, fearing the 'push-back' John described. Having done much more myself, I totally agree that the attitude of the photographer has much to do with it. The worst I have ever gotten is a guy turning around and walking the other way. That was a shame, as it was an older gent by himself, smoking in front of an American flag mural in San Francisco...

I have probably missed more good photos than I have gotten over the years for one reason or another. It depends on so many things and one of those is how I feel on a particular day.

[bakubo]

Just a bit of additional, maybe totally uninteresting, information about the photos. The Hawaii photos were made 2007-2012 using the following cameras:

Sony A700
Sony A100
Olympus E-M5
Panasonic G3
Canon 60D
Canon 30D
Canon S95
Canon A590IS
Canon A540