williamvo.net

Ben

Took some pictures of Ben during the wedding in Hawaii last month. Quiet little guy with some ridiculous eyes. The gf and I ended up babysitting him a few weeks afterwards and all he did was laugh and roll around, no crying whatsoever.

 

---

Blake’s one month

Posting these pretty late since he’s almost two months old now but better late than never!

An attempt of getting a basket shot but he’s grown tremendously in the first month. I should’ve attempted this shot right when he got out of the hospital…

One of my goals was to take some pictures of him smiling. That’s sorta close…right? Right?!?!

Inspired by Mila’s Daydreams. Nothing that can compare to her work but this was our quick little attempt at it.

Happy one month Blake! This will be the last attempt of getting you in a basket!

And the last post in this set will be for the primary reason of this trip; the girlfriend’s sister’s wedding in Maui. Once again, congrats to Edward and Maricar!

During the wedding rehearsal, I asked the photographer if it would ok for me to take pictures during the wedding and that I would try my best to stay out of her way. She said ok.

So I did my own thing and took pictures throughout the big day. And since I was shooting for fun, I didn’t take a lot of the “must have” shots for a wedding album. Maybe one day I’ll be shooting at a wedding…

I was bumming around until the ceremony actually started and ended up having a great conversation with the wedding officiant. Nice to meet you Pia!

I want a 35L now…

There were two things I wanted from my trip:  to eat ridiculously good and to try and take good pictures. I can’t speak for my pictures but I know that I ate damn good. Thanks to Yelp for leading us the entire way!

Shrimp trucks > *

Must eat places in Maui: Geste’s Shrimp Truck, Kimo’s, Star Noodle, Gazebo, the Window and Local Food.

Must eat places in Honolulu: Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck, Ramen Nakamura, Blue Water Shrimp & Fish Market and Puka Dog.

On to the pictures!

 

Grilled cheese sandwich and loco moco at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup and the fried rice from Gazebo. Crazy long line but worth the wait.

I just had to try the spam, eggs and rice breakfast at McDonalds. Eggs were disgusting but spam is spam..mmm.
Yelp then lead us to a place called Local Food which had amazing Kalua pork.

Sunrise Cafe is like Denny’s of Maui. Typical breakfast food for cheap. Badass restroom though.

OM NOM NOM. Right next to the airport so if you ever go to Maui, go here FIRST. Houston needs shrimp trucks asap!

Taco stand in Lahaina. Fresh pineapple in the tacos, yummy.

Top left: fish tacos from Leilani’s on the Beach in Kaanapali, meh. The hula pie (middle pic) was delicious though.
Top right and mid left: swordfish and shrimp from Blue Water Shrimp & Fish Market in Honolulu. Damn good!
Bottom left: some meh fish from Hula Grill in Kaanapali. Horrible service. This place is meh, boooooo
Mid right and bottom right: ox tail ramen and gyoza from Ramen Nakamura in Waikiki. Why can’t all ramen be this good?

Giovanni’s shrimp truck on the way to Turtle Bay. Fresh shrimp is freaking delicious. Make sure to check-in with Yelp to get a free drink!

This was the one place that Zaid and Trish told me to check out in Hawaii. Hot dog inside a circular bun that’s been filled with garlic sauce and tropical relish. Pretty sweet, pretty interesting, pretty good.

 

---

 

We went to two luaus in Maui:  the Grand Luau at Honua’ula (at the Grand Wailea Resort) and the Old Lahaina Luau. Old Lahaina had great food and drinks but the performance was boring. Much more traditional than the Grand Luau and very slow paced.

The Grand Luau had crappy food and horrific drinks but the show made up for it. Very fast paced and ended with some 3 time world fire knife champion.

Freaking ridiculous. I’m glad I paid for the premium seating!

Old Lahaina Luau. At least they had strong drinks at the bar?

Pretty entertaining guy at the Polynesian Cultural Center. He made fire on stage so I will jam this picture into this section.

I was pretty tired when we made it to Honolulu so I just wanted to rest outside at the pool. The gf kept complaining but I was too lazy to get up. Next thing we know, this guy comes out of nowhere and starts fire dancing for 15 minutes right in front of us. Good thing I didn’t listen to the gf!

One of my favorites from the entire trip.

Thank you, random fire knife dancer.

Just came back from a week and a half vacation over in Hawaii. The girlfriend’s sister had a destination wedding over in Maui so why not extend the trip to cover my birthday as well?

Maui was beautiful, peaceful, quiet and relaxing whereas Oahu was filled with shopping centers, retail stores, horrible road construction, 11tybillion tourists (like myself) and was anything but relaxing. Great food everywhere I went though! Food will be in my next post.

When preparing for this trip, I wanted have my walk-around gear as light as possible. Not too hard because I don’t own much right now, just a 5d2, 24-105 and 50 1.4. I left the 50 1.4 behind because I wanted to see if I could get away with only one lens and I hope I did ok.

I purchased a bunch of camera accessories for this trip but the only thing worth mentioning is the B+W Kaesemann Circular Polarizer. This cp is a beast and worth every penny. If you need to save a buck and don’t mind waiting a good week then purchase your filters from MaxSaver.net. I saved a good 60 bucks buying it from them instead of my typical photography stores.

Anyways, I took a bunch of pictures this trip and want to split it up into 3 posts. This one is just for sunsets, beaches and any misc pictures. Sadly, no sunrises because I didn’t wake up early enough to go anywhere. I do regret not going to Haleakala though, maybe next time.

Ocean view from the Westin

Sunset on Kaanapali beach

Spectacular view in the morning. So relaxing

Sunset while waiting for the Grand Wailea luau to start

Decided to drive around randomly after breakfast and found these stairs…fffuuu

But the stairs led us to the beautiful Makuleia Bay!

Walking down Kaanapali beach

Sunset from the Westin Villas

Some flower at Garden of Eden along the Road to Hana. Windy roads are no fun

Sunset at the Old Lahaina Luau

Another sunset from the Sheraton in Maui

Relaxing at the infinity pool at the Sheraton in Waikiki

Turtle Bay