AAJA Photo Shootout Winners

1st Place: Tue Nam Ton
2nd Place: Joyce Lin
3rd Place: Stella Lee
4th Place: Mike Schennum
5th Place: Kristina Sangsaha
6th Place: David Kranz
7th Place: Ray Wong
8th Place: Jennifer Dronkers

PHOTOSHOOTOUT

The theme of this year’s Annual PhotoShootOut Competition “HIT THE BEACH!” is based on the belief that anything goes on the beach. The first-place winner’s name will be inscribed on the national Dith Pran Trophy, named in honor of the AAJA member and New York Times photographer Dith Pran, whose life as a survivor of the Cambodian holocaust was portrayed in the movie “The Killing Fields.”

Judges:
Dennis Oda, Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff photographer
Eugene Tanner, Orange County Register photo editor and former Honolulu Advertiser staff photographer
Greg Yamamoto, Honolulu Advertiser staff photographer

There were $2,000 in photo prizes.

First place receives a Canon digital camera donated from Canon and perpetual trophy with winners name on it.
Tue Nam Ton, Contra Costa Times staff photographer. (five photos)

Second place receives ThinkTankPhoto.com camera bag donated by ThinkThankPhoto.
Joyce Lin , UCLA photo student (four photos)

Third place receives a 2 GB Compact Flash card donated by Sandisk.
Stella Lee, Ohio University photo student (four photos)

Fourth Place: 2 GB compact flash card donated by Sandisk.
Mike Schennum, Arizona Republic staff photographer (one photo)

Fifth place: 2 GB compact flash card donated by Sandisk.
Kristina Sangsaha, San Francisco State University photo student
(one photo)

Sixth place: Nikon backpack.
David Kranz, University of California at Berkeley photo student (one photo)

Seventh place: Dinner with Dith Pran, Ray Wong, Middle Tennessee State University (three photos)

Eighth place: Dinner with Dith Pran, Jennifer Dronkers, Ohio University photo student. (two photo)

Circle Island Tour

Waimea Bay Pano
One of our stops was Waimea Bay where the surf was flat.

We also stopped in Kahuku at Romy’s Kahuku Prawns and Shrimp for lunch and met a few other AAJA’ers there. Sorry, no photos, my hands were covered with sauce from shucking shrimp. I recommend the sweet & spicy shrimp over the garlic & butter as it’s so ono.

Circle Island Tour
A gallery of images.


And yes indeed, the blow hole does blow.

Pearl in the Pacific

USS Missouri & Arizona Memorial
A late afteroon visit to the Arizona Memorial visitors center means we missed the free tour out to the memorial. Here the USS Missouri and Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. One symbolizing where WWII ended (with the signing of the surrender aboard) and the other where it began (with the attack on Dec. 7, 1941).

20060625_susan-gun.jpg
Susan takes aim with an anti-aircraft gun at the USS Bowfin submarine museum.

Goodbye Brunch


We celebrate Patty’s birthday at our goodbye brunch at the Pagoda Restaurant.

Tony, Karen and Corky
Tony, Karen and Corky take a breather after all that food.

Michael and Baron
While at Ala Moana Shopping Center the day before Karen and I searched a used book section for Michael’s National Geographic cover story on Marco Polo and I found it in a stack. So I bought it and had him autograph it. The book Marco Polo : A Photographer’s Journey has even more photos taken by Michael and was sold at our silent auction.

Cruizin’ and Tastin’


Photographers on Waikiki Beach after a catamaran cruise. Barry, Dennis, Baron and Paul.


A movie of our cruise.

Cruise Crew
A shot of our group after the catamaran cruise off Waikiki.

20060624_leahbarontaste.jpg
Leah and myself as we get ready to head into the Taste of Honolulu. For $4 you get entry then buy script to eat and eat and eat. Our Dennis imitation with our mouths open, or maybe we’re just hungry.

Catamaran Cruise and Taste of Honolulu
A gallery of photos. And I still have video to come! If the vacation shots bore you come back next week.

Getting Lei’d

Paul gets lei'd
Paul gets lei’d at the convention. Click on the image above for movie.

Silent Auction
Darrell and Corky work on setting up the photos for sale at the silent auction. We had to redo the set-up over half a dozen times as we had to make way for more photos, we lost a table to a sponsor, we had to move a sponsor’s banner around, had to clear a fire lane, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Photo Ops, Cooking Stops and Misc.

Lisa Ling
Our keynote speaker Lisa Ling, right, poses for a photo with a journalist during our luncheon. Seems like everyone wanted a photo with her.

OCR Schwag
Some of the schwag from the career fair from Brian’s paper. People were grabbing up all kinds of stuff.


Always one for a feature photo Dennis spies a wedding party and can’t resist getting some photos but the groom roped him into taking a group photo with a little digital camera.

Photog Cooks
Dinner was at the Shore Bird Restaurant and as Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation would say, “what kind of place makes you cook your own food?” You load up at the salad bar that has everything except the meat which the waiter brings raw to the table. WTF? Here photogs cook their dinner.

Richard & Michael Cook
Richard and Michael play the part of cooks, you know, in case that photography thing doesn’t work out. I got it easy, one of those pieces of fish is mine that they’re cooking.

Tony cooks
Tony seems a bit disgusted that he has to cook his own food. And how much do you have to tip when you have to get up, go get your plates to a buffet and cook your own food?


Here’s a spatula-cam view of me cooking my ono (fish) on the grill.

Dai and Paul
Dai and Paul have stroller duty heading back to the hotel.

Eugene
Eugene relaxing by candlelight at the Moana while he have a few drinks. I tried to order a Mojito but the waiter chickened-out and said they didn’t have the ingredients. I may have to attend our convention next year in Miami to get a proper mojito.

Waikiki Workshop

Photogs
A bit of a geek-fest as photographers work on their images for tomorrow’s workshop on sports photography. If you haven’t already figured it out I’m attending an AAJA journalism workshop in Waikiki. But we’re not just limited to Waikiki as later we headed for the Honolulu Academy of Arts for the opening reception.


Video of Kevin getting the photogs ready for their sports shooting session and some of the prints up for the silent auction.

Seems like all the events are centered around food and today I got my fill of dim sum for lunch and dinner. Photographers always have a great time getting together, there’s no guilt in going off on stories about assignments and talking about photo gear that might bore the normal human being.

Photogs
Corky and Karen, left, chat up Michael from National Geographic after our pig-out lunch at Bejing Restaurant.


At the Academy of Arts busloads of journalists got into the aloha spirit with lei greetings by keiki. The Mai Tais helped too once inside. And even more food, Hawaiian Regional Cuisine style. I know I should have taken photos of the grub but balancing a mai tai, plate of food and camera became a bit of a juggling act.


Entertainment consisted of this group that combined taiko drumming, vibraphone (or xylophone, I didn’t get a good look), sax, and other stuff. Another stage had hula and polynesian dances and a third had jazz. Quite a great combo of food and entertainment.

Odas
Lucy, daughter and Dennis all seem to be seeing something jaw-dropping at the Academy of Arts. All of everyone’s photos has Dennis with his mouth open.