The Pancake with red velvet pancakes from Cinnamon’s in Kailua.

I’m not a very technical person – I leave that to my better half. Thus, I don’t want to call this a ‘review’, as I wasn’t being very careful about documenting my experimentation with the new Canon EF 40mm f2.8 STM Pancake Lens.  For me, it was a matter of “It’s so cute! Let’s play!”

I ended up renting the Pancake, as it shall henceforth be called, for a week from my go-to camera rental shop, Hawaii Photo Rental, for a mere $3/day. (One day is $12, 3 days is $15, etc.) At an estimated retail price of $200, this lens brings amazing value and quality.  It’s so light, non-obtrusive, and makes my 5D Mark II fit in my purse better than ever – perfect for a daily walk-around lens, especially when doing street photography.  Here are various random photos I took with it during the week, with original raw images next to my edits.

One of my first shots with the Pancake while inside Hawaii Photo Rental of the mister. I was immediately pleased how absolutely sharp it was wide-open at f2.8!

Continue reading “Not A Review, But I Like Pancakes” »

One of our favorite staple places to eat is Curry House Coco-Ichibanya.  With several locations throughout Honolulu, there is always a place nearby where we can grab a delicious, affordable, and filling plate of curry.  They have two types of curry, regular (spicy) and mild.  Then next choice, toppings, can be selected from their expansive menu.

My usual personal favorite is the mabo tofu curry with gyoza, while Kaeo often gets stewed shrimp or chicken cutlet curry.  On this day, Neil got a kalbi curry, while everyone else got gyoza curry.  Besides toppings, you can also customize the amount of rice you want, measured in grams!

However, my choice today was to get my mabo tofu curry with udon rather than rice. While Curry House offers take-out, the udon is only offered for in-house dining.

The udon took me forever to eat, since it stays so hot in the bowl, but it is delicious.  If you like curry, and haven’t been to Curry House yet, I highly recommend you go.

Image © Pixar/Disney. All rights reserved

So, as part of the “away-from-computer” day, Gabe and I went to see UP in Disney 3D at Ward yesterday.  As per usual with us, we didn’t really know what it was about, but we automatically go to see anything by Pixar (I’m hoping Gabe works for them someday!), and as I had never seen a movie in 3D before, we decided to fork out the extra $3.50 for the glasses and the experience.

Here’s the synopsis from the movie’s official site:

From Disney-PIxar comes “Up,” a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America.  But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

There were so many things to love about this movie.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t go into any specifics, but there are a few things I have to point out.  I absolutely loved all the old photographs of Carl and his wife Ellie through the years.  In fact, in one sequence they are on a picnic as a young couple, and I’m pretty sure I somewhat squealed when I spotted a Brownie Bullet camera almost exactly like my dad’s first camera that was recently given to me.  I was also in love with the dog Dug, who, through a special collar, is allowed to speak to people, and what he says is exactly what I’ve always imagined dogs to sound like.

The animation and textures were absolutely beautiful.  I love how Pixar has perfected the stylized human being while still making them feel human to the viewer.  Because Gabe is studying animation, and thus I’ve been studying it over his shoulder, we really appreciated all the nuances in movement in all the characters.  The 3D aspect of the movie was pretty neat too.  At first, I was worried the glasses were going to give me a headache, but by the end of the movie I had almost forgotten them, as if all movies should look 3D.  However, it was a trailer for a documentary on prehistoric aquatic creatures that made me fully appreciate the 3D technology when a dinosaur of some sort lunged out of the screen toward my face!

So, I highly recommend that everyone go see UP!  Expect some tears, as there were some truly heartbreaking moments, but also expect a lot of laughs and enjoyment.  WALL-E was my favorite Pixar film so far, but I think that UP might have taken its place.  Pixar always seems to outdo themselves with each film they do, so I’m very much looking forward to Toy Story 3!