All posts tagged: photo challenge

Weekly Photo Challenge: Gathering

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Gathering I spent 2 weeks in Taiwan this summer and looking back on that experience, what I loved was how people seemed to gravitate easily toward each other there. Whether it was spending time in a group or traveling alone, one never felt lonely. What first greeted me outside the airport was a thick wall of sticky heat. It’s not like I was surprised by it, since I had been tracking the weather for weeks prior, but it certainly took getting used to. When I met up with my long-time mentor, who now lives in Taiwan, he asked, “Of all the months, why are you here during summer? It’s the most miserable time of the year,” as he sat in the shade, soaked in his shirt. Well, after the first 3 days of saying “It’s hot,” I made the conscious decision to stop talking about the weather. There was so much more to get excited about and complaining about the heat was preventing me from opening up to new experiences. Over the course of the next two …

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eye Spy

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Eye Spy I traveled a lot this past year, mostly alone, so when I searched my pictures from my travels for this challenge, I realized that I’m definitely on the road to perfecting the half-face selfie, face mask optional. The creepy one in South Korea is probably my favorite of the bunch.  

Transition

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Transition Last December, I went through the rites of ʻūniki which, in the tradition of my hālau, is a formal graduation ceremony marking ones transition to becoming a kumu hula or a teacher of hula. Every tradition is different. Some hālau do not ʻūniki students, while others do. I share this image with all of you because it was a defining moment in the ceremony. It was the culmination of my lifelong career as a hula student and the beginning of a new chapter. A kumu hula from a different tradition tied on my pāʻū kaula and was the first to greet me into this prestigious guild of hula masters. Becoming a kumu hula has been something I’ve reflected upon hundreds of times in the past year. I continue to mourn the end of my time as a hula student and although my new role demands its own attention, I now have time and space to properly process my transition between death and rebirth within the hula realm.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie

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On a short day hike with friends, I stopped to take a picture of the trail that would lead us to Hiʻilawe. The combination of light rain and unbearable humidity formed condensation on my camera lens and blurred this shot. It is the only photo of the hundred I snapped on that day that is so hauntingly out of focus. Some cultures believe ghosts and spirits dwell in bamboo forests, while in Hawaiʻi, bamboo or ʻohe, is one of the many kinolau or physical manifestations of Kāne, one of the gods of creation. When I look at this photo, I am reminded that we are never really alone. Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie | http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/photo-challenge-eerie/

October Photo Challenge

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We love photo challenges, but none of us have ever seen one through to the end, so what better way to actually finish one than to host it and invite friends to join in on the fun? This is our first attempt and we’re excited. It took us awhile to figure out the daily prompts, so we hope you’ll jump into the challenge with us! If you’ve never done a photo challenge before, it’s okay. The instructions are simple: Take a photo that speaks to your artistic interpretation of the daily prompt Upload it on your favorite social media site (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, your blog, Google+, etc.) Add the day, prompt, and the hashtag #hgphotoaday Post/Publish it. If you miss a day or more, not to worry. Just jump right back in when you can. Although some of the prompts are in local-speak, they are universal, so if you don’t understand something, we’re more than happy to translate. Just let us know. Now, charge up your phones and let’s get this photo challenge party started!