Assignment/Goal Global Synchronous Shoot One based on 12 noon 3/20/98 Hawaii Standard Time. With Optional Additional Sound file of ambient location sound submitted as a separate QT movie.
Robert "Rabbett" Abbett Abbett VR Services/Hot Spots Hawai`i
808-263-6420
http://hotspots.hawaii.com/abbettvrgreet.html
rabbett@irh.com
Waikiki Jetty - High Noon!
We are out on the end of the stone jetty in world famous Waikiki on the island of O'ahu in the Hawaiian Islands. It is what the weather guy calls a partly cloudy day. It is nice and about 84 degrees outside.
We've got average trade winds blowing at about 15-20 miles an hour and they are moving a lot of clouds. The light is changing every thirty to ninety seconds or so. We're set up on the end of the pier shooting with a vintage 1962 Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic 2 with a Vivitar 24 mm lens screwed on. The camera meter has been busted for decades and I am calculating my exposure with my brain and information from two sources - the box of Kodak Gold 100 film and my two day old Quantum Calcu-Light-XP hand meter.
The camera is mounted on a $29 Slik video tripod on a reasonably good, brand name pan head. I'm set to shoot 18 shots to make the circle.
I also have sound gear (so to speak) set up and resting on my camera case which is positioned between the tripod legs. I am using a device that I bet no one has ever heard of. It is a Fisher 2 speed Stereo microcassette recorder called a Kangaroo believe it or not. This Kangaroo was a goofy purchase I made to do street interviews back in the mid 80's when I was a rock n roll morning jock at 98 Rock here in Honolulu. The little bugger even slides into a mini-ghetto blaster kind of case with speakers and can play that way or you can listen in with headphones or port to externals, like speakers or stereos or computers.
Due to heavy, gusty and potentially noisy winds, I have a small piece of foam rubber rubberbanded to cover the small left and right condenser michrophone vents. This foam is my wind screen and it is doing a darn good job! I also have a couple of big rubberbands holding down the malfunctioning record button.
Joining me on the pier is a young Japanese honeymoon couple who are pretty much oblivious to me. They are feeding McDonalds french fries to a group of black a`ama crabs that live on the rocky sides of the jetty, and the crabs are diggin them! As I pan around to take my shots, our male honeymooner looks at me...I put my finger to my lips as if to say "shhh" and continue on around. The tape is recording not only the water lapping on the end and sides of the jetty, but you can also hear my shutter going off.
While I shoot, I am contemplating the fact that as I make my panorama, over a hundred other people are doing this same activity simultaneously and I break into a smile! I am really and truly experiencing a little adrenaline rush knowing that around the globe, there is a synchronized thing going on. We all belong to a little club as it were. Just plain folks with odd looking gear taking pictures of special places, sharing the same global moment, sharing the same day, thinking globally and acting locally in a very small but creative way.
Miraculously, the sun followed me around my circle. I did not know this until I got the photo cd rom back, but during my customary overlap...(shooting extra frames) the sun was blocked several times by the fast moving clouds above me.
We end up with the best of my shots all day. The water is extremely clear and you can plainly see coral heads, rocks and sand. Around us, although not really visible, I see colorful reef inhabitants like parrot fish, pipefish and yellow tangs darting about within their aquatic world. As you pan around, you'll see Waikiki in all it's finery. The pink building is the famous Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the one Mickey Mouse swam in to in one of the very first color cartoons that Walt Disney made. Thousands of sun worshippers both local and tourist line the beach frolicking in the water's edge. As we continue panning we see Diamond Head Crater, scene of our 11 a.m. Global Wave (Tsunami) Shot, the "Gold Coast" of condos and hotels and more of the magnificent Pacific Ocean!
Mahalo (thank you) for coming to visit our second Wrinkle In Time Global Panorama shoot! We may do another one sometime in the future!
warmest regards, and Aloha No,
Rabbett Wrinklemeister ;)
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