Melodie TuroriPhoto shoots with the fancy camera.
The Hawaiian community of Southern California gathered during the Ho’olaulea at Alondra Park on July 20th, 2019, in solidarity with Hawaiians fighting to preserve Mauna Kea. The demonstration began with sign waving on the street before a procession into the festival for prayer and a moment of silence.
There’s a particular beauty to the rugged coastline of northern California. Don’t get me wrong, I love my sandy Southern California beaches, but a chilly wind (even in the dead of the July) whipping at your face as you stand on the edge of a tree lined cliff while the pacific ocean swirls violently around the craggy rocks below? It stirs something wild inside you.
It’s exhilarating. I love California a little more with each visit to the north. In fact, I think I need to make this annual July trip because it’s such a nice break from the triple digit heat at home.
Got up before dawn to catch the end of the super bloom earlier this week. We watched the sun rise over Lake Henshaw and wandered through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The crowds were streaming east by the time we left to pick up a treat from Mom’s Pies in Julian and head home.
It has been almost a decade since the last time I was a spectator at a rugby match where I was not related to any of the players. As it happens, that last time also happened the be the first professional rugby game I’d ever attended.
Nine years ago on a chilly June night, I piled into a car with my brother, dad, uncles and cousin for a mini road trip to Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. We were on our way to watch the All Blacks and Ireland. My brother had acquired rugby fever during our vacation, however I was considerably less impressed with the sport that everyone described to me as a cross between my favorite and least favorite sports: soccer and American football.
The thing about sports photography is that if you go out and shoot the same sport often enough, you find yourself taking essentially the same photo over and over.
I mean, how many pictures of a guy passing the footie or wrapping up the opposition in a big tackle do you really need to make your point visually? From a player’s perspective, I suppose you can never have too many. But as the person behind the lens, sorting through hundreds or thousands of photos that start to blur together, you start to feel like the BBC’s modern version of Sherlock Holmes: bored.
These photos are from Act 2 of the show and include the Kahurangi Maori Dance Company. Oooooh man, Kahurangi was amazing! Their mana was so strong and their pukanas were on. point. They were also lovely people.
As for the Hitia O Te Ra portion of the show — I’ve seen a lot of their shows over the last three years and I never get tired of watching them perform.
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Given the number of games I attended last year, it’s hard to believe the PRP season is more than half over and I’ve only just now seen my first match of the season. I’ve been to a few D1 games, but only photographed one of those.
Last Saturday was postcard-perfect weather for Southern California. The second half of the game was particularly exciting with OMBAC mustering a much desired win from their Belmont rivals.
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As it happens, I was supposed to drive to San Diego from Orange County yesterday afternoon. The crazy fire activity and closing freeways delayed my original plans, but I did make it down. The glow from the Cocos Fire in San Marcos was visible from the 5 south yesterday evening. Now the fire is flaring up again, as is evident by the view from Valley Center.
Photo set: OMBAC vs Glendale
No time for a full post, but here are a few photos from last Saturday’s PRP game. Hit the link to jump to the Flickr album.