This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Wings and feathers.’ See more responses here.
Winging it
Tag Archives: Sunday Stills
Life’s a beach, or is it?
This week’s Sunday Stills color challenge theme is ‘Tan, beige, and/or peachy shades.’ See more responses here. Captions on the photos.
Strawberry ice cream
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘A Taste of Summer.’ See more responses here.
I’m keeping it simple here. My go to summer treat is a dish of strawberry ice cream.
Royal feathers
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Feathers.’ See more responses here.
When the Polynesians first came to Hawaii, they brought with them many plants and animals for use in their new home. They also brought with them their traditional skills, one of which was feather work. Feathers were made into capes and helmets, as well as used in standards and staffs. These feathered items were mostly reserved for Hawaiian royalty, the ali’i, and were considered a status symbol, showing how powerful they were.
Red and yellow were the main colors used so the I’iwi (pictured) and Apapane were coveted for their red feathers, while yellow feathers came from Ō’ō and Mamo birds. These latter two birds are now extinct, but not because of feather collecting. Introduced predators and diseases, together with loss of habitat, are the primary causes.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Red, White, & Blue.’ See more responses here.
When I went to photograph the red doors of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Hawi, I noticed a door was open. There was a sign asking that visitors maintain an atmosphere of reverence, which I do in churches, so in I went.
There was no one inside so I took my time wandering around. It’s not a huge church, but is obviously well looked-after. I was immediately struck by the colorful stained glass windows portraying biblical scenes. There were many nice details that I appreciated, even if I’m not a religious person, and as with almost all churches, it was calm and quiet.
The church was built in 1925 and is celebrating its centenary this year.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.
Encountered in the water
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘In the Swim.’ See more responses here. These photos are from my swim two days ago.
Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Simply Red. See more responses here.
Top left: This Ember Parrotfish was passing over a school of Convict Tangs.
Top right: A Palenose Parrotfish caught the light, which really brought out its colors.
Bottom: I often see Finescale Triggerfishes, but rarely get decent photos as they seem to shimmer away like ghosts. These three were juveniles, in shallow water, and curious, as younger fish often are.
Top left: Last year, I posted (here) about a Peppered Moray Eel swimming towards me and then rearing up when it saw me. This one, probably the same eel, repeated the performance.
Top right: I hadn’t seen a lobster in a long time and then saw two on this day. This one is a Tufted Spiny Lobster.
Bottom: I spotted this Snowflake Eel just a few feet before reaching the spot where I get out of the water. It was poking around looking for food and, fortunately, did not disappear under a rock as eels often do.
Flags at Lapakahi
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Flags.’ See more responses here.
In Hawaii, there are usually two flags flown. The top one here is the well-known national flag. The other is Hawaii’s state flag, the only state flag to contain the flag of another country. But how did the Union Jack get there?
This comes down to interactions, in the early days of western contact with Hawaii, between the British Royal Navy and King Kamehameha, who at that time ruled only the Island of Hawaii, not the whole island chain. Kamehameha already had already taken into his inner circle, and thought highly of, a pair of British sailors who acted as military advisors. Then, in 1794, Captain George Vancouver signed a pact with Kamehameha, which he thought ceded the island to Great Britain. That wasn’t how the Hawaiians interpreted it. They thought it established the island as a protectorate. However, one aspect of this exchange was that a British flag was given to the king and was used as a symbol for the kingdom after Kamehameha went on to unite all the Hawaiian islands.
There’s a story that, when the American war of independence with Britain broke out in 1812, Kamehameha did not want to offend either side and so he designed a flag that incorporated elements of both nations’ flags. However the new design came into being, it became the flag of the Hawaiian nation, though the number of stripes, the colors, and the size of the Union Jack often varied.
It wasn’t until 1845 that the current version became official, with the eight stripes representing the eight main islands of Hawaii.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Sunrises and Sunsets.’ See more responses here. One of each here taken from roughly the same spot, though in different directions of course!
Graham's Island 