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The 2011 National Convention runs August 10-13, 2011.

For more information and registration visit: http://www.aaja.org/programs/convention2011detroit/

One of our stops was Waimea Bay where the surf was flat.

We also stopped in Kahuku at Romy’s Kahuku Prawns and Shrimp for lunch and met a few other AAJA’ers there. Sorry, no photos, my hands were covered with sauce from shucking shrimp. I recommend the sweet & spicy shrimp over the garlic & butter as it’s so ono.

A gallery of images.

And yes indeed, the blow hole does blow.

We celebrate Patty’s birthday at our goodbye brunch at the Pagoda Restaurant.

Tony, Karen and Corky take a breather after all that food.

While at Ala Moana Shopping Center the day before Karen and I searched a used book section for Michael’s National Geographic cover story on Marco Polo and I found it in a stack. So I bought it and had him autograph it. The book Marco Polo : A Photographer’s Journey has even more photos taken by Michael and was sold at our silent auction.

Photographers on Waikiki Beach after a catamaran cruise. Barry, Dennis, Baron and Paul.

A movie of our cruise. *Warning* 22MB file!

A shot of our group after the catamaran cruise off Waikiki.

Leah and myself as we get ready to head into the Taste of Honolulu. For $4 you get entry then buy script to eat and eat and eat. Our Dennis imitation with our mouths open, or maybe we’re just hungry.

A gallery of photos. And I still have video to come! If the vacation shots bore you come back next week.

Paul gets lei’d at the convention.

Darrell and Corky work on setting up the photos for sale at the silent auction. We had to redo the set-up over half a dozen times as we had to make way for more photos, we lost a table to a sponsor, we had to move a sponsor’s banner around, had to clear a fire lane, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Our keynote speaker Lisa Ling, right, poses for a photo with a journalist during our luncheon. Seems like everyone wanted a photo with her.

Some of the schwag from the career fair from Brian’s paper. People were grabbing up all kinds of stuff.

Always one for a feature photo Dennis spies a wedding party and can’t resist getting some photos but the groom roped him into taking a group photo with a little digital camera.

Dinner was at the Shore Bird Restaurant and as Bill Murray’s character in Lost in Translation would say, “what kind of place makes you cook your own food?” You load up at the salad bar that has everything except the meat which the waiter brings raw to the table. WTF? Here photogs cook their dinner.

Richard and Michael play the part of cooks, you know, in case that photography thing doesn’t work out. I got it easy, one of those pieces of fish is mine that they’re cooking.

Tony seems a bit disgusted that he has to cook his own food. And how much do you have to tip when you have to get up, go get your plates to a buffet and cook your own food?

Here’s a spatula-cam view of me cooking my ono (fish) on the grill.

Dai and Paul have stroller duty heading back to the hotel.

Eugene relaxing by candlelight at the Moana while he have a few drinks. I tried to order a Mojito but the waiter chickened-out and said they didn’t have the ingredients. I may have to attend our convention next year in Miami to get a proper mojito.

A bit of a geek-fest as photographers work on their images for tomorrow’s workshop on sports photography. If you haven’t already figured it out I’m attending an AAJA journalism workshop in Waikiki. But we’re not just limited to Waikiki as later we headed for the Honolulu Academy of Arts for the opening reception.

Video of Keving getting the photogs ready for their sports shooting session and some of the prints up for the silent auction.

Seems like all the events are centered around food and today I got my fill of dim sum for lunch and dinner. Photographers always have a great time getting together, there’s no guilt in going off on stories about assignments and talking about photo gear that might bore the normal human being.

Corky and Karen, left, chat up Michael from National Geographic after our pig-out lunch at Bejing Restaurant.

At the Academy of Arts busloads of journalists got into the aloha spirit with lei greetings by keiki. The Mai Tais helped too once inside. And even more food, Hawaiian Regional Cuisine style. I know I should have taken photos of the grub but balancing a mai tai, plate of food and camera became a bit of a juggling act.

Entertainment consisted of this group that combined taiko drumming, vibraphone (or xylophone, I didn’t get a good look), sax, and other stuff. Another stage had hula and polynesian dances and a third had jazz. Quite a great combo of food and entertainment.

Lucy, daughter and Dennis all seem to be seeing something jaw-dropping at the Academy of Arts. All of everyone’s photos has Dennis with his mouth open.