Tom Selleck's aloha shirt in Magnum PI is the Jungle Bird print by Paradise Found. This print is also available in a variety of Hawaiian dresses.

And while we’re on the topic of Magnum PI, what a great show! It had action. It had humor. It had scenery. It had it all. It even had a cool song and an exciting intro. At the very end of the show’s intro, you see Magnum wearing the Jungle Bird shirt.

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Except on thing. We had to use it in the near future and the weather was very windy and rainy.

The beach was filled with debris from the recent and ongoing stormy weather a few days before the shoot.Since we had little choice in the scheduling of the beach house, we just had our contact book it and we also booked the photographer. Next up was to scout the beach house to get some ideas on how and where we'd shoot.

Though the beach was messy, the beach house porch showed much potential as a shoot setting.

Since we needed a photo shoot and didn’t know when another opportunity to shoot a beach house would arise, we rolled the dice and booked the house through a friend and also booked the photographer. We figured that if the weather was bad, we could at least still shoot indoors and on the porch so the day wouldn’t be a total loss.

On the day of the shoot, the weather was perfect! Sunny with a slight breeze. Geralyn, our longtime photographer, set up her stuff and was ready to go. After unloading a carload of food and stuff from Costco, we were ready to shoot.

And the porch proved to be a versatile setting for some of the scenes as it also blocked some of the wind from being a factor.

What a different a few days make! This shot of Mika and Steve in wedding attire turned out better than we expected just a few days before.

Jaime, Mika and Nikki joke around before the next scene.

Mika, Jaime, Steve and Nikki line up for the next shot as Geralyn gives them directions on where to sit.

The models celebrate the shoot with a toast. The cups were empty and the umbrellas were taped to the cups because our pineapples fell apart.

The front of the house had a huge lawn where the models tossed around a coconut and played horseshoe toss.

Overall the shoot went better than expected. Just a few days before, the weather was unusually rainy and windy and had been for a several weeks. Lucky for us, the weather cleared up the morning of the shoot and was good just long enough for us to finish the shoot. It rained the next day.

Special thanks to Geralyn and her assistant for taking the pictures, the models for being professional and fun, Chadwin the talent coordinator, and to Robert and Dean who cooked an awesome steak, hamburger and hotdog lunch for everyone!

So that’s pretty much the gist of what went into our beach house photo shoot. We also just had an indoor studio shoot which we’ll share with you in an upcoming post.

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Pidgin English is what we essentially classify as broken English or a mixture of English and Hawaiian words, but also have an infusion of Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Korean influences and to a lesser degree, Spanish, Mexican and Puerto Rican. It is used mostly by local residents of Hawaii and will vary between the different cultures.  During the plantation days in Hawaii, the plantation workers may have been instructed “You go hoe-hana today”.  “Hana” basically means to work, so this would have meant that the workers were to prepare fields for planting using hoes.   

 Pidgin English is a dialect of American English unique to Hawaii, just as creole is unique to Louisiana, and Boston and Jersey accents are unique to their areas. As for the role that pidgin plays in Hawaii’s culture, I think that it’s one of the defining features of “local” culture. 

Many times you’ll hear “t” or “d” substituted for “th.” And at times words will not be enunciated very well. An example of this would be, “The wada stay over dere…” to be translated to “The water is over there.”And sometimes letters may be dropped as with the word “for.” “Fo” will be used and the “r” will not be heard. “What you use dis fo?” translates to “What do you use this for?”.

Here’s a story contributed by a friend who studied ethnic studies here in Hawaii:  “Funny story is that when my parents were living in Japan, we were looking for this farm that allowed you to pick oranges off the tree.  We didn’t realize that the orange season was over until we met this old Japanese lady and she said something in Japanese, and then we heard her say “all pau”.  When we heard her say that we knew she must have some tie to Hawaii.  It turns out she had lived in Hawaii with her husband (she may have been a picture bride) but had moved back to Japan.  My mom even went to meet her daughter when we moved to Hawaii.  So anyway, pidgin is definitely a way to identify people with Hawaii ties.”

It’s a unique language and sometimes takes a lot of getting used to. If it is used heavily even some of us locals have a difficult time understanding what is being said…. “But das ok – we all get aloha fo each ud-da…” (translated:  That’s ok, we all have aloha for each other).

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There is some tragedy associated with this blow hole. Over the years, several people have been injured and even killed when they got too close to the hole at the wrong time. The air pressure generated by powerful waves crashing into the rock chamber causes air to blast out with hurricane force and can toss a person into the air. So, like many of nature’s spectacles, it pays to be careful and respectful of Mother Nature’s power. If you stay in public viewing areas, you’ll be perfectly safe.

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Dole Plantation

On a drive out to Haleiwa, a sudden rush of memories came to mind.  We used to drive this way every Sunday on what became a family drive around the island, this was back in the 60′s.  Back then the drive was not as rushed, there weren’t cars overtaking each other  and there were much more pineapple fields.  A flashback of workers in their protected clothing and hats, picking the pineapple and I used to wonder how many pineapple could they pick and how long would they be working out in the fields.  Never did I ever think that one day this would all be gone.  Gone meaning, that pineapple no longer being an agricultural mainstay in Hawaii. 

Dole Pineapple – Dole Cannery – I knew many who worked there during the summer making maybe $3.10 per hour, maybe less, depending upon the work they did.  All gone and memories prevail.  Now Dole Plantation exists for the tourists, who can get  a glimpse of what was there …

Read more about Dole Pineapple  

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Red Ti-leaf Plant

This ti leaf plant, aside from adding color to any garden, represents good luck.  Most yards in Hawaii have the ti leaf plant in their yard and there are many varieties, colors and sizes.  Many use it for cooking, where they will wrap fish or meat and put it over the grill or bake it in the oven.  Ti leaves are also  used in floral arrangements and lei-making.  Below is an article to read more on using ti leaves for lei making. 

How to Make a Hawaiian Lei with Ti Leaves

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