This panoramic view is a collage of many photographs.  About 50 pictures were taken were taken within a few seconds of each other and 18 of these form the basis for the background.  Several other pictures in the series were used to smooth the transitions. The walls still appear rather jagged, even though some effort was directed at smoothing the paint and moulding.  Three pictures of photographers were inserted in the foreground as well as a picture of me an Juli.  The two signs-- "Ohana Room" and "Akana Reunion" were "airbrushed" in from another set of photos taken earlier in the evening.

I have seen only one picture of my great grandfather Wong Sung Akana.  In the picture he is standing holding the hand of my father Henry Akana. So I was surprised to see a picture of Wong Sung and my great grandmother Kaili printed on tiles that were handed out at the family reunion in Hilo. The tile was a small collage combining the picture of Wond Sung with a picture of Kaili

 These tiles were the inspiration to practice with the Paint Shop Pro program that came pre-loaded on my computer.

The first images I worked with were of John and Mary Link on my mother's side of the family. The images on this tile were on the same photograph but with a traditional pose of the John sitting and Mary standing behind him, I had to bring John up so that faces would be closer together.

The Wong Sung/Kaili images were on separate photos.  His image was much lighter and washed out. I was able to adjust the brightness and contrast so they looked somewhat similar.  Another challenge was that Kaili's neck was blocked by the head of a child sitting in her lap.  I had to draw in a new neck and draw in the pattern of her dress.   Paint Shop Pro has proved to be great tool for, selecting portions of images, feathering, controlling contrast and brightness. The clone brush help redraw Kaili's dress.  The same brush was used to adjust the foliage behind Wong Sung. 

I have heard that another photo of my great grandfather Wong Sung exists and may be in a box somewhere.

I have had a number of requests to work on the images of other ancestors and do plan to take on a few more similar projects. The actual images are at a much higher resolution than would be practical to post on this site.  The work goes a little faster with faster processors and more memory, but each project takes about a day and a half.

All photos in the collage were taken on July 15, 2000 with an Olympus C-2020 digital camera and modified using Paint Shop Pro version 6.  All rights to photos on this site are retained by Michael J. Akana.  The collage and other images on this site may be printed for personal use only. Any other use in whole or in part requires written permission from Michael J. Akana.