Before and After Photos of an Onstage Dancer

Kajimaya Celebration

 

 

When someone in Okinawa reaches the age of 97 a big party takes place.

Kajimaya ( カジマヤー) is the word for pinwheel.

Pinwheels and, other gifts are given to the elders on this memorable occasion.

At 97, you can start acting like a kid again; you're on the way to becoming 100 !

 In the morning, some events were held and, two senior women were honored.

There were speeches, presentations and a parade around town in a decorated vehicle.

Flowers and brightly colored pinwheels, decorated the automobile and village streets.

Then everyone went home to feast and rest up for the evening activities.

A wedding hall, inside Moon Beach Resort, is where this photo was taken.

It was fairly crowded with friends and family of those being honored.

Using an external strobe, mounted on the camera, I wasn't impressed with the results.

Using Adobe Elements the 6 million pixel image was cleaned up a bit.

Harsh shadows were lightened or, removed, to make the girl stand out as the subject.

And, some of the white background got moved around to clean up the wall behind her.

before posting the photo online, resolution gets lowered and it is shrunken.

That's to keep the enemy from borrowing and printing my images, for free.

Internet image thieves get a surprise from me, whenever they decide to swipe a photo.

Something as simple as Adobe elements, installs an invisible watermark, for me.

And, my tracking service, catches them when they post any of my photos online.

A nice legal-like notification, asks them if, they'd like to go to court.

Too busy, to catch that girl and ask her name yesterday, I'll see if, I can find her.

She has a humongous, high quality print, coming if, she feels like signing a model release !

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Lady of the Year: Photos from an Okinawan Kajimaya

Some of the Activity at a 97th Birthday Party in Okinawa

 

Before and After (Photos) A Subtle HDR

Before HDR

What the Heck is HDR ?

 

It's just an acronym for High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI).

As it turned out, it got shortened to HDR, to save people from talking so much.

Remember when "application" was a long word ?

We have an app, for that, nowadays.

 After HDR

Cameras Have a Hard Time with High Contrast Scenes

 

High Dynamic Range, in photography, helps capture the scene as you would have seen it.

Three, or more photos are taken at different exposures.

Then, they are combined, to give more details in the finished image.

Plenty of the new model cameras have this as a built-in feature.

But, I don't like taking my cameras off Manual Mode.

So, when I run into a scene like the one above, I just shoot the best photos, I can.

Then, if I'm not satisfied with the results, do an HDR back in the office.

Why a Subtle HDR Photo ?

 

Because, I didn't want the people in the picture looking like cartoon characters.

There are plenty of software programs available for creating HDR photos.

And, even more people using them to create cartoon-character-looking pictures.

They sort of over-do it, a bit too much for my taste, with the artwork.

 To me, a subtle HRD photo looks more like the scene as I saw it.

Adobe Elements is all I needed to use for this scene.

If I ever get tired of toting around cameras, I may decide to become a cartoonist.

Did you know, a digital artist doesn't need cameras and lenses ?

RELATED POST:  HDR Photography Basics

Visit my Homepage for today's Feature Photo

Before and After (Photos) 2d Annual Trip to the Barbershop

BEFORE

AFTER

Today's photos were taken by a Guest Photographer, Ryukyu Rusty.

This would be my 2d annual trip to the barbershop because I believe in energy conservation.

So, I get my hair and beard trimmed, only once a year, whether I need it or not.

That helps keep the electric bill down and I save a few bucks on shaving stuff.

It keeps young girls from running up trying to smooch on me but, that ain't the only reason for

the Grizzly Adams lookin' beard.

See, I play Santa Claus every year and don't want to wear one of those fake beards.

So, I grow my own.

The downside to having a beard that long is, it gets tangled up in my tripod sometimes when I'm shooting on a windy day.  And, plenty of times throughout the year, I get my whiskers stuck when someone closes their electric windows while I'm hanging out sniffing the countryside.

Used to be, I would cut and trim the beard every year after the Santa Claus gigs were done and the Missus would cut my hair.  But she always gets carried away and was clipping all the fur off my back.  So, she ain't my barber no more.  The fur is on my back for a reason and  think I it should stay there.  So, I found a professional barber lady.  One who listens to me.  Hah !

Last year, Ryukyu Rusty and I found this barber who let us set up tripods and cameras and shoot the whole process of getting a haircut in a Japanese barbershop.

Well, everybody was a little nervous, I guess.  Especially me.  I went through two hours or more sitting in that chair.  You get cut, snipped, dunked, scraped, spun around, shampooed, rinsed, lathered, hot and cold toweled and, I can't remember all the whatnots done.

When it was time for the AFTER photo all I wanted to do was get out of the barber chair and run.

We were in such a rush to get out of there, we didn't notice the DELUXE LOOKS thingy I was wrapped in was on backwards when we took the second photo.

Yesterday, we dunnit right.

We got the gal to do the 2d annual haircut and beard trimming on a day the barbershop was supposed to be closed.

Then, we set up a tripod and camera and took the BEFORE shot.

All we had to do was remember not to move anything and make sure the drape, or whatever you call those things, was positioned the same way for the AFTER photo.

The dunking, shampooing and conditioning,  I told the gal save that for somebody else.

I just wanted a trim so we could get out of there with our BEFORE and AFTER.

All was going well.

The only thing that could have kept us from having the exact same position on the camera frame would be if someone moved the tripod or the camera lens.

One time, the gal spinned the chair around and I looked over to see what Rusty was doing.

Rusty and the camera were gone.

A green bird flew by across the highway.

RUSTY RAN OUT WITH MY CAMERA AND TRIPOD TO SHOOT IT !

WTF (Wed/Thu/Fri) ain't that what it means ?

Here I was on my 2d annual trip to the barbershop to get the exact same BEFORE and AFTER pictures taken and the photographer runs out the door with my camera to shoot a green bird !

Can't blame the guy.  I'd have done the same thing.

It can't be helped.  We're rednecks.  Wildlife is more important.  Ya know ?

Rusty and I are real good friends. 

He even wants me to be the photographer at his wedding.

It's going to be outdoors, too.

Be best if no green birds fly by.

Dontcha think ?

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