An Afternoom on Motobu Peninsula with Three Sisters

Three Cameras Involved Too

 

 

Normally I post something here daily.

A slight overdose of fun kept me from doing that last night so, I went home and crashed.

The hills are ablaze in brilliant colors this time of year.

So, yesterday, the wife, two of her sisters and I,  went to check them out.

It's Hydrangea season, in Okinawa, right now.

Locally, these flowers are known as Ajisai.

Photo credits for some of these shots belong to the gals.

There's no telling who was doing the shooting with the Canon G12.

Give the women a camera and, head for the hills with my Pentax cameras was the plan.

Whoever shot this, should consider making a living with the camera.

The lighting, suited me best, looking back down the hill from the entrance.

Little did I know, one of the gals, was shooting me, with my own camera.

Er maybe, I'd have fixed my hair.

The highlight of any visit to the Ajisai  garden has to be this sweetheart.

Mrs Uto Yohena, the woman who planted all these flowers, is almost 100 years old.

She remembers me, every time I see her.

Each year when we meet, I like to get a photo of her smiling.

And, I'll print it so, I can deliver it to her or, her family.

This year, someone came up with an idea.

The cameraman will go nuts, if you just flip him the peace sign.

All these gals are sweethearts but, one looks rather suspicious.

Hiking back down the trails a few more photos were taken.

 It really was a beautiful day.

 After leaving Yohena's Garden in Izumi, we drove to see the trees in Bise.

The three sisters wanted to go to dinner when we got back in Kin Town.

That's when, I came up with this plan.

If they dropped me and the cameras at my office, they could go do a Lady's Night.

It worked.

Three cameras were downloaded.

And, I went home to sleep !

Friday Photo: Travel to Bise on a Cloudy Day

Rain and clouds sometimes spoil the day for outdoor photography.

Not, if you're going to the village of Bise in Okinawa, Japan.

This is a great place to visit when the weather turns wicked.

If the sun was shining, on this scene, I wouldn't waste my digital film on it.

Sunshine, would have caused blown out highlights and dark shadows.

This photo was composed at a little after 2PM today.

Camera: Pentax KD10

Lens: Pentax DA50mmF1.8

Exposure: f/11  3sec  ISO 100

More About Bise Village



Travel Photo: View of Ie-jima Island from Bise

Here is a photo taken at Bise on the Motobu Peninsula of Okinawa.

Every time we pass through the Village of Bise, I have to stop by and visit my sweetheart.

Map It Okinawa and I really went there to look for Seahawks.

The normal term, I use for them is "Ospreys".

But, Seahawks or, Sea Eagles will have to do because lots of folks are riled these days.

They have some contraption flying around, over here, called ospreys, too.

People don't like those ospreys so, I'm taking the word of the bird out of my vocabulary.

Sea Eagles, Seahawks or Taka, (Japanese word for Hawk) is what I'll be using.

Anyway, back to that travel photo.  The Sweetheart gal, left her shop.

She just leaves the place wide-open and follows us down to the beach.  What a gal.  Huh ?

One of the big bonuses we get living around here is honest people.

Nobody is minding the store when she walks away for half an hour and that's OK.

When she gets back there won't be anything missing.

She's a real nice gal and I like her.  She wanted some photos of Ie-jima from that spot.

The light didn't suit me.  I told her I'd have to shoot from there sometime in early morning light.

I didn't say "Scram" or anything like that.  She just knew what I was thinking.

So, off she went to see the Map It Okinawa Dude.

WHAT A SWEETHEART  !

More about this treasure of a lady may be seen in Then and Now

Visit my website for today's Feature Photo

Then and Now: An Okinawan Sweetheart (Photos)

Yup, I got her permission.  Nope, I ain't givin her name away.

Here is a photo of this gal, I met up in Bise Okinawa, Japan.

It was taken, probably, before colored film became popular and maybe, before it was even invented.

Let's just say this picture is from way back then.

And here's a photo of the little sweetheart now.

You know, a gentleman doesn't ask a lady her age.  So, I did.

But, I aint givin that away, either.

Let's just say somewhere around ahem, ahum, not any younger than me.

See the island in this photo?

That'd be IeShima.  It's the island I went to for the Easter Lily Festival.

The gal in the photos above modeled for an airline poster with that island in the background.

That was way back then.  She promised to go and strike the same pose for me at the same location for a Then and Now Series I'm putting together.  Wouldn't that be cool?

Whaddya Think I Called Her A Sweetheart For?

More Then and Now Photos

A Whatchamacallit Kinda Day in Bise Okinawa (Photos)

Today the better half and I went to the village of Bise in Okinawa, Japan.  She'd never been there before and has been bugging me to take her ever since she saw the first photos I shot, way back when of the fukugi trees lining the streets in the little town.  More about the whatchamacallit in the photo above, later.

The wife fell in love with my new CANON G12 and wanted to shoot the fukugi trees.  She knew I'd be packing my tripod and camera gear to do some photography so, she wanted to try some, too.

The first thing we ran into driving on the narrow, main road going into town was this water buffalo pulling a cartload of tourists.  My camera bag was in the back seat.  By the time I pulled off the side of the road to make room for the contraption and had my camera ready to shoot, the water bull was passing.  I snapped this quick shot with the PENTAX K5 through the open, driver's side window.

The Missus took this photo of whatchamacallit plants with the Canon G12.  All of a sudden anything that resembles those elephant ear plants, no matter what shape, or color they are, has become an elephant ear plant.  She could be right but, for now, they're just whatchamacallits, to me.

We wandered the streets of Bise and shot photos of the trees, all kinds of flowers and it was kinda fun.  I still have a pile of photos to develop and look at.  Then, serious research begins.

The Canon, the wife was shooting, I set to fully AUTO MODE so, her photos are JPGs, right out of the camera.  If and when I ever get the new camera in my hands, I'll switch it to fully Manual Mode and be shooting RAW files.  Not sure yet if its the Canon, Pentax, or the RAW converter program I use but, the color in the Pentax photos sure looks better than what the Canon created, to me.

While the Canon Lady was (ahem) composing shots of the (ahem) elephant ears, I pretended I was shooting them, too.  This big, fat, juicy caterpillar was munching on an elephant ear plant so loud I could almost hear him.  The wife would scream if she saw the rascal.

He was probably just eating a leaf that was dying, anyway.  But, whenever she sees one of these things in our garden she acts like it's some kind of humongous snake. HELP!   ANACONDA!

Maybe it'd be a good idea for me to study up on these critters.  They look like they might just turn out to be a really pretty butterfly.  Probably a great big one, too.  But, for now, they're just whatchamacallits like the rest of the stuff I don't know.

Greenstuff squirts out of them when you step on one.  Squirts pretty far, too, if you stomp on one really hard (ahem) so I've been told.  Anyway, this guy just got his picture taken today and got to keep munching away because (ahem) nobody saw him.

The whatchamacallit character in the first photo I bought from this gal who runs a seashell shop.

We became friends on my previous trips to Bise and I'm always forgetting to bring photos I promised her. 

The wife bought some trinket and I got me the character.  I may make a logo out of him someday.

Anyway, once I got home, I grabbed the G12 and snapped the photo of the handsome-looking dude at the kitchen table using the wife's special camera settings while she was busy doing something else.

I'll have to sneak out of the house with that camera sometime and see what it'll do with my settings on it. 

A thorough review of that little puppy is coming soon.  Please standby...

Saturday's Shootin' (Camera) in Bise Okinawa, Japan: Photo Essay

A good day of camera shooting requires proper nourishment. The Texan, Rusty, was the driver and Saturday was going to be fantastic for shootin', according to the weatherpersons. Unusually warm and sunny for a day in February, Rusty came by and said, "Let's go back up to Bise, I know a spot where the ospreys dive for fish".

With only a few hours of sleep and a few beers from Friday night still working on me, I decided to travel light. No backpack full of gear and no heavy 500mm lens.  Just a camera, tripod and an 18-250mm lens.

Bise is a long drive from where we hang out. We got there just around lunchtime. So, we stopped in the first place in town that looked like it served good food. That's my tray above. It's called Yasai Itame Setto (set). I got a pile of stir fried veges, pork, rice, soup and some pickled cucumbers and seaweed, or something like that and a cup of tea for about six bucks. Just what the doctor ordered. It was delicious.

Rusty's not at the table because he saw a water buffalo pulling a wagon and ran outside to take pictures. So, I sneaked some food off his tray, too. I didn't want to see it go to waste.

After lunch, we decided to walk along the coast and head up to where he'd seen ospreys before. The island in this photo is Ie Shima.  That's where Ernie Pyle, the war correspondent, was killed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

Way up the coast a white tower is barely visible on another island off to the right. We were heading there because just behind that island is where the osprey would be diving for fish.

Ospreys like to fly where the sun is shining. It makes it easy for them to spot the fish, shining in the water, below.

Black rain clouds followed us and got to the spot just about the same time we did. Shucks.

When you come this far with a camera, you might as well shoot something, anything, if the birds refuse to show up. So, I started walking all the side streets in the village looking for stuff to shoot.

The villagers have all kinds of fishing floats hanging from trees and rafters and they painted them bright colors and put them on display so people, like tourists, will walk up and down the narrow streets snapping pictures. So, that's what I did. Felt kinda touristy, I guess.

Then, when I got back on Main Street, the road Rusty chased the water buffalo-wagon down, I decided I'd get enough photos of the place to make a travel pamphlet, if I ever have to, for some reason.

Walking around shooting pictures of little Mom and Pop operations, buying cans of iced coffee and speaking some of the local dialect got some of the gals running the shops laughing, cackling and running around showing me all kinds of stuff to take pictures of.


The gal who owns this place was a real sweetheart. She makes all kinds of trinkets and knows how to use power tools, paint, do carpentry, electrical, masonry and maybe, even does some arc welding. A man'd be crazy not to like a woman like that. But, when she started showing me her pictures from when she was twenty and thirty years old, I had to let her know, I was already taken. She'd have better luck hitting on the dude from Texas. Maybe...


The gal kept insisting we follow her and take pictures of the Fukugi Trees on this side road. She said it was the best one in town for photography. I took lots of photos and showed them to her. This one, here, she likes best. So, next time I visit Bise, I'll bring her a pile of 4x6 prints of it. She had abandoned her store to guide us to this spot. What a gal !

These flowers were on the corner of another Mom and Pop store and we shot a bunch of them but, I wasn't sure if they were Plum Blossoms, or not.  So, I went in and bought some coffee and when I paid, asked the lady. She confirmed they were Plum Blossoms.

Well, Rusty and I shot a bunch of the flowers and she was looking at all the photos and being super friendly, too.


So, while she was looking at Rusty's pictures on his camera, I started slinking down the road aways to see what else I could find to shoot when I spotted a patch of blue sky and SUNSHINE !

The people of Bise in Okinawa, Japan are some of the finest folks you'll meet anywhere on earth and I had a blast walking around taking pictures, joking with the shop owners and enjoyed their hospitality and warm smiles. But, when the rain stopped and black clouds went away, I had to get out of town.

Well, by the time we walked back to the car and headed back over to the spot where the ospreys grab fish, the weather turned again. Cold, windy and on and off again sprinkles of rain was the highlight of our time at the secluded beach. I got an osprey but, no fish. The ospreys didn't get any fish, either. We'll all be back.

The next time, maybe Rusty and I will pack up my Queen Bee and his Gal on a Saturday and let them entertain the Gals of Bise while we go and do some serious camera shootin'. 

RELATED POST: THEN AND NOW: AN OKINAWAN SWEETHEART

Tree Lovers, Here's Fukugi Trees from Okinawa Just for You ! (Photos)

There's a small village in northern Okinawa named Bise.  They have trees called Fukugi up there and all the travel agencies promote Bise and the Fukugi trees.  I just had to go and find out what the big deal is and what's special about a tree named Fukugi. So, that's what I did.

Yesterday, I wandered around with my camera to shoot all the photos I wanted pretty much undisturbed by any humans. I figured, on a weekday, there wouldn't be a bunch of tour busses dumping tourists off in the woods and I could set up my camera and tripod in the middle of the narrow streets to shoot a series of photos for any tree lovers out there who never saw a Fukugi tree.

It was cold, windy and most of the day pretty cloudy so, the only people out in that kind of weather had to be pretty much idiots, cameramen, intoxicated or maybe, tourists from Hokkaido.
Folks from way up in northern Japan, where it snows, probably think it's warm down here, not me.



Once you get off the narrow, one-lane paved road there are a couple of side streets heading towards the ocean that are just natural, a mixture of sand and clay. You don't see any litter in the streets; they are kept clean and you can tell someone rakes the sand daily. It's always clean.

As you walk farther into the tree-lined streets it gets a bit darker. The Fukugi trees pretty much block out the sun. Where you see bright light ahead lets you know how far it is to the next intersection.

There are about 250 homes in the village of Bise.  I deliberately composed these photos to eliminate them from view. This post is for tree lovers so, that's all I'm showing you, today.



A cloudy day makes it ideal for taking pictures. I've visited here many times in the past when it was sunny. The sun shining through the dark shadows these trees create make some awful high contrast photography.



This scene was shot from the outskirts of town as I was leaving. There is much more shade covering the streets the deeper you go into the interior of the village.

For the true afficionado of trees (I think that's a tree lover) I shot a close up of these leaves. I don't like to post things here and end up misidentifying trees, birds or anything. So, just in case I couldn't find the correct infomation, scientific name, common name and all that jazz, for the Fukugi tree, I'd have this shot to show and maybe, some scientist or tree lover could help me.

It's a good thing, too. After three hours online, trying to ID this tree, last night, I gave up.

Somewhere, I found out it was called a Garcinia. Well, all the searches I did showed me there were anywhere between 150 to 400 kinds of Garcinai trees. They have them all over the world and people claim these trees do all kinds of stuff, from making medicine to talking to the gods.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in freedom; freedom of speech, worship, free parking and keeping the internet free. Free stuff is good. There's just way too much on the internet today.

It sure would be nice if they had, like, some kind of special place for idiots to post their stuff on the internet so I wouldn't have to waste so much time sifting through garbage to find out the truth.

Couldn't somebody create a special internet for idiots and liars where they could post their stuff without aggravating the rest of us?  I'd be willing to pay. It'd be like a rodent control tax, yeah!

Oh, back to the trees. This morning, with the proper level of caffine in my body, I found what I wanted to give the tree lovers.  They are  Garcinia subelliptica and are planted around homes in Bise Village to shield them from typhoons.