5 Photos of Blue Skies and Dragonboats in Okinawa

2013 Kin Town Dragonboat Races

 

The fair weather spirits smiled on my hometown, Kin Village in Okinawa, today.

A cameraman could get burned-out shooting  a few thousand photos of these boats in a week.

 So, I play with the camera lens to squeeze some scenery into the frame.

The blue sky with white clouds was a relief, to see, after months of rainy season.

Once in awhile a cloud carrying some moisture blew over.  But, it never rained.

The team members, wearing orange life vests gave some terrific color contrast to these images.

There will be hundreds of close-up dragonboat photos processed next week.

For now, just kick back and enjoy the scenery I saw over Kin Town today.

Life's a beach !

Why Ocean Day (Umi No Hi) in Japan ? A Photo Essay

It's a National Holiday in Japan Monday July 18, 2011.  Call it The Day of the Sea,  Marine Day, Oceans Day or Umi No Hi (海の日) or whatever you like.  I'm just going to show a dozen photos to explain why Ocean Day in Japan is important to me.  It might surprise some people, even some way over in Scotland.

Many of the festivals and ritual ceremonies I take photos at are events associated with the ocean.


The gals hootin, hollerin, chantin, dancin in the ocean and beating drums are rooting for their team rowing a boat at the Unjami, a festival held in Ogimi Village Okinawa, Japan every August.


One of my favorite birds in the whole wildlife kingdom, the osprey, depends on the ocean for his food.

On a hot summer day, you don't need air conditioning when there's an ocean nearby to cool you down.

Dragonboat races, are held everywhere.  We wouldn't have them at all if it weren't for the oceans.


            Some people go fishing as a sport, or a way to get out of the house just for relaxation.


For others, it isn't for relaxation.  It is a matter of survival.  Get some fish or go home hungry.


Water sports and other recreational activities that take place in the ocean are good for tourism.


          Once a year we have a festival where a guy butchers a fresh tuna right before your eyes.


                                                Everybody lines up a gets a serving for FREE !


If you aren't into catching your own, or standing in lines at festivals, you can always find a fish market with the catch of the day.  You won't catch me eating any fish that was stuffed into a can.

All of the above photos demonstrate why the sea is important to me.  Just like Okinawa, many places in Japan are close to the ocean and depend upon it for the same reasons I do. 

The Holiday commemorates a trip the Emperor of Japan made way back in 1876.  The ship the Emperor sailed around Japan in was built by A SHIPBUILDER IN SCOTLAND !



I WONDER IF MY FRIENDS IN SCOTLAND KNEW ABOUT THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO OCEAN DAY IN JAPAN ?

Editor's Picks (Photos) for the Month of May 2011

Here are five photos from Okinawa, Japan that were selected as Editor's Picks for the month of May 2011.

Blue Crab in a Cave

A Fertility Legend in Okinawa, Japan

Dragonboat in Naha

Niya-thiya Cave Okinawa

The Flowers of the Tobacco Plant

Now, I know it's not the end of May, yet but, there probably won't be time for me to enter anymore photos in contests this month.  So, I figure I'd better post these now and get busy.

There's a method to my madness, actually.  See, I do a lot of crazy stuff with my cameras.

Sometimes it's in the wind and rain.  Other times on the roof of a tall building.  And once, lying in the road, I even almost got run over by a waterbuffalo pulling a cart but, I figure, that's all part of a day's work.

Then, once I get my photos developed, I post them online where editors can look at them. The guys who do the Editor's Pickin for these photos are some tough nuts to crack.  They are all professional photographers, besides being editors.  So, I shoot and let them do the pickin !

Next thing you know, other editors start peekin at your photos and they want to pick some, too.

Well, the shootin and pickin has caught up to me and now, I have a pile of researching and writing to do.  So, I don't plan on showing any new photos for editor's to pick until next month.  Hah !

Photography Tip: Going Wide-Angle

Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes and sunsets lend themselves to the use of wide-angle lenses. As a wildlife photographer, usually I’m zooming in to reach out and touch something far away. But, there are times you want to be able to do both zoom and shoot wide angle and you want to be able to do it without stuffing a camera bag full of different size lenses. It can be done.


This photo was shot at the Dragonboat Races, an annual event in Nago Okinawa, Japan. My intent, here was to capture the crowd, sky and clouds and the three dragonboats finishing the race, all in one wide-angle shot.

A scene composed like this draws the viewer’s eye into the picture with what are called “leading lines”. The mountains in the background divide the photo roughly in half, separating the sea from sky. The position of the boats leads the eyes towards the white building, as does the angle of the crowd along the port.

Billed as the largest dragonboat event on island, I was sort of disappointed when I saw the size of the boats, as the dragonboats in the Naha races are much longer than these are. In fact, they hold a crew of 30 people.

Arriving at 7AM, 2 hours before the start, gave me plenty of time to scout out a good position for my camera and tripod. A few shots (Close ups where I used the zoom) of some dignitaries and pretty girls, with the blue skies and clouds as background, earned me an Official Staff armband and police protection, so I could shoot from anywhere I desired. There’s a lot more involved in being a travel photographer than just pointing and shooting the camera.

The lens that handled both jobs and kept me from having to switch lenses from wide-angle to zoom, for close-ups, was an 18-250mm. If you travel a lot and want one lens that does it all, it’s probably one of the best all-around lenses you can buy. You could go a whole year without ever having to swap lenses and worrying about getting dust on your sensor.

By the time the races started, over 500 white tents had been pitched at the port and 153 teams were involved, from all around the world; that explained the island’s “biggest dragonboat race”. I stayed for about half the event and had to go to the other end of the island to shoot another event.

Monday, I emailed the dignitaries and pretty girls their photos, then deleted them from my hard-drive. Who needs photos of pretty girls, anyway?

I’ve got a photo that makes you feel like you can walk right into it.

Have you got a lens that will zoom or shoot wide angle in your bag of tricks?

For a close up look at a Naha Dragonboat have a peek HERE.

That boat got me my 100th Editor's Pick at Better Photo, yesterday!

Photo Of The Week: A Dragonboat at the Unjami

Here ya go, one of the photos of a boat taken at last Sunday's Unjami Matsuri. That's a Festival held once a year in the northern Village of Ogimi Okinawa, Japan.

There's probably another 100 or so pictures in the developing process but, I have to get something posted online before the folks up there start hunting for me.

See, I promised them I'd be posting their photos this week for them to see. Once I get caught-up, I'll print what I think are the best and drive back to the Village and present them to people.

It's really a lot easier to post them online and let folks tell me which pictures they'd like printed. The problem with that is: PEOPLE LIKE TO STEAL PHOTOS OFF THE INTERNET.

CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?

So, what I usually tell everybody I know who shoots decent photos is:
DON'T POST ANYTHING ONLINE THAT YOU DON'T WANT STOLEN.

It works for me.

The best of the best photos I take never see the digital daylight of the internet. They get hidden.

Then, the 2d and 3d place best photos, I do stuff to them before posting online. You can't stop people from snatching your hard work, for free but, you can catch the suckers pretty easily.

Anyway, back to the Dragonboat photo. The night before the big event, while we were drinking with some of the Village VIPs, I was asked by some young guy if I could get a shot of him in the Dragonboat the next day. So, I promised I would.

All I know for sure is, the boat was red and yellow and the Dude had black hair. I think I got him.

If I didn't capture him in this picture, he's bound to be somewhere in the next few batches I develop. More later.....

A Travel Photo Thursday Entry at BUDGET TRAVELERS SANDBOX

Dragonboats, Days Off and Great Friends

A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT A DRAGONBOAT

After a night of taking pictures in the August rain I sat at the kitchen table developing RAW shots until 2AM.

I just checked to see what day it is because I can't remember. It's Tuesday, here, That means it was Sunday night I did the shooting.

It must have been around 8PM when the phone rang. The wife's phone; I don't hear or answer mine. My cell phone is for emails, a watch and a calendar and sometimes, I even use it as a camera, flashlight or something to prop-up a real camera when I get down too low on the ground for a tripod and just need something to position my lens.

I got out of the house just as a few truckloads of Eisa Dancers landed in the street right in front of my house. Before I captured a dozen pictures, it started raining. That slows them down. They took shelter for a few minutes under overhanging eaves of houses along the street. As soon as the cloudburst passes, they're at it again. After a quarter mile and 100 pictures or so I called it a day and went home.

The drums of Eisa Dancers were still banging somewhere around the village while I was developing photos. I can tell by watching my Huskies ears or feel the vibrations and if they're really close actually hear something.

I had enough pictures to satisfy me and the camera, bag and tripod were drying out in the air-conditioned living room while I developed at the kitchen table. The AC is for the bride and the dogs. I can live without it. It also comes in handy for sucking the moisture out of a camera bag and strap so, I guess it's worth the krazillion yen a month I waste on my electric bill to keep the dogs and bride happy.

Along came yesterday, which felt like Sunday, to me. I woke up late, pretty much burned out with cameras, staring at computer monitors, getting rained on, shooting festivals and trying to remember what day of the week it is. So, I did something I haven't done in months.

I TOOK A FREAKIN' DAY OFF !

No going online, no Daily Photo or Blog post, nothing. The only time I left the house was the two times between cloudbursts, morning and evening, that I harnessed-up the dogs and gave them their walk. And both times, even though the sun came out before I left the house,

I GOT RAINED ON, AGAIN !

The people in the village call me the Rainmaker.

The wife complains because the dogs come home smelling like wet dogs. I ask her if she'd rather they smelled like wet cats.

The dogs never complain about her smelling like wet people.

Get a towel and dry them and they won't smell like wet dogs anymore. They'll smell like dry dogs, I'll bet !

A few times between listening to complaints, drying wet dogs and changing my wet clothes, I almost went and walked to my office to go online. I knew there would be all kinds of people wondering what happened and 100's of emails stacking up if I didn't visit, like I normally do.

But, I said "I'm gonna try this Day Off routine, just for the heck of it".

I just wanted to see if my website would drop in the ratings, Mr Google, Yahoo and the Alexa Dude would scratch me off their list and all my friends stop following me and nobody ever come to visit my website, ever again.

Well, 100's of emails did stack up. But, 100's of people did visit the website. Even some picked a photo and Thumb'd it Up for me. So, that's why the Dragonboat is here today.

ThumbedUp by one of my many good internet friends (netofriendo, in Japanese), if you get a chance, please visit MUZA-chan's GATE TO JAPAN and say Hello with your Thumb!

Cheers, Mike