Photography: Editor's Picks for the Month of August 2014

Eisa Drums

Obon Full Moon

Friday Photo: The Obon Eisa Dancers Outside My Place

It's Obon in Okinawa, Japan.  Here is a photo taken at 1:12AM Aug 13, 2011.  That'd be a Saturday morning, I guess but, it was still Friday night for me.

Just in case you're unfamiliar with this blog My Place is a Karaoke Bar.  It's also my office during non-business hours (that'd be most of the time).  When I'm not out shooting photos somewhere I'm here in the office developing or banging away on a computer keyboard and cussing at the slow internet service.  That'd be most of the time, too.

Obon is a very busy time of year for me and I'm not sure I consider it a festival but, that's the gallery I'll be posting the photos in until I get time to reorganize.

These Obon Eisa Dancers are out in the streets for three nights, until the wee hours of the morning.  Their job is to welcome ancestoral spirits.  There's a wee bit of spirits consumed by the dancers in the process, too.  With any luck, I'll be able to get some photos of them performing inside My Place to show you.  

It depends on whether or not I get back in town at the right time to catch them. 

Then, it depends on whether or not Mrs Ryukyu Mike lets them in the place after she see's the picture of that one Eisa Gal blowing a kiss at the cameraman.  Hah !


VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

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

Guys and Gals, Eisa Dancers and Facebook

So far this week, I've posted Eisa Gals and then Eisa Dudes so, today I decided to throw a photo with both in the same shot on here .

It'll be another day before I finish developing all the pictures from last Saturday night. Then, I'll sort through them all and decide which are the best to put a real story together.

The darndest thing happened today just from the few pictures I've posted aleady. I got an email from somewhere in the USA and this gal from Okinawa says she thinks one of the photos I posted is her second cousin. Now, all I have to do is figure out who she's talking about and see if I can chase the culprit down and find out their name.

Another thing that happened: People are actually finding my little Facebook Fan Club widget here on the blog and FOLLOWING ME !

It's barely enough to fill up a bus but, if I ever earn a million dollars from using my camera and these same people keep following me, I might rent a bus someday and take everbody to Las Vegas. They still give away free food, booze and cigarettes in the casinos, right?

Couple Of Smiles

Close to halfway done developing RAW shots from the Festival the other night and decided I'd better post something before I get too tired to type.

This photo was taken as the sun was going down behind the scene so, I threw a little weak flash on the gals faces.

The biggest problem I have shooting young folks over here is when they know their photo is being taken, they like to throw the Peace Sign at you.

It makes for some pretty goofy pictures, I think so, I tell them get their hands down or I just zoom in and crop the hands out of the picture.

If I remember, I'll throw some of the goofy photos on here later and let you be the judge.

Meanwhile, this old boy needs to rest and save my eyes for more important stuff, like taking more pictures. More later.....

Here ya go. I grabbed an iced-coffee and got my second wind. Which photo do you like best?