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...

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: JPG VS RAW

For Today’s Photography Tip I’m posting two photos in order to give a quick demonstration on the difference between two file formats used by Digital Photographers in the field. They are JPG and RAW. I shoot RAW files, exclusively.


In the past, pretty much only professional photographers or really serious hobbyists would bother using RAW when taking pictures. Nowadays, lots of people are getting into the act. Until recently RAW files weren’t available in Point and Shoot models, only in your larger DSLR cameras.

Canon is now manufacturing a Point and Shoot which can make RAW photos. You can bet on it, everyone will follow suit.

The dark photo of an Okinawan Shisa (Lion-dog) posing under a red-tile roof with blue skies is an example of what a RAW photo looks like. It looks dark, way underexposed, almost like one of those old-fashioned film negatives from the 20th Century. And, so it is; it’s raw and needs to be developed.

The photo in which the Shisa is clearly visible is a JPG file. You can Google to find out more about the different types of files most commonly used with digital cameras today, but my quick explanation may help you decide which format is best for you.

JPG files, when copied, loose some of their details each time you copy them. If you’re just shooting for your own personal use or scrapbooking, JPG files are the way to go.

RAW files allow you more flexibility in creating JPGs. From a RAW file, you can create 100’s of JPGs, every one different from the one before it. The trade-off being, you have to develop every shot after you download your camera. If you’d have shot JPG’s, the camera would’ve developed them for you.

In a nutshell: RAW lets you be a bit more creative, artistic, flexible in what you do after the camera is downloaded, but makes more work for you and creates the need for more storage of files.

JPG’s are just fine for most photographers who are not getting into commercial production with their photography. RAW shots allow you to interpret the information your camera’s computer has saved a bit differently than the manufacturer of your camera does when it creates the JPG.

If you found this Photography Tip helpful please, feel free to leave a comment or question below.

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