Looking Forward to the Sakura at Nakijin Castle

If things go right this week, this what you can expect at Nakijin Castle.

The photo above was taken January 28, 2009.

It seems like we had a few years of rough typhoons and cherry blossoms don't like them.

Maybe, they will make a strong comeback, this year.

Traditionally, a good snap of cold weather, brings them on.

Well, I'm freezing my rear-end off, even with the heat on in my office.

Tomorrow, I think I might head up north and see how things are doing, sakura-wise.

I just have to get out of this office.

Did you ever try typing with gloves on ?  I hate it, almost as much as typing with without them.

Within UNESCO Nakijin Castle: A Ritual Photo

This is an image of a man preparing one of the sacred sites for an annual ritual.

Today, I took the cameras and visited all of the locations of worship within Nakijin-jo.

Before taking any photos, I asked permission and went to each site with those attending.

Offerings and prayers were made at many places, I've visited before.

There were areas of the pilgrimage that took us outside the confines of the castle.

Totally exhausted and, with hundreds of photos to process, this is all I will posting tonight. 

Being allowed to take photos of cultural events, like this, is something I enjoy.

More important, to me though, is the friends I make along the way.

A Scene From Within UNESCO Nakijin Castle Walls Okinawa

This is a photo taken from within the walls of Nakajin Castle during the month of July.

The position this was photographed from is probably one of northernmost points that can be reached inside the castle walls.

Experimenting with the Pentax KD 10, there were 3 shots taken at f/22.

Shutter speeds were adjusted to get one photo at perfect exposure, one at -1 on the light-meter and one at +1.  Then, combine all three in Adobe Elements to create an HDR photo.

What I didn't realize, at the time, was the clouds were moving fairly quickly.

So, this is one of those photos scheduled for the recycle bin.  My clouds got smeared.

The newer models of most DSLRs, and some point and shooters, have HDR capability built in to them.  I haven't tried the HDR Mode on any of my cameras, yet but, will, one of these days.

It would be interesting to do a comparison between HDR photos created in-camera and HDR shots created manually, I think.

All I have to do is figure out where those camera manuals sneaked off to and read the darn things, one of these days.

We're having some weather in Okinawa, Japan this week that makes a body feel like staying indoors and reading.  It just might be a good time to getterdun.