Before and After (Photos) 2d Annual Trip to the Barbershop

BEFORE

AFTER

Today's photos were taken by a Guest Photographer, Ryukyu Rusty.

This would be my 2d annual trip to the barbershop because I believe in energy conservation.

So, I get my hair and beard trimmed, only once a year, whether I need it or not.

That helps keep the electric bill down and I save a few bucks on shaving stuff.

It keeps young girls from running up trying to smooch on me but, that ain't the only reason for

the Grizzly Adams lookin' beard.

See, I play Santa Claus every year and don't want to wear one of those fake beards.

So, I grow my own.

The downside to having a beard that long is, it gets tangled up in my tripod sometimes when I'm shooting on a windy day.  And, plenty of times throughout the year, I get my whiskers stuck when someone closes their electric windows while I'm hanging out sniffing the countryside.

Used to be, I would cut and trim the beard every year after the Santa Claus gigs were done and the Missus would cut my hair.  But she always gets carried away and was clipping all the fur off my back.  So, she ain't my barber no more.  The fur is on my back for a reason and  think I it should stay there.  So, I found a professional barber lady.  One who listens to me.  Hah !

Last year, Ryukyu Rusty and I found this barber who let us set up tripods and cameras and shoot the whole process of getting a haircut in a Japanese barbershop.

Well, everybody was a little nervous, I guess.  Especially me.  I went through two hours or more sitting in that chair.  You get cut, snipped, dunked, scraped, spun around, shampooed, rinsed, lathered, hot and cold toweled and, I can't remember all the whatnots done.

When it was time for the AFTER photo all I wanted to do was get out of the barber chair and run.

We were in such a rush to get out of there, we didn't notice the DELUXE LOOKS thingy I was wrapped in was on backwards when we took the second photo.

Yesterday, we dunnit right.

We got the gal to do the 2d annual haircut and beard trimming on a day the barbershop was supposed to be closed.

Then, we set up a tripod and camera and took the BEFORE shot.

All we had to do was remember not to move anything and make sure the drape, or whatever you call those things, was positioned the same way for the AFTER photo.

The dunking, shampooing and conditioning,  I told the gal save that for somebody else.

I just wanted a trim so we could get out of there with our BEFORE and AFTER.

All was going well.

The only thing that could have kept us from having the exact same position on the camera frame would be if someone moved the tripod or the camera lens.

One time, the gal spinned the chair around and I looked over to see what Rusty was doing.

Rusty and the camera were gone.

A green bird flew by across the highway.

RUSTY RAN OUT WITH MY CAMERA AND TRIPOD TO SHOOT IT !

WTF (Wed/Thu/Fri) ain't that what it means ?

Here I was on my 2d annual trip to the barbershop to get the exact same BEFORE and AFTER pictures taken and the photographer runs out the door with my camera to shoot a green bird !

Can't blame the guy.  I'd have done the same thing.

It can't be helped.  We're rednecks.  Wildlife is more important.  Ya know ?

Rusty and I are real good friends. 

He even wants me to be the photographer at his wedding.

It's going to be outdoors, too.

Be best if no green birds fly by.

Dontcha think ?

MORE REDNECK STUFF HERE

Ryukyu Rusty at National Geographic Traveler: Photo Contest !

Keep yer eyes on this guy, he's going places, I tell you.  Here's a photo Ryukyu Rusty has in National Geographic Traveler's 2011 Photo Contest. It's a fisherman casting his line off the cliffs during sunset at the Zanpamisaki Lighthouse in Okinawa, Japan.

HERE'S WHAT WE SHOULD ALL DO:

They have a whole bunch of buttons on the page for Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Digg, StumbleUpon, Send to a Friend and even one button that says MORE.  I'm gonna try them all out and I hope some of my followers have the time, in their busy schedules, to hit all those buttons, too.

Ryukyu Rusty isn't really interested in winning some prize in a contest.  Somebody else, ahem- ahum, just put the photo in there for him.  But, wouldn't that be cool, if this photo showed up in National Geographic Traveler Magazine, someday?  Last time I looked there were only twelve-thousand-some other people entered in the contest.  Let's see what we can do to narrow down the odds a bit ! 

JUST HIT THE "HERE'S WHAT WE SHOULD ALL DO" LINK, OK ?

Zanpa Point Lighthouse at Sunset (Photo) Okinawa, Japan

Gotterdun!  It took some planning, a little luck with the weather and great timing with the seasalt ice cream parlor but, on the 18th of June, 2011 at 7:24PM this photo was captured with the PENTAX K5.

It was a good thing Ryukyu Rusty and I got over on the west coast of Okinawa early in the day and did some investigating.  THE ICE CREAM PLACE CLOSES AT 7PM !

You wouldn't want to see me after spending the whole day in the blistering sun, waiting for a chance to snap this photo and dreaming about Seasalt Vanilla Ice Cream if the joint closed before I got there.

The position of the setting sun had us fooled.  We thought it would have set more to the left in the scene but, we don't live on that side of the island.  I guess that makes us Pacific islanders.

There are about 40 frames of this sunset in my collection now and I'm not sure what Rusty totaled-up for the day.  He did snag a great silhouette shot of a fisherman casting his line over the cliffs with the setting sun and lighthouse in the background.
He is headed for the cover of National Geographic Magazine one of these days.  Wait and see !

Just last week I posted a photo of ZANPAMISAKI LIGHTHOUSE viewed in early morning light and promised I'd get a sunset photo of the place, maybe even eat some of that seasalt ice cream.

Well folks, it looks like we gotterdun !

Sunday's Silly Sign (Photo) Jun 19, 2011

Whoa Nellie!  Just when I was starting to think I'd have to discontinue this series of silly signs this beauty popped up in a pretty high class (for me) restaurant in Okinawa, Japan.

Look in the background.  There's a guy wearing a coat and tie and he looks like he might be reading a menu or something.  Er, he could just be pretending.

He's really thinkin of asking the bearded dude squatting in his flip-flops and dripping sweat all over a table to shoot the aquarium sign to please go somewhere else to eat.  But, I'm glad he didn't.

They treat the elders and disabled people in Japan pretty well these days.  So, while I may embarrass Ryukyu Rusty and Doc, sometimes,  I get the job done. 

Just act like some kinda old, crazy guy and people get back outa the way leave me alone.  Hah !

We did one of those long, long days in the hot sun, just to catch some good sunset photos on the other side of our island.  You'll get to see some of those photos later.  I think I have a good one for Travel Photo Thursday this week and there's plenty more in the cooker waiting for development.

I'll have to go back and get the name of that restaurant and do a review on the place someday.
It was really good food and they had the air-conditioning cranked up high enough to give you goose bumps.

Only, when I excused myself, after eating, to go to the Gentlemen's Room and splash some cold water on my head, I came back out and Rusty was headed for the door.  He said he payed the tab.

Now, I'm wondering if they charged him for that tablecloth I dripped all over trying to shoot that silly sign with a cell phone !

Eclipse of the Full Moon Jun 16, 2011 From Okinawa, Japan

                                            FULL MOON PHOTO 3:10AM JUN 16, 2011

Here's a blow by blow account from Okinawa, Japan concerning this month's full moon.

For me, it all started at 7:15PM last night, the 15th of June.  Ryukyu Rusty sent me an instant message, or whatever you call those emails that come through your cell phone.  It said "Lunar Eclipse at 0300".  I replied, he could come by the house and get my 500mm lens.  No way, was I going to be awake at 3AM.

Well, he was so excited about the full moon, he never came by and went with that girl of his to shoot reflections of the full moon over the ocean, somewhere. Hope he got some.

Anyway, I walked back to my office and Googled the full moon Jun 2011 and came across this article in the HUFFINGTON POST.  They were talking about a "moment of totality" and this hasn't happened this good since July of 2000 so, I said "The hell with it".  Then, went home and asked the wife to look outside at 2:30 in the morning and see if she could see the moon.  I told her it was a special event, where the moon turns red.  I'd get out of bed for that. I didn't want to get out of bed if it was so cloudy you couldn't see the moon.

At 2:30AM, I was awakened.  Groan.  "Did you see the moon, I asked her"?  "Yes, she says.  It isn't red".  Groan, gripe, get coffee, put lens in camera, mount everything on a tripod and stumble up the stairs to the roof of the house to see what the moon looked like and there it was.  It didn't look any different than any other full moon I ever saw.  Why am I doing this after only getting 3 hours sleep?  Groan, again.

After shooting about 50 frames of the moon at different camera settings, I called it a night.  I was starting to think Huffington and Rusty were full of crap.  Maybe there was some confusion about the date between when the eclipse takes place over Japan vice the USA. 

So, I groaned some more,  took the big lens off the camera and put all my toys away.  Wide awake, full of mosquito bites and coffee, I decided I might as well take the SD card out of the camera and go to my office, uptown, to download and see how my moon shots turned out.

It's a few blocks walk to get to my office.  I stop at a machine close to the place and grab a few iced coffees to drink while the PCs are doing whatever they do warming up everyday.

Well, just as I turn the last corner, to get to my hangout, the moon appeared.

It looked like this around 4AM.  I watched for awhile, to make sure it wasn't just clouds.  It wasn't clouds.
Sonovagun, the moon was going to have an eclipse at 4AM instead of 3AM.  I was sure.

So, I emailed Rusty's cell phone to let him know it was SHOWTIME !

This photo was taken at 4:11AM using  Pentax K5, Tripod, Cable Release and the Sigma 50-500mm lens.

     It was 4:19AM when I took this shot and I'm still waiting for that "Moment of Totality" to happen.

At 4:39 I took this photo and was starting to feel somewhat totalled but, wasn't sure if it was quite there, yet.  This isn't the way I'm used to getting totalled so, some scientist will have to be the judge on this eclipse of the full moon thingy.

A bunch of clouds rolled in and blocked my view several times so, after I took this shot at 4:45AM I called it a day.  I'm really not sure if I witnessed the totality, or not. 

The other thing I got wondering is what the heck is that thing at about ten o'clock just outside the moon.  Somebody spyin' or did we leave space junk up there awhile back ?


NOTE: THE SIGMA 50-500MM, ONE OF MY FAVORITE LENSES IS AVAILABLE FOR CANON, NIKON, SIGMA, SONY AND PENTAX DSLRS AT ADORAMA CAMERA A COMPANY, I AM PROUD TO SAY, I AM AFFILIATED WITH AS I HAVE HAD SUPERIOR SERVICE IN MY PAST DEALINGS WITH THEM.  THEY DELIVER PROMPTLY.


SEE A 15 SHOT SERIES OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE HERE

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Do They Really Have Little Peckers in Japan ? (Photos)

This little pecker was up in the mountains of Okinawa, Japan just banging away on a tree.

My hearing is about the same as that of a rock so, I'd have never known it was there.  But, I saw Ryukyu Rusty with his tripod set up concentrating on something in the trees and clicking away with his Pentax.

Once he got me pointed in the right direction I saw the little bird and started firing away, too.

They certainly do have little peckers in Japan.  This is a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker.  They go by the scientific name of Dendrocopos kizuki and some folks just call them Pygmy Woodpeckers.

These characters eat bugs and hang out on hillsides or in forests and may also be found in China, Korea and Russia.  They really are little guys, about as small as a sparrow, and they peck away at wood loud enough for people with good ears to hear them before they see them.  That's why they got the name woodpeckers instead of little peckers, I guess.

Everybody should walk around and see if there's any little peckers in their neck of the woods because you never know, they could get a mention in the HUFFINGTON POST just like our Woodpeckers, someday.

Not many people run around, bragging about their little peckers but, I'm right proud of mine !

Fireworks, Crackers and Beer at the Gallery Last Night

It was open to the public but we didn't advertise so, you had to be in-the-know, otherwise, you could consider yourself uninvited.  Anyways, we had fireworks, crackers and beer at Mike's Ryukyu Gallery last night.  We had a pretty good idea that the half million views was going to happen.

So, we took a few photos to show everybody how we gotterdun, in true Redneck Style.

The first thing, in case there's ever any doubt about us knowing what we're doing, was to document this event with photos.  Not really sure what day of the week it ever is, I threw a fireworks photo on the blog.  Then, the blog told me it was Friday, June 10, 2011. They know the date, wherever they print the thing.

Next, I thought it'd be nice if everyone could see what time it was in Japan while this event took place.  That clock, leaning up against my redneck cooling tower is showing you Japan Standard Time (JST) and it's 11:21PM Friday night June 10, 2011.

Ryukyu Rusty had to take pictures because I was getting ready to set off the fireworks. 

That yellow contraption in my hands, the Japanese call a cracker. 

I was watching the view meter, ready to pull the string.  Fireworks liven things up, always.

It's not easy shooting a camera in a gallery because of the horrible lighting, especially when everyone is drinking beer. Rusty had to use camera flash. 

You can see that I don't usually wear those girly boots you saw the other day. 

At this point, the dang meter already hit 500,001 and I pulled the string.  The cracker thing made a real loud BANG but, nothing flew out of it.  I was expecting red, yellow, blue and green streamers to fly all over the place.  Nothing came out of the damn thing but noise, BANG !

I  looked up in the sky, just in case the beer had slowed down my eyeball reflexes, but there wasn't a streamer in sight.  So, I popped another one.  The same thing happened, no streamers.

They developed some new kind of tree-saving fireworks, I guess.  These crackers come with only noise and no streamers.  What kind of redneck do they think I am, anyhow? 

Next time, I'll buy sparklers, I guess and if they don't look like fireworks, to me, I'll start making my own. 

I ain't stupid, ya know.

We celebrated with a few more beers, put my redneck cooling tower, cameras and computer away and cleaned up the mess we didn't make.  We had to get home and grab some sleep.  This morning Ryukyu Rusty, Ryukyu Mike and Doc were hopping on a boat to shoot some photos on another Okinawa island called Minna Jima.  You'll hear about that excursion later.

Right now, I just want to thank everybody who helped this blog hit the half million views mark.

Next week I'll be sifting through my mail to see who guessed closest to the date we gotterdun and mailing them their choice of photos.

Then, after I get caught up on developing this weekends shots, we'll see what kind of celebrating to do besides fireworks, crackers and beer in the event this madness continues on to the million views mark.

Cheers,
Mike

Photo of the Week by Ryukyu Rusty

Here's a photo Rusty shot at the Onna Son Seaport in Okinawa, Japan the night we went over there to do some liaison for the upcoming Dragonboat races this Sunday.  He used a Pentax K7, Tripod, Cable Release, and an 18-250 Lens at a Focal Length of 21mm.  Right good shootin !

I started another gallery on the website called Ryukyu Rusty's Photography and will be getting him to add photos whenever I catch up with him.  Have a peek and leave a comment if you'd like.


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