Showing posts with label RyukyuRusty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RyukyuRusty. Show all posts

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Cattle Egret Shot While Hanging Out the Car Window

Not the Preferred Method

 

 

 

This photo was taken back on July 15, 2013 at about 5:30PM.

Riding along with RyukyuRusty, I spotted the bird in a field below the Kin Bridge.


red and white Cattle Egret in field



Normally, I'd make a shot like this, using a tripod and, the big 500mm lens.

 
This photo was taken with a Pentax KD10 and the 18-250 lens at 250mm.

All I did was lean out the window and spot focus on the bird's eye.

Three quick shots were made using burst mode.

Then, I told Rusty, "Close the window.  It's hot out there"  !






Saturday, October 13, 2012

How to Smooth Talk in a Papaya Field

You Can't Just Walk in and Shoot Papayas

 

Back in August when we ran across these little papaya trees I had to shoot them.

Months earlier, I had taken a photo of me standing next to a big papaya tree.

It had been a long time, waiting for the right weather to get a photo of these little papaya trees.

It was time to do some smooth talking so I could get this done for my blog. 

I wanted to show a comparison in the sizes of these trees.

RyukyuRusty had to stop the car and let me out.

Before setting up a tripod, I asked the farmer's permission, to take a photo.

That way, we wouldn't look like some sort of criminals, just tresspassing.


Rusty got the shot of me by the papaya and I went over to talk the the farmer.

What I didn't know was:  The rascal kept on shooting while I was over there.


There I was flailing around telling the guy what nice trees he had.


And showing him how a typhoon came along and broke my first papaya tree.

Matsuda thought I was some kind of foreign dancer, I bet.

That's because, I wiggle around a lot when I get excited.

He had a good laugh.  And, Rusty was probably laughing, too, while he was shooting.


 Before I left, I had to ask Matsuda, again, what his name was.

That's because I hear about as good as a rock, these days.

So, he yelled "Matsuda".


 Then, I thanked him for the fruit he gave me and told him not to worry about my ears.

It comes in handy when you get old.

If you can't hear, you don't have to sit around the house listening to the wife yapping away.

We had a blast.

Everybody should try smooth talking in a papaya field, someday !


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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Photo Essay: There's a New Coffee in Town


About a month ago I noticed the aroma of some fresh coffee brewing in the local
convenience store.


FamilyMart has a chain of these stores all over Japan.
It seems like only selected stores are getting the designer coffee, though.
So, I guess it could be a test marketing thing.


 
The cashiers all looked busy and I didn't know how to operate the gadget.
So, I just took a few photos and sniffed the coffee.
It smelled pretty good.


 
And, I like those prices.
So, I got a pretty gal to show me how to make the stuff.
But, she had to go back to work.


 
There was no good looking models available, for free.
That's how I got volunteered.
RyukyuRusty did the shooting.

Iced coffee is what I drink. I grabbed a cup of ice.


 
Iced Cafe Latte was the most expensive coffee they had.
I figured, as long as I was all dressed up, I'd splurge a little for you all.

 
Color codes are real important for this operation. That's why I pointed at that blue thing.


 
The cup of ice goes under the nozzle.


 
You have to line yourself up with the right color for whatever you're buying.


Then, push the button, just one time. And get back outta the way.


 
Steaming hot coffee comes out and says, “Pshhhh” when it hits the ice.


 
Add cream and sugar, if you like.


 
Then, take one of those color-coded cardboard things, with correct price on it, over to the cashier.

 
How did I like the new coffee ?

It was delicious. They should put it in all the Family Marts.

Look out Mr. Starbucks.

The competition just came to town.


Visit my homepage for the PHOTO OF THE DAY
 







Sunday, April 1, 2012

Wildlife Photo: The Common Snipe by RyukyuRusty


This bird is a snipe.

We were just heading home after a day of shooting with the Pentax cameras.

All of a sudden, Rusty started driving backwards.

He spotted this bird and wanted to shoot it but his camera was packed away.

So, I ripped mine off the tripod and handed it to him.

He leaned out the driver's side window and made some shutter speed adjustments.

CLICK

He shot the thing.

Then, he shows me the thing and says he's never seen one of these birds before.

It is a Common Snipe (Gallinago  gallinago) and Rusty shot it in the wild.

This bird is usually a winter visitor to Okinawa, Japan.

Well, I congratulate RyukyuRusty for the fancy shooting.

But, I think somebody needs to tell that bird winter is over !




 
 





Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday Travel Photo: Mt. Fuji in the Morning by RyukyuRusty


It's been fairly busy around here these days.  Heck, I even missed Travel Photo Thursday.

RyukyuRusty took this photo last month, one time, when the sun actually showed up.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then, go make up your own words for this one.

I'm just gonna tell you, it's Mt. Fuji in the morning and get on outta here.

That's because, like I said, it's been fairly busy around here these days.









Saturday, August 20, 2011

Photo of the Week: Screw Pine by RyukyuRusty

Rusty shot  this Screw Pine (Pandanaceae) using a Pentax K7, camera flash, 18-250 zoom lens at a focal length of 18mm.  f/11  1/80  ISO 160. Location: Kin Village Okinawa, Japan







Sunday, December 12, 2010

Unidentified Fruit (Photos) and a Girl with Muscular Arms (Unexplainable)

Normally, I would just delete photos of this low quality to save space for the ones I consider worth keeping. 
This unidentified fruit keeps popping up in my files and I've got to do something about it before it drives me nuts. Maybe, it is a nut. Who knows?

The girl with the muscular arms, she wants to know what this fruit or nut, growing on the island of Okinawa is, too. She's from here and she's never seen anything like it.


The reason we have such low quality photos is the shot was taken through an open car window. The engine was running and I had to tell the driver ( Dude I call Ryukyu Rusty ) to lean back so I could snap the shot without getting his ears or nose in the picture. It was raining, a little, and the place we were at looked like some kinda sacred site so, I wasn't getting out and setting up my tripod and all that fancy stuff I usually do. 

Just in case we had to make a fast getaway, he kept the engine running.

Rusty, he's one of those good old boys from Texas. He has his machine tuned to where it sounds and acts just like one of those GMC pickup trucks with dual exhausts, quadruple carburetors, an over-sized cam and makes a low growl, vibrating and straining against the brakes while it waits to make a quick getaway.

 The only thing is it's a Nissan with half a GMCs cylinders.



Then, I got the idea it'd be lots easier to identify an unidentified fruit, or whatever is, if we had someone to stick a hand in the picture. That would give it a sense of scale.

Well, like I said, I wasn't dragging all my camera stuff out of the car to shoot some fruit in the rain.

Rusty, he was the driver. He had to keep the engine running, just in case we had to make a fast getaway.

His fiance was sitting in the back seat. She got volunteered. That's her hand under the fruit.

It gives the picture some scale. That fruit isn't a pear. We can't figure out what it is.

The arm is hers, too. It doesn't look much different that any other arm I've seen on a young girl anywhere else in my travels. I found out about the muscular arms about a month later.

We were all sitting at the bar one Friday night and I pulled up the photos we took that day. Everyone snapped shots of the fruits with their cell phone cameras to show them around and see if we can get a name for the strange thing.

When the PRETTY GIRLS and UGLY GIRLS and the Unidentified Fruit came up, Rusty kept talking about the muscular arm in the picture.

Well, I'm still trying to figure out why he keeps picking on her about the muscular arms when just the right amount of beer kicked in for all of us to start flexing muscles and groping each other like we were working at the TSA (bicep gropes only) and now I know. This girl has arms as hard as a rock!

She can't explain why. It's not from her mother or father. She doesn't pump iron, work in the fields, practice karate and brick smashing with her bare hands. She doesn't do any exercise harder then operating the TV remote control. It's unexplainable, if even she can't explain it !

Today I spent way too much time Googling unidentified fruits and came up more confused than when I started. I have some deadlines to meet and just don't have time to research this fruit any longer. Maybe someone will see the photos and have the answer. The girl with the muscular arms, I wouldn't mess with her. They're heading back to Texas to meet Rusty's family. I know what his grandpa will say when he meets her. 

It'll be something like, 

"Keep that one; good breedin' stock".

 That's what he'll say when he sees the photo of the unidentified fruit !