Golden Week here in Japan is a bunch of holidays all lined up at the beginning of May(April 29th through May 6th). The actual first day of these holidays is April 29th. The 30th ,1st, and 2nd are regular days. Then the 3rd through the 6th are holidays. If the 29th falls on a Thursday or a Friday, you can take one personal holiday and have a full week off. It's pretty nice when that happens.
Saturday we left in the morning and headed to the southern part of Amami. We decided to go to a nice spot called Yadori Beach. But before that, we stopped off to eat lunch at an observation point. Here are a few of the photos I shot while we were there.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 20mm, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Manenzaki Observatory Point
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26mm, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- EXIF
The road near the observation point
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Not a clue what this flower is.
So after a quick lunch, we headed out again to Yadori Beach. There were a few surfers and a couple of families out, but we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. I was surprised.
Adan is the palm type of shrub or small tree. A famous painter named Tanaka Isson painted many fantastic pictures of Amami. Some of his paintings had adan and its fruit in them.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 26mm, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- EXIF
"I like long walks on the beach..."
This is my friend Kevin. He wants to learn Japanese and is staying with us for 7 weeks. This is Kevin's second time visiting Amami. He came 2 years earlier and liked it so much, he wanted to come back.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
More Hybiscus
(and some purple flowers)
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
I'm not sure what I was going for in this photo...
I'm not sure what I was going for in this photo...
Very close to Yadori Beach is Honohoshi Beach. Honohoshi is a beach of smooth round rocks. When a wave crashes onto them and crawls back to the sea, it makes a pretty cool noise. Kind of like a bunch of these rocks being dumped out the back of a dump truck.
Off to the left side of this beach is a big rock formation and the earth underneath it has been washed out.
After that, we made our way to the south eastern side of the island and visited some relatives we don't get out to see much. Then we took a short trip to a park close by in the mountains and let Jade play on jungle gym there.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Slide burn on the elbow, OUCH!
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Mommy wants to have fun, too!
(DOH! She saw me take this shot.)
This is only part of the day. We played here for bit before heading to a spot to watch the sunset. I'll post those photos in the next post.
3 comments:
How nice Amami island is! Seeing your pictures, I got to know why Tanaka Isson loved this island. The blue color of the beach is fantastic. I really want to swim and dive there.
What brought really nice photos like these? Amami island? or your skill? or Nikon camera? Maybe all of them.
To chu-totoro,
Thanks, I'm glad you like the photos.
Amami Island is definitely a beautiful place. I try to take my camera wherever I go and photograph anything and everything.
As for my skill, I can say that some of the photos I take now I couldn't have taken 6 months ago when I started photography. More than skill, I would have to say knowledge. With patience and practice comes knowledge. Getting a feel for what lenses to use, whether or not to use filters, it all comes with practice.
I really don't think which brand of camera you use makes a difference. There are plenty of Canon users (more than Nikon users) here in Amami. If you're new to photography and looking for a camera, by one that's in your price range and start there.
As I said before, I recently started photography and I'm still trying to learn the basics. I try to get out as much as possible and use my camera whenever I can. Comments like yours gives me greater motivation. Thanks a bunch for reading.
Earnie
I once had silver salt film SLR, but never used digital SLR. I'm planning to get one. Maybe I'll get Olympus, since it is small and light...and my daughter works at it. Anyway thanks for advice.
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Keep the language clean please. I have family that see this. Tell us what part of the world you're in.