Amami Superman Photography

A Place to Share My Photos

Sep 30, 2009

Torishige

Posted by Amami Superman


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 2 sec, f/10, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Waiting

Last Thursday we decided to go to my friend Eiji's yakitori restaurant, Torishige. For those of you that don't know what yakitori is, it's basically skewered chicken grilled over an open charcoal flame. Eiji uses top choice chicken for his yakitori so you can expect to pay a pretty penny if you go there to eat. This was my first time since he's opened his restaurant. I've always wanted to go, but I also knew how expensive it would be so the half of me that wants so save money won out over the side of me that wants to eat something yummy... until now.

The above photo is of Jade waiting for us to get ready and leave. It was kind of a nice night. It was just a bit cloudy but clear enough to catch patches of open sky and see a sliver of a moon.



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/20 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Meatballs
(made of chicken of course)



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/30 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Different Parts

They use all the different types of meat found on a chicken, including things like the gizzard. You would probably think, "There's no way I would eat chicken gizzard!", but unless you knew what you were eating, you wouldn't think it's that bad.



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/15 sec, f/2.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Onigiri and Umeboshi
(rice balls and pickled plumb)

Jade likes her umeboshi as does my wife.



Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/30 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Eiji

Sep 29, 2009

Sea Turtles

Posted by Amami Superman


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Baby Sea Turtles

Last month during Jade's summer vacation, we took her to see a large indoor aquarium. They recently had a bunch of baby sea turtles hatch and we thought it would be fun for her to go see them.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.0, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Cabbage

They provided cabbage for the kids to feed the turtles. They made it clear that you don't give it to the turtles directly from hand to mouth. If the turtles bit you, they would take chunk of flesh when they did. Although they warned the group, I still saw some people feeding them that way.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 20mm, 1/30 sec, f/4.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Hungry Hungry Turtle

If you've every played the game Hungry Hungry Hippo, this is pretty much what it looked like. The turtles' heads would shoot out and gobble up the cabbage. They were pretty cute.

The turtles in the blue bin are only weeks old. I would have expected them to be a bit bigger when they hatched, but they were pretty small.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
It Tickles!



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 105mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Sea Urchin Crawl

When you held the sea urchin in the water, it would crawl across your had. It was funny a sensation.



Nikon D60, Nikkon 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Putting It Back



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 85mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Say "CHEESE!"



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Soccer Ball Head



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Itty Bitty Baby Sea Turtle

They didn't have these baby turtles out so the public could view them. This turtle was only days old and they had them in a separate building in the back where they kept the new fish they caught to use in the aquarium. A friend of mine works at the aquarium and he let us go to the back building to see the new fish and turtles.

Jade really enjoyed herself. She keeps asking to go back. I suppose we will sometime in the near future.

Sep 28, 2009

Kakeroma Island

Posted by Amami Superman

Kakeroma Island is the island just south of Amami Oshima. It's only a 10-15 minute boat ride from the town of Koniya. Earlier this month, work had my wife and me down in Kakeroma for a few hours. I wanted to spend more time there but it was a regular weekday and we needed to be back before our daughter, Jade, got home from school. So as we drove around Kakeroma trying to get our business done as fast as we could, I stopped here and there to take a few photos. I know there are plenty of places to take photos, but we just didn't have the time nor the opportunity to get to those places. Still, I was able to take a few shots so I thought I would share them with you.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Nikon

On the ferry, they had a binocular type device that cost 100 yen to use. I took this photo because I thought it was cool that this device was made by Nikon.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Koniya



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Gajumaru



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Road Mirror Perspective



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Broken Pier Beach



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Secluded Beach



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/500 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Look Out Point Swing

I kind of laughed when I saw this swing. If you were right up next to this swing, you would see that it is right close to the edge. If you were swinging on this, you would be swinging out over the almost cliff like mountain side. Pretty scary. I couldn't imagine putting Jade on that and pushing her... scary.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 140 -- EXIF
Another Look Out Point



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/40 sec, f/3.8, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Sun Poking Through

Well, those were the few photos I was able to take while we spent out short time on Kakeroma this month. I'd like to go camping there and spend some time driving around to find better places to take photos.

Sep 25, 2009

Kaiten-zushi

Posted by Amami Superman


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Ikura
(salmon eggs)

I know that in recent years, sushi bars and restaurant have become more and more popular in the Unite States. I haven't been back for some time and I really don't know how popular they are. Here in Japan, they have a type of sushi restaurant called, "kaiten-zushi".

To me, kaiten-zushi is real Japanese fast-food. A basic translation is, "revolving sushi". They put the sushi on small saucer size plates and the plates are put onto a revolving conveyor belt. The conveyor belt moves the sushi around the room and customers choose what they want to eat and take it straight off the conveyor belt. If there's a particular kind of sushi you want, that you can't find on the conveyor belt, you can make an order and they will bring it to you.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Natto Maki

Last month we went out for sushi and I decided to take a few shots of the different kinds of sushi they had. The first photo of this post is my daughter's favorite, salmon eggs. They take a regular piece of sushi rice and wrap with a seaweed and top it with salmon eggs. It's like coo coo for cocoa puffs with my daughter.

The above photo is a sushi roll filled with natto. For most foreigners, natto is a ghastly food. Basically, natto is fermented soy beens. Most Japanese people like it, but some do not. It's one of those foods that you like or don't. I myself try to stay away from it at any cost.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Ebi
(shrimp)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Anago
(eel)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Kids' Plate
(sausage, egg and a yogurt drink)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Maguro
(tuna)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Kampachi
(yellowtail)

Again, my main focus with these photos was to practice depth of field. I feel I'm getting a better grasp with how to do it. What I like most about these photos is not just the depth of field, but where the focus point is. The objects in the front are out of focus as are the objects behind my subject. I don't think I've taken very many photos like this before.

Sep 24, 2009

Missing In Action

Posted by Amami Superman

First of all, I would like to apologize for not posting in a few weeks. I'd like to say I was taking a break, but the truth of the matter is I was overwhelmed by work. It wasn't until this last weekend that I was able to actually get a day off. Work had me out and about most of the time, but I found it hard to take time to take any photos. I did get a few opportunities to take some photos, but all in all I didn't take very many this past month.

Last month on the last week of Jade's summer vacation, we decided to go have a barbecue at the river. It was refreshing swimming in the river. A lot cooler than the beach. The barbecue and swimming soon turned into crawdad hunting. In the past we used to catch crawdads to eat; now we catch them to put into our big fish tank.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 27mm, 1/100 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Testing The Water

When we first arrived to this spot, I was surprised to see 5 or 6 aluminum cans in the river. I'm no tree hugging Greenpeace environmentalist, but that's one thing that I really can't stand is people throwing their trash away like that. I borrowed my daughter's goggles and fished out all the cans and a few plastic bottles. The water was very cold and refreshing. After that I put together our small barbecue grill and started up the charcoal.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 34mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Think There's Crawdads Here?

We were barely finished with lunch and they were back in the river starting to look for crawdads. We actually caught quite few.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200 -- EXIF
Like Aliens

That night after we got home I thought it would be cool to take some photos of the crawdads in our fish tank that we caught that day.



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200 -- EXIF



Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200 -- EXIF
Can You See The Other One?

I have to admit that it was pretty warm this summer. It's just now starting to cool down. It's still hot and humid, but not quite like mid summer. It didn't rain that much this last rainy season and we didn't have that many typhoons come through. Some people are worried we may have a water shortage next year. That's El Niño for you.