Amami Superman Photography

These are the fireworks shots I took of last year's Amami Matsuri. They really didn't turn out that great and I wasn't happy with most of them. It was six months ago I took these and I still remember for the most part what happen.

I decided to chose a different vantage point last year. I went to the top of Ogami Yama. No one else was there when I first arrived so I got the pick of the lot. I set up and waited for it to get dark. Little by little others started to show up. One particular guy set up shop right next to me. When the fireworks started I watched him out of the corner of my eye. It was clear to me that he had never taken photos of fireworks. Then the guy sits down on a bench just behind me and starts to smoke a cigarette. The smoke was floating in front my my camera. I wanted to throttle the guy. But, I calmly turned around and asked him to smoke somewhere else where the smoke wouldn't bother me. He told me sorry and moved away. He then came back and started to ask how to take photos of fireworks. I don't know a whole lot, but I told what I knew. He seemed friendly enough.











Some of the photos are cropped a bit. I did some post editing within Lightroom to make them look a little better, nothing special. Overall, I feel I was just too far away. I've been looking around at different buildings I may be able to shoot from. We'll see this summer.

Do you ever feel like your life isn't in your control? I've been feeling that way for quite some time now. At the beginning of this year, I decided to make some changes. It's not quite a New Year's resolution, as the thought has been in my mind for a while. It just happened I got the gumpf to do something about it then.

I need to take more time to spend with the family during the week and on the weekends. Not so much just being with them, but going out and doing things together. I feel our family activities have slowly dwindled to nonexistence over the past year or so. Sure we get out every once in a while, but not like before.

I also need to get in control of my health. I think I fall in the severely obese category now. It's weird to think that just 8 years ago I used to play basketball 3 times a week and compete in off-road bike races around southern Japan. I used to pride myself with how strong and in shape I was. Now I'm just a fat tub of lard that has a hard time putting on his socks. I think in the past 8 years I put on over 50kg (over 110 lbs). No more.

I'm going to take some time to get back and do something fun and interesting for myself. I haven't taken very many photos over the past 3 or 4 months. Maybe a handful of times. I want to change that too. I'm going to make some time for me.

I decided to stop teaching some of my evening classes I teach during the week. I mean to stop teaching all evening classes eventually. Last month I started to coach my daughter's mini basketball team. I've posted a few posts about that in the past. I decided to do this for a few reasons: 1. Running drills with the kids gives my fat butt a chance to do some exercise. 2. I get to spend a little time teaching my daughter basketball as well as a whole team. Sure coaching basketball takes up some time, but it's something I like and want to do.

Last month I started to watch what I eat, literally. I started counting calories and what I was actually eating in my meals - lots and lots of fat. My wife bought a healthy recipe book and has been making some very delicious meals from that. I've made some nutrition goals for a daily calorie intake. It's not that difficult once you figure out what kinds of foods have loads of fat in them. I read somewhere a quote that goes quite well with how I feel, "I'm not on a diet, I'm eating healthy." There's another quote I saw that I also like, "I'm not losing weight, I'm getting rid of it! And I don't want it back!" So I'm eating healthier and drinking lots of water.

With these changes I also want to get back to taking photos again. This last weekend I grabbed the camera bag, dusted off the tripod and loaded the family into the car to go take some sakura photos. We didn't have that much time as we had basketball practice in the afternoon, but I was able to take a few OK shots.

So I'm going to make more time to take more photos and also make some more time to go through them and post to this blog. I'm sorry for not posting in so many months.