tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7567625540762155862024-03-14T19:12:57.567+09:00Amami Superman PhotographyA Place to Share My PhotosAmami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-19332970503849970612012-02-29T14:52:00.002+09:002012-02-29T15:22:04.663+09:002011 Amami Matsuri Fireworks<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p712617135.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p641474629.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 6 seconds, f/9, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp712617135.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp712617135.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Almost Ready to Begin</span><br /></div><br />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.<br /><br />I decided to chose a different vantage point last year. I went to the top of <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2010/01/amami-at-dusk.html">Ogami Yama</a>. 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.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v37/p735372233.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p644966891.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 15 seconds, f/8, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv37%2Fp735372233.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv37%2Fp735372233.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p593176325.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v35/p797571637.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 5.2 seconds, f/8, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp593176325.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp593176325.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v37/p911630167.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p714603780.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 11 seconds, f/9, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv37%2Fp911630167.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv37%2Fp911630167.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p783577298.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v36/p861532811.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 6.5 seconds, f/8, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp783577298.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv36%2Fp783577298.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v35/p1009913417.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v37/p929319333.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 3.9 seconds, f/8, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv35%2Fp1009913417.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs11%2Fv35%2Fp1009913417.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br />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.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-39712035907711932722012-02-13T14:40:00.002+09:002012-02-13T16:06:12.860+09:00Taking Control AgainDo 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v38/p774908468.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v42/p108666644.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 24mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.2, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv38%2Fp774908468.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv38%2Fp774908468.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v38/p545646275.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v27/p341960102.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 48mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv38%2Fp545646275.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv38%2Fp545646275.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v43/p591163463.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v35/p416690813.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 22mm, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv43%2Fp591163463.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv43%2Fp591163463.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Am I Making a Funny Face?</span><br /></div><br />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.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-21362750020820486802011-08-07T20:32:00.004+09:002011-08-07T21:33:57.464+09:00Metaroka Summerfest 2011<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v31/p209766059.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v31/p439187081.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv31%2Fp209766059.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv31%2Fp209766059.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Metaroka</span></span><br /></div><br />Metaroka is a tribute band to Metallica. I suppose you say the pronunciation is <span style="font-style: italic;">meta-rocker</span>, but it sounds close to Metallica in Japanese, sorta...<br /><br />Every year they hold Summerfest at Ohama Beach here in Amami. My friend Daiju (Mr. D), plays guitar for Metaroka. Daiju owns a cafe called <a href="http://cafeclobar0620.blog66.fc2.com/">Clo-bar</a>. His cafe is a nice little place with some pretty tasty dishes. Anyway, I came out to cheer on some of out local bands here in Amami.<br /><br />Summerfest lasts for 2 days and usually has over 50 bands that come out to play. It's pretty fun to come and watch if you're up to sitting out in the sun most of the afternoon, which is pretty hot and tiresome. Metaroka started their stage just a little after 4:00pm so there was some shade from the palms to hide under.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p98753939.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v31/p73523656.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp98753939.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp98753939.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mr. D</span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >(Daiju)</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v34/p49251541.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v27/p530548391.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv34%2Fp49251541.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv34%2Fp49251541.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Naru</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >(bass)</span><br /></div><br />Daiju and Naru are in another band called <a href="http://gascoin.blog72.fc2.com/">Gas Coin</a>. Gas Coin is a punk rock band and are pretty popular here in Amami. I've been to a few of their stages and I get a laugh from their main vocal.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v33/p238572044.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v28/p534490882.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv33%2Fp238572044.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv33%2Fp238572044.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Taro</span><br /></div><br />Taro is a very talented guitarist. I took some photos of him a few years ago playing acoustic guitar at an <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2009/06/susumucho-continued.html">anniversary party at Susumocho</a>.<br /><br />They played 2 or 3 songs from Metallica. I forget which ones they played but one I do remember one was Enter the Sandman, very awesome. I got chills.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p311927110.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v33/p210800212.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/500 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp311927110.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp311927110.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"Enter night!"</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v34/p519621999.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p97811069.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv34%2Fp519621999.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv34%2Fp519621999.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Posing for the Applause</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v28/p10187108.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v30/p201367768.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/80 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv28%2Fp10187108.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv28%2Fp10187108.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Daigo</span><br /></div><br />Daigo is another good friend of mine. He runs the <a href="http://awol.exblog.jp/">surf shop</a> with my wife's older brother. I took photos of <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2009/07/yuinou.html">his yoinou</a> a few years back. Daigo is also a very talented musician. He can play drums as well as guitar and a few other instruments.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v28/p63986957.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p526904748.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv28%2Fp63986957.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv28%2Fp63986957.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Mr. D Solo</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v27/p530303282.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v27/p173085195.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv27%2Fp530303282.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv27%2Fp530303282.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p10514321.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v27/p129145400.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 20mm, 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp10514321.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp10514321.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Power Stance Perfection</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v29/p484039606.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v31/p524042391.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp484039606.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv29%2Fp484039606.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Style</span><br /></div><br />Only Daiju can pull off being a hardcore rocker and wear flip-flops.<br /><br />So those are a few photos I took from Summerfest this year. It was hot and I was pretty tired from work so I didn't stay to see everyone. We let our daughter swim for a while and then headed for home.<br /><br />Work has been pretty busy for me. We were supposed to have Amami Festival happen this weekend but we had a typhoon come near us and they rescheduled it for later this month. They did have the hachigatsu odori yesterday and the parade today, but it was rainy and I didn't chance taking my camera out. We still have a few festivals scheduled around the island so hopefully it will be good weather and I'll be able to get some photos of those.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-2932397906979842292011-07-08T07:00:00.001+09:002011-07-08T07:00:08.521+09:00A Little Flashy<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p777533450.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p768206139.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp777533450.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp777533450.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Glamour Shots by Deb are 75% Off</span><br /></div><br />So after our daughter got her hair cut and we went to pick her up, we were walking home and I decided to take some photos of her on the way. The previous post's photos are some of those photos. This is another that wasn't that great on its own but with a few post editing graduated ND filters and a nice crop, I thought it turned out OK. Oh, and I used my flash, hence the title of this blog post.<br /><br />I dialed down my on-board camera's flash compensation to -3.0 and shot. I don't like harsh contrasting shadows from flashes so I don't use my on-board flash that often. Eventually I would like to buy a flash and start experimenting with it. Learning how to diffuse the light from a flash is something I'd like to learn and it's high up on my list of things I'd like to study. I just have to buy a flash. But before I buy a flash, I would like to buy a new camera body. I've been saying this for over a year now, but I really do think I need to buy a new one. It's just not high up on my<span style="font-style: italic;"> Things I Want to Spend My Money</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">on</span> list, but eventually I will. I still got my eye on a Nikon D300s.<br /><br />Oh, and the title for the photo, "Glamour Shots by Deb are 75% Off", is from the movie Napoleon Dynamite if you were wondering what that was all about.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-47286126121500474032011-07-07T08:30:00.003+09:002011-07-07T09:09:23.429+09:00Took Her to the Chop Shop<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p191590270.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p329646624.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/1.8, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp191590270.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp191590270.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >That's Short!</span><br /></div><br />My wife and daughter decided between themselves that yesterday would be a good day to go get our daughter's hair cut. I like long hair for the most part and liked the way Jade looks in a pony tail, especially when she's playing basketball. But, it's the summer time and I guess long hair makes things quite hot. So they decided to get it chopped off short. Her hair used to fall down to around her waist. Now she can't even tie it back if she wanted to.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p48352736.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p533899852.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv21%2Fp48352736.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv21%2Fp48352736.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Not Bad</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >I guess...</span><br /></div><br />When I went to pick Jade up from the beauty salon, this little boy come running up to me ready to throw his arms around me. "Who's this little boy?!" I shouted. Jade stopped in her tracks and almost started to cry. I quickly pulled her in and gave her big hug and told her how beautiful she looked.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p154142775.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p472874359.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp154142775.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp154142775.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >She Looks Older</span><br /></div><br />I have to admit that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I actually like it, although, it makes her look a bit older. I wish I could stop time. I don't want her to grow up so fast and she's just racing through the years it seems. She's 10 already! Holy cow. It just seems like yesterday I was gagging and dry heaving trying to changer her diapers.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-54546116505546668382011-06-27T18:34:00.002+09:002011-06-27T20:57:47.254+09:00More Roadside Flowers<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p410976446.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p217996842.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp410976446.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp410976446.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Nice Light Purpl</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >e</span><br /></div><br />Holy jeeze! As I started to make this post, I was wondering if I hadn't taken photos of these kinds of flowers before and went back to check older posts. As I got into searching, I went back and started looking at all my older posts as I sometimes do. I realized that I've been taking photos for over 2 1/2 years now. That's not the <span style="font-style: italic;">holy jeeze</span> part I'm talking about. The <span style="font-style: italic;">holy jeeze</span> part is I've really fallen off my game in the last 8 months. I'll admit that work has been busy and I haven't made posts as much as I would like to, but I looked at some of the photos I haven't posted and they really aren't that great. And the photos I have posted don't really compare to the photos I took a year ago. I feel I don't have a strong talent for taking photos, but for what I do have, how does the saying go? "Use it or lose it" I need to get out there more! So I guess you could say that I'm a bit ashamed of myself personally as I know I can take better photos.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p206743786.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p57308078.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp206743786.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp206743786.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Out Stretched</span><br /></div><br />Anyway! I'll stop the rant there. Although I haven't been taking photos as much as I used to, I still learn a bunch from the photos I do take, like fluorescent light and sports shots. But, with summer setting in, I know I'll have plenty of opportunities to get out there and start honing my skills again.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v23/p69229580.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p125886112.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp69229580.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp69229580.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >I Like This On</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >e</span><br /></div><br />It was a cloudy day and the sun breaks were frequent. I upped my ISO after it got cloudier and was able to take this photo. The colors seem pretty close to what I saw and that's what I like about it. I think it turned out pretty nice.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p281988504.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p510814622.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- </span><a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp281988504.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp281988504.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Reaching Out</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p531946102.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p449127069.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp531946102.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp531946102.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >A Buzz in the Air</span><br /></div><br />As I was taking these photos, I could hear the buzz of a bee flying around me. I found it and decided to take some photos of it as it lit from one flower to the next and try to catch it in flight. At first, I couldn't get any decent photos. I would auto-focus on it, but as it flew away, it would be out of focus when I snapped the shot. So I switched to manual focus and tried my luck. I took around 15 photos like this one, but this was the closest I came to a nice shot. This photo was cropped almost to a 1:1 ratio.<br /><br />So there are some pretty pink flowers. I don't have a clue what they are and I'm hoping that a botanist viewer, <a href="http://www.barnes-botany.co.uk/">Peter from Whales</a>, will be kind enough to enlighten me if he knows what they are. Cheers<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-73775909182741344812011-06-23T18:32:00.004+09:002011-06-23T19:11:18.465+09:00Hydrangea!<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v26/p836537074.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p1071574034.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 34mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp836537074.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp836537074.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Astonishingly Vibrant</span><br /></div><br />Believe it or not, I didn't do anything to change the vibrancy nor saturation in the above photo. I was surprised when I first saw it. Usually the photos I shoot don't look as colorful and vibrant as I see when I shoot. I did, however, up the contrast a bit and lowered the clarity to max for this photo.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p767955683.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p1018442057.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5,6 @ 55mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv21%2Fp767955683.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv21%2Fp767955683.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Can I Have My Photo Taken Too?</span><br /></div><br />For this photo I upped the exposure a bunch, not sure how much, +1.65 in Lightroom. I added some recovery and blacks, gave it some clarity and also upped the vibrancy a bit and lowered the saturation a tad.<br /><br />These two photos look pretty different and I notice that when they are on the same page, the second photo makes the first one look weird. But when I'm looking at them separately, the first one looks really nice to me. Especially when I leave my computer for a while and come back and it's the first photo I see. I like it. But something about the second photo makes it look weird when they're on the same page.<br /><br />I posted some photos of hydrangea a few posts early and I didn't know what they were. Peter from Whales was kind enough to leave a comment and tell me what they were. So, thanks Peter. :)<br /><br />And at least this time I remembered to give this post a title...<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-56564159151225537372011-06-22T22:09:00.007+09:002011-06-23T18:31:02.648+09:00Oops!<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p369122809.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Panoramic View of Somewhere in Uken</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp163624420.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp163624420.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><br /><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p163624420.jpg">Click here</a> for enlarged photo.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">**WARNING**</span><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This enlarged photo is larger than my regular enlarged photos. It may take some time to appear depending on your internet connection.</span></b><br /></div><br />I went out to teach in Uken at a nursery school today. My wife likes kids just as much as I do and she tagged along with me. On the way home we stopped at several different spots to pick flowers and take photos. This isn't the first stop, but I thought I would start off with these photos to give you an idea of the kind of day it was.<br /><br />As you can see in the above panoramic photo that it was a pretty cloudy day but it did have its breaks and the sun shown through bright during our many stops.<br /><br />The above photo was created in Photoshop using the <span style="font-style: italic;">Merge to Panorama</span> option from 3 photos. This is about the angle of view you would have, with a little more vertical width, looking from the side of the road where I was shooting from. It was a very contrasting shot. The sun was shining down on us, but wasn't shining anywhere else besides the foreground. I did a bit of post editing to this panorama because it didn't have the same contrasty feel that I saw when I was shooting it. I feel this is pretty close to what I saw.<br /><br />Also, the name of the photo is "Somewhere", because I forgot to recharge the batteries for my hand-held GPS and couldn't get the exact coordinates. I tried to look it up on Google Earth, but just couldn't find the spot. I try to geo-encode my photos for the ones that are points-of-interest if you're ever inclined to come to my island. :)<br /><br />Photoshop did a great job merging these photos. After merging these photos, I upped the Recovery along with the Fill Light a bit and maxed out the Clarity in Lightroom. I also upped the Vibrancy a bit and lowered the Saturation a smigde. After doing this, I felt the clouds didn't have the clarity I saw so I used the Graduated Filter tool and upped the Clarity of the clouds a bit more. This is what I turned out with and I thought it was pretty close to what I saw.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v26/p58336531.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p162036226.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/200 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp58336531.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp58336531.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >She Just Wants to Pick Flowers</span><br /></div><br />As I was all enthralled at the view at hand, my wife was more interested in the flowers at the side of the road.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v23/p356968703.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p176896882.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp356968703.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp356968703.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >OK, Let's See Your Flowers...</span><br /></div><br />I don't know what these flowers are called, but as it turns out, I hear they are poisonous. She didn't know this at the time, but when we got home, my wife's mother told her that they were and that people try to get rid of these flowers as much as possible. I don't think they are poisonous to the touch, as my wife didn't have any reaction to picking them. I imagine, if they are poisonous, that they need to be digested to have any affect.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p447184677.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p66051459.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp447184677.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp447184677.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Untouched</span><br /></div><br />This photo is straight out of the camera and I haven't done any post editing to it. It's not a good photo but I thought I would throw it in to give you an idea of what I was shooting. This tree's blossoms were kind of high up and my 18-55mm lens just didn't get close enough so I used my 55-200mm lens to get these next shots.<br /><br />I don't know what kind of tree this is, but it's in full bloom right now. If you look at the panoramic photo I took, you can see some of these blossoms in the lower left hand corner. I mentioned this before in previous posts, but until I started taking photos, I never noticed the different flowers and blossoms that bloomed around the island during different times of the year until I started to take photos. It seems that where ever I go, I'm always noticing new things that I never would have if I had never taken up photography.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);" href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p144979631.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p178549004.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 102mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.8, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp144979631.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp144979631.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Hard Contrast, Soft Glow</span><br /></div><br />As the name of the photo says, I maxed the Contrast to give it this contrasty feel and tabbed down the Clarity to give it a softer feel. It's not a great photo, but I feel it turned out nice. Whether or not you like this kind of photo, I have been more inclined to make photos with more contrast, and it appeals to me. This next photo was posted edited with similar settings.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v23/p509831284.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p353537746.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp509831284.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp509831284.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br />So those are some of the photos I took on my way home from teaching today. I have a bunch of more photos to share and I'll make posts for those soon.<br /><br />It's now 11:30pm as I write this and it's a bit late for me. I have to wake up early for work and this usually is the problem I face. I take photos quite regularly, but I just can't find the time to go though them, pick out the photos I like, and make a blog post for them. It's kind of time consuming and I just can't seem to find the time to do it. It's something that I love to do, but the demands on life are a bit difficult. On the other hand, how does that that saying go...<br /><br />All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.<br /><br />Post Edit: LOL, I was so tired last night, that I forgot to give this post a title before posing it. That's why the title is "Oops!"<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-15035957100158467382011-06-21T12:37:00.008+09:002011-06-21T22:13:09.972+09:00So That's Why I Suck?<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p329223081.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p58933632.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp329223081.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp329223081.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Jade's First Basketball Game of the School Year</span><br /></div><br />Our daughter, Jade, started basketball last year and has been having a blast. I've going to see most of all her games and I've taken plenty of photos, but I've only posted a handful. The reason for this is, they all sucked. I don't get too angry with myself if I take a bad photo that's not framed well, lacks contrast or is just plain bland photo. I do get angry with myself, however, when I screw up the camera settings when I know better. Every single time I've gone to take photos of Jade playing basketball, the exposure always turned out inconsistent. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I'd use manual exposure settings and even turn of auto white balance, take several photos from one spot only to have them all come out like I took each photo with different settings. I was pretty discouraged after looking at these photos I took from 2 Sundays ago.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p206615246.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p306086819.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp206615246.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp206615246.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Half Time</span><br /></div><br />Well, I won't go into details, but they got their butts kicked. They have 2 teams at Jade's school, an A team and a B team. The A team is for the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">th</span> and 6<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">th</span> graders and the B team is for the younger classes, kind of like varsity and junior varsity. Although Jade is only in 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">th</span> grade, she is on the A team. This is because they don't have enough players in the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">th</span> and 6<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> grades this year. So this year the A team has a lot of inexperienced players as well as a lack of height.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p270546483.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p102116303.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv0%2Fp270546483.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv0%2Fp270546483.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Second Half Pointers</span><br /></div><br />In these next photos, most of them were taken from the same spot facing the same direction all with the same exact exposure settings. I couldn't figure out why they all seemed to have different lighting. The lights weren't being turned on and off, or were they?<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p144852216.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p288180067.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv0%2Fp144852216.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv0%2Fp144852216.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Rebound</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p281460230.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p478131317.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp281460230.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp281460230.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Going for the Shot!</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p219754455.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p130577764.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp219754455.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp219754455.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >And Fouled!</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p80149610.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p481251323.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp80149610.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv22%2Fp80149610.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Shooting Two</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p381122734.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p374079255.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp381122734.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp381122734.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >1 for 2 at the Line</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p297274440.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p198615122.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp297274440.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp297274440.jpg"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">EXIF</span></a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >And a Field Goal for 2!</span><br /></div><br />Jade made several shots in this game. I believe she made 50% of the points made for her team. Not that she's a ball hog or anything, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">lol</span>, she was just in the right spot.<br /><br />As you can see, the lighting is very inconsistent despite using the same exposure settings for each photo. Some of these photos were even taken using continuous shooting and are less than a second apart. Looking at these photos I noticed this and wondered how one part of the floor is lighter than another when the photos were taken within a second of each other. It then dawned on me that the lights were fluorescent and probably had something to do with cycles.<br /><br />I then went and searched the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">interwebz</span> for <span style="font-style: italic;">shooting photos in gyms</span> and found a few articles about this. I found that fluorescent lights change color and even flicker when shooting at faster speeds like the photos I took causing these kinds of inconsistencies. So when I read that, I was all, "OH! So that's why I suck!"<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-46100865480934385842011-06-16T16:46:00.002+09:002011-06-16T18:08:36.971+09:00Only a Mother Could Love...<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v23/p389573148.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p369601127.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp389573148.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv23%2Fp389573148.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Zoomed In</span><br /></div><br />Where to start? Last week our daughter, Jade, was selected to do a type of home-stay program with another school on the island. For one week she got to stay at a student's house and attender their school and classes. It just so happen that one of my wife's schoolmates lived right next to the school our daughter attended. My wife's friend also lived right next door to her uncle.<br /><br />When my wife went to drop off our daughter at the school, she decided to go visit her friend. As she was walking to her house and passed in front of her friend's uncle's house she noticed a rope hanging down in front of the car port. It made her think, "Why would they have a rope hanging there?" Then she looked down at the end of the rope and saw it resting in muddy area on the ground. My wife gasped as she realized that the rope was tied to an animal laying in the mud. She walked closer and she found that the animal was a small dog. It's hair was matted with mud and who-knows-what so that it looked exactly like the mud it was laying in. It was one pitiful looking animal and her heart went out to it. How could anyone let this little dog reach such a sorry state.<br /><br />My wife came home and told me the whole story about this little dog and she said she wanted to "save" it. I told her that we already had a dog, but it turned out that she already talked to her friend who in turn was talking to her uncle about the matter. It turned out that they actually kept the dog in the house for the first year or so, but then became tired of the dog and just tied it up outside.<br /><br />We didn't know what kind of dog it was at first and found out that it was a Shih Tzu. I don't know much about dogs so I didn't know what a Shih Tzu looked like, but I've heard of the name before. We went to pick up our daughter on Friday and I decided to have a look at this dog. It turned out to be just as my wife had told me and how I explained it before. I couldn't believe my eyes.<br /><br />We went home and the next day I talked it over with my wife and decided to go pick up the dog on Sunday after our daughter's basketball game. I brought a cage with me as I knew how dirty it was and didn't want it sitting on our car seats.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p17398063.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p528164129.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp17398063.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp17398063.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Holding My Breath</span><br /></div><br />When I got to their house, I found that they tried to give the dog a bath and clean it up a bit. They also tried to give it a haircut and cut away the matted clumps of hair, but couldn't get the scissors to cut them out because the clumps were so thick.<br /><br />As I walked up close to the dog, I was about 5 or 6 feet away, this dog's smell filled my nostrils and I instantly wanted to vomit. I have a pretty sensitive nose and strong odors don't sit well with me, but I'll tell you this and I'm not exaggerating, it smelled like crap! Even after they gave it a bath. If it's one thing that I just can't stand, it's the smell of crap. I couldn't even change my daughter's diapers when she was a baby.<br /><br />At first I thought it was just me and my sensitive nose, but my wife's friend came over with some rubber gloves for me to borrow and told me how she thought the dog smelled like crap too despite having a bath. She also told me that they never walked the dog and it basically crapped right were it slept. The matted clumps of hair weren't only caked with mud, but crap as well. This is what made the clumps so hard to cut out because they were so hard. I used the rubber gloves and got the dog into the basket, gagging the whole time. As I moved away from the cage to get some fresh air, I thought to myself, "How am I going to drive home with this in my car?" Have you ever seen the movie <span style="font-style: italic;">Ace Ventura</span>? There's that part in the movie when he's driving his car with a busted windshield and he's got his head stuck out the door window to see, that was me as I drove home.<br /><br />I got the dog home and now came the nasty of all nasty. I had to clean the dog. There was no way to clean the dog's hair and I decided it best to just shave off all the dog's hair to the skin. It's been a while since I've had to do something so gross. I got out the clippers with an extension cord and a folding table and chair and commenced to <span style="font-style: italic;">try</span> and shave the dog. It was so nauseating and I gagged with each breath. I started at the tail and soon realized that I had to cut most of the matted hair out in order to shave it. The tail and legs were completely encased in mud and crap clumps of matted hair. Jeeze, I'm gagging just trying to write this! Scissors were useless and I got an idea. I went to my toolbox and got out my wire cutters, or nippers if you will, and started nipping away the clumps. It worked like a charm.<br /><br />It took me 3 hours of gagging but I finally got the job done and it was time to give the dog a bath. This is what came out of that.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p418547099.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v17/p13897598.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp418547099.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp418547099.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >All Clean!</span><br /></div><br />I was glad to finally be finished cleaning this dog up. That night, although the dog didn't stink anymore, I still could smell that stench in my nose like my nostrils were saturated with it.<br /><br />We spent the next couple of days trying to think up a name for the dog. We decided we didn't want to know what the dog's name actually was because to us, we were giving the dog a new life so it deserved a new name. This dog is always happy to see me and one morning when I woke up and was rolling out of bed, it was sitting there waiting for me to get up. As I sat on the side of the bed it started to lick my leg. It was then I decided on a name. "We will call you, Smoochie."<br /><br />So Smoochie is the newest member in our family. She seems like a good dog. She's very friendly and seems to get along well with <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2010/01/missy-in-weeds.html">our other dog Missy</a>. Obviously Shih Tzu are supposed to have longer hair, but I thought she is still pretty cute none-the-less. I was expecting something much uglier. lol<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-42099768129017943332011-06-02T07:00:00.000+09:002011-06-02T07:00:02.212+09:00Happy Birthday Jade<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p1045056252.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p873823541.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp1045056252.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp1045056252.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >A Birthday Cheese Cake</span><br /></div><br />My wife's cousin is a talented baker and makes a delicious cheese cake. Jade decided she wanted a cheese cake for a birthday cake this year. It was pretty good.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p856421406.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p797493357.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp856421406.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp856421406.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Blowin' Out the Candles</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p876137318.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p859793748.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp876137318.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp876137318.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >iPod Shuffle</span><br /></div><br />She has been asking for months now for a portable music player. Since I'm a Mac user, I decided to go with the iPod Shuffle. I was surprised to find that it was under five thousand yen. I have a clunky first generation iPod doorstop that cost tens of thousands back in the day. I also have a third generation iPod that's not much better. Look how tiny this thing is! It's just a bit larger than my thumb. One of the major turn-offs of the earlier iPods was their weight. Unless you had it in a case velcroed to your body somewhere, you really couldn't take them for a run or even shoot hoops without it pulling down your trunks or sweat pants. Anyway, now I see how small and light weight they become, maybe I'll get one for myself one of these days. A Nano seems pretty nice also.<br /><br />So she was pretty excited to get an iPod shuffle for her birthday, but that excitement was almost lost as she opened her next present from my wife's older brother. It was a Justin Beaver autobiography. I guess Justin Beaner is every girl's dream.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p884551648.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v22/p839638082.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/40 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp884551648.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv25%2Fp884551648.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Justin Beeper Autobiography</span><br /></div><br />It all started when she got a Justin Butthead CD for Christmas. She instantly fell in love with him. And then I made the fatal mistake of bringing her to a movie of Crustin Bieber, Never Say Never in 3D, when we went to America back in March. Imagine Justin Beaker's hair in 3D... I shuddered through the whole movie. I guess it wasn't that bad. The story was actually kind of intriguing considering he started out by just posting some videos of himself on YouTube. So with that, Justin Booger, I salute you...<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p632192797.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p857150358.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp632192797.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp632192797.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Personalized</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p987041928.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p570802538.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp987041928.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp987041928.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Birthday Card From Mommy and Daddy</span><br /></div><br />We wrote a nice birthday card for Jade too, but as you can see, it was left on the floor as she hungrily devoured each page of her new book.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p671948148.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v21/p635565072.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 32mm, 1/15 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600 -- </span><a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp671948148.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp671948148.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Just Won't Leave Me Alone</span><br /></div><br />Here is another photo of our cat, Sneeze. Now, I like Sneeze just fine and all, but Sneeze and I don't get along that well. She stays out of my way for the most part. But that night, she just wouldn't leave me alone. Everywhere I went she would follow me around and stop right in front of my camera. Either I smelled like fish, or she's starting to lose it and can't remember who I am and that we're mortal enemies, maybe both. But, her she is sitting on the armrest of the chair I'm sitting on.<br /><br />So I finally got around to backing up my photos. I let them pile up too much this time. Before when I would back up my photos, I would just go through and divide the different files up by hand and burn them to DVD. This time I had way too many to do by hand. So instead, I bought Titanium Toast 11 and let it do it for me. I tell you, it worked like magic. Made my life much easier. The only downside I found is, you can't use low quality DVDs or sometimes they won't burn correctly and you'll get failed burns. I had some low quality DVDs so some of the burns failed, but I was still able to get everything backed up.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-4976856106042748372011-06-01T07:00:00.000+09:002011-06-01T07:00:05.376+09:00Had to Stop<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p758424675.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v26/p676199582.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/1000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 -- </span><a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp758424675.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp758424675.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Roadside Beauty</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p962140958.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p831839298.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 40mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.3, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp962140958.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv19%2Fp962140958.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Relaxing in the Shade</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v24/p595826632.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v19/p618989001.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp595826632.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv24%2Fp595826632.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Bit of a Different Angle</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v26/p770756119.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p1051454857.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/50 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 --</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp770756119.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv26%2Fp770756119.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"Oh what a pretty flowOHMYGOSHSPIDER!!!!!"</span><br /></div><br />As I was shooting the previous two photos, I had crawled just a bit into the bushes to get them. I failed to see this on the way in, but fortunately saw it on the way out, just barely.<br /><br />In my previous post I mention that I finally got my camera working again. We had a typhoon come through last weekend but we've had fabulous weather after that. Since I got my camera out and functional again, I decided to take it to work with me and see if I couldn't find something to shoot. On the way home I came across some flowers on the side of the road and decided to stop. I'm terrible with names of flowers so I couldn't tell you what these are. Anyway, I'm happy to have my camera back functioning again, which reminds me, I need to buy a new PL filter since I lost my old one last year.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-90312491390569516392011-05-31T07:50:00.002+09:002011-05-31T08:08:21.965+09:00The Sneeze<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v20/p594655327.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/v25/p1001287885.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 -</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">-</span> <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp594655327.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fv20%2Fp594655327.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Just Not Excited</span><br /></div><br />This is our cat, "Sneeze". We named her sneeze because when we first found her as a newborn kitten, she had a cold, or something, because she kept sneezing all the time. Sneeze is an old kitty cat now. I'd say she's around 13 years old. She's a good cat, but she just couldn't give a care in the world about anything besides her supper.<br /><br />So yesterday was our daughter's birthday. Jade turned 10 years old and she said it was her best birthday ever. This is a photo I took while we were opening presents with the family.<br /><br />I finally got around to buying new batteries for my camera along with a new charger. The charger arrived before the batteries did and I decided to see if my old charger was broken by trying to charge my old batteries which I thought were dead. Turns out, it was my charger. In fact, all the batteries I ever bought for my camera that I thought had died, I saved and recharged them all with my new charger. I now have 6 batteries for my camera, great.<br /><br />So this is just a quick post before I go to work. I finally backed up all my photos from about a year ago (way too many). After exporting my catalogs, I burned 13 DVDs worth of photos with my recently purchased<a href="http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/"> Titanium Toast 11</a>. I'll write more about that later though.<br /><br />OK, off to work!<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-7301563781638479442011-04-29T13:52:00.002+09:002011-04-29T14:19:24.344+09:00Nooooo!It's the beginning of Golden Week here in Japan. Golden week is a bunch of holidays clumped up at the end of April and the beginning of May. I decided to clean my camera gear up and get ready for this. Taking my camera out of my bag, I went to turn it on and, nothing. For just a few seconds, I went into a state of shock. I kind of got light-headed and I stopped seeing colors and everything turned gray. I've only had that happen a few times in my life, but not very recently.<br /><br />It dawned on me that I haven't even turned my camera on in a few weeks and thought maybe my batteries were dead. I took them out and stuck one on my quick charger and none of the charging LED's would light up. I put the other one in and the same thing happen. I've had trouble in the past with my charger so I don't know where the problem actually lies. I figure there are a few possibilities.<br /><br />1. My camera is busted and my charger is too.<br /><br />2. My batteries were completely depleted and will no longer charge.<br /><br />I know that the lith-ion EN-EL9 batteries for my camera have a tendency to not charge again after completely depleting them during use. It's kind of difficult to do, but I've done it twice before. Both times I had my camera connected to my computer and I was controlling the camera directly from my computer. I learned that if you run the battery down until it shuts off, you completely deplete it and it won't charge again. Maybe I just let the batteries I use now sit to long and the same thing happened? I don't know. <br /><br />So I'm without a camera at the moment. I ordered two new batteries and also a new charger. Hopefully this will fix the problem and hopefully they'll get here before Golden Week is over. It was such a lovely morning and I was excited. Now I'm just pissed.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-38196603084509515332011-04-26T07:00:00.001+09:002011-04-25T23:52:42.749+09:00Women & Guns<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p427536522.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v13/p377976956.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /></div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Canon PowerShot SD940 iS @ 5mm, 1/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 80 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp427536522.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp427536522.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >No Solicitors!</span><br /></div><br />This is Grandma Gerry. I call her<span style="font-style: italic;"> grandma</span> even though she is not a blood relative of mine. She is in-fact a good friend of mine's mother, my Uncle Steve. Now, Uncle Steve is not in-fact my uncle, but he raised us up when my brothers and I were young, and he is more than family. This shot was taken out in front of my Uncle Steve's house.<br /><br />I decided not to bring my camera to America for our trip home last month. I knew I would have plenty of things to carry so decided against it. In all honesty, I was torn-hearted about it, but I think I made the right choice considering how much we had to take home with us. These photos were taken by my Uncle Steve and his compact camera, a Canon PowerShot SD940 IS.<br /><br />While visiting, we had the chance to go out and shoot some guns. You maybe thinking, "Holy jeeze, GUNS!", but I grew up on a reservation and having guns was a normal thing. I have a great respect for guns and I thought it would be a good experience for my wife and daughter who never really get the chance to be around them.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p288947868.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v19/p316369034.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Canon PowerShot SD940 IS, 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp288947868.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp288947868.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"Am I holding it right?"</span><br /></div><br />So we took a relatively short drive up into the mountains to find a safe place to shoot our guns. Where we were shooting was perfectly legal. Before shooting, we gave my wife some pointers about how to shoot a gun. She got the whole, "Keep the butt of the shotgun in your shoulder." But she kind of blanked out when it came to how she should be standing. Here is a video of her shooting her first gun.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BvxPdcC-EHw" allowfullscreen="" width="640" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>So that is a video of my wife shooting a 12 gauge shotgun for the firs time. We told her how to stand, but she go her left and right foot mixed up and had her right foot forward when she was shooting. I didn't take this video, it was my Uncle Steve. He know quite a fair bit of Japanese so he's the one asking her, "Dou desu ka?", which means, "How is it?" I got a kick of her reaction. It was priceless, "Whoa!!!!!!" You can hear someone before she shoots to tell her to place her footing better. I laugh every time I see this.<br /><br />We also had a Glock 17 and we let my wife try it out.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/05rrH6WnffM" allowfullscreen="" width="640" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br /></div><br />After that we decided to let my nine year old daughter try and shoot the Glock 17.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FA1IN4OfK4Q" allowfullscreen="" width="640" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FX_nB_vebF8" allowfullscreen="" width="640" frameborder="0" height="390"></iframe><br /></div><br />When I had Jade shoot the Glock 17, I only loaded 1 round into the clip and cocked it so she had only one round to fire off each time she shot it. By the way, that's me explaining to her how to shoot. I tried to get my Uncle Steve's younger brother to take some video with my Galaxy S mobile phone, but he didn't hit the stop while recording and I hit the back button when finished and it didn't save any of it, oh well. In the second movie of Jade, the spent shell casing popped up back into her face and that's why she was swiping the air. It was a new gun and even though there was only 1 round in the chamber and none in the clip, the gun didn't lock back into the empty position after firing off her round. My only thought is that is was a new gun and needed some breaking into.<br /><br />It was a good and fun experience for both my wife and my daughter. And just to clarify, none of these photos or movies were taken by me.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-40192763923755312132011-04-25T21:23:00.007+09:002011-04-25T23:57:18.064+09:00Sumomo in 2011<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p576726973.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p1000512498.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp576726973.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp576726973.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br />I took this photo back in February. It was late in the season for <span style="font-style: italic;">sumomo</span>, but I was able to get this shot coming home from teaching in Uken. <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2010/02/sumomo-season-2010.html">Here</a> is the post I made last year during the <span style="font-style: italic;">sumomo</span> season.<br /><br />My friend <a href="http://regex.info/blog/">Jeffrey Friedl</a> came up with a great <a href="http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/layers">plugin for Lightroom 3</a> that lets you use Photoshop, like a plugin, editing you photos in a non-destructive way. I tried his plugin for this photo.<br /><br />I cropped the original in Lightroom and also adjusted some of the variable settings and then used Jeffrey's plugin to further enhance my photo in Photoshop duplicating the original layer and giving the duplicate a <span style="font-style: italic;">multiply blending</span> and adjusting the opacity and fill. With this, I was able to bring the texture of the pedals out more, more than I could have in Lightroom 3 alone. Jeffrey's plugin made my work flow less of a hassle than I would have just editing directly out of Lightroom. I'm still getting used to using his plugin, but it makes my work flow much less easier when I want to edit photos more than the boundaries that Lightroom will allow. Much thanks to Jeffrey.<br /><br />In the end, this photo isn't that great and I probably did more to it that I should have, but it was just a test for my friend's plugin. I think it worked pretty well. <a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p1066206770.jpg">Here is the original photo</a> if you want to know what it looked like.<br /><br />I probably didn't explain how Jeffrey's plugin works to it's full potential, as I don't know myself, but it helped my work flow become a lot easier.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-89349679903055805522011-04-24T07:00:00.003+09:002011-04-25T23:53:18.452+09:00Aloe Vera in Bloom<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p736268830.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p1026008221.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/8.0, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp736268830.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp736268830.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /></div><br />I've seen plenty of aloe vera plants, but this is the first time I've ever seen one in bloom. I imagine that aloe vera are succulent plants, kind of like cacti, and only bloom once a year. I'm not sure how rare this is, but it's the first time I've seen it.<br /><br />I took this photo on an family outing we had to go see the cherry blossoms early February. It's the first time I've seen anything like it so I though I would share it with you all.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-18229925778978342672011-04-23T07:00:00.000+09:002011-04-23T07:00:05.729+09:00Deconstruction in Downtown Amami<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p718447907.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p959764759.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp718447907.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp718447907.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >All Walled Up</span><br /></div><br />In the past few years here in Amami there has be planning going on for rebuilding parts of the city. It's a very controversial matter with different politicians and political groups about how Amami should be spending their money. I don't have any voting rights so it hasn't really sparked my interest as how it will affect me. I'm an English teacher and if it helps bring more people to Amami to live, I'm all for it. If it's just another way to attract tourists to a beautiful community, then yes, they could find another way to spend their money. But in that same sense, if by having more tourists come, income will increase giving the means for more people to send their children to me to learn English. Either way, I win. But, I really don't have an opinion.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p742874724.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p725008308.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp742874724.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp742874724.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Poster in the Window</span><br /></div><br />This is a real photo of the city enhanced with 3D graphics to show the portions of the city they plan on changing pertaining to the area I live in. My mother-in-law's house happens to be just beside the road they are going to make, but doesn't fall into the plan. If it had, she probably would have gotten a new house out of it.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p947620443.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p930963685.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp947620443.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp947620443.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Pinching Pieces Away</span><br /></div><br />The buildings are so close together in Japan that all they can do is put up some scaffolding to protect the neighboring building from falling debris.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p625861533.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p556006281.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp625861533.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv9%2Fp625861533.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Hosing the Rubble</span><br /></div><br />I'm not sure why they water down the rubble. If I had to guess, I would say it was to keep the dust levels down. The only other thing I could think of was to prevent fires. I don't know.<br /><br />These photos were also taken last January. I've been trying to go through the photos I've taken over the last 6 months, but there's just so many, it's almost discouraging. I suppose I have to be more strict with how I spend my time each day and set aside some time to write up post for the photos I've taken. The problem is being strict with myself. Sometimes I'm just so tired, I don't want to do anything but eat some dinner, take a shower and go to bed. I suppose that if a hobby feels more like a chore, it's not a hobby. But it's something I love to do so I'll be more strict with myself and try to set aside more time to do what I love.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-14888675142208387092011-04-22T07:00:00.001+09:002011-04-22T07:00:03.406+09:00Blown to Bits<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p666534997.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p896574089.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp666534997.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp666534997.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Happy to See Me</span><br /></div><br />This photo was taken along with the photos of my previous post. The third grade at Jade's school had an open house and after it all finished I was waiting for her out in front of the school steps. When I saw her come down I absentmindedly turned on my camera and snapped this shot without checking my settings from previously shooting indoor. I can't tell you how many times I've ruined shots like this because I forget to check my settings.<br /><br />Anyway! Although it was a very blown out photo, I messed around with it in Lightroom 3 to see if I could make something interesting out of it and this is what I came up with. <a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v9/p955299226.jpg">Here is the original</a>. I did a bit of cropping, upped the recovery to full and upped the blacks a bunch. I also added a bit of clarity and gave it some graininess along with a vignette. I kind of like it considering it was a completely worthless photo to begin with.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-36623454734968950302011-04-21T07:00:00.001+09:002011-04-21T07:00:01.426+09:00Jade's Shining Moment<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p1027792083.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p946657264.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp1027792083.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp1027792083.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Open House for the Third Grade</span></span><br /></div><br />My last post was about a picture my daughter drew and had displayed on her classroom wall when I went attended an open house back in January. During that open house I got to watch as the teacher taught double digit multiplication.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p692100137.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p595908865.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp692100137.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp692100137.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Waiting for Class to Start</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p623195543.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v8/p578431885.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp623195543.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp623195543.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >The Nitty Gritty</span><br /></div><br />Here the teacher is teaching the students just what's happening in the multiplication process. Although her method of teaching the was a bit different from how I was taught in school, I thought her way was pretty effective and easy to understand. As you can see in the above photo, she gave the problem 12x23 and divided the equation into two parts: 12x20 and 12x3. She then asked the students how they would solve this problem without dividing the equation.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p773825121.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p629788139.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp773825121.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp773825121.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Solving the Problem</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p866497088.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p1006907206.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp866497088.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv24%2Fp866497088.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Jade's Notebook</span><br /></div><br />At first you can see that she has made a few mistakes. It was after this that I gave her a small whisper and told her to remember what we studied that morning. She then furiously started to erase what she had and started over. Jade is a very bright girl, but math and Japanese is not her strong point. Knowing that, we take every advantage we can to help her with her studies. They have a supplementary study program here in Japan called <span style="font-style: italic;">Challenge</span>. This program has different levels gauged towards which grade the student is in providing text books to help them better understand what they learn in school and give them more practice using what they have learned. Every morning before Jade goes to school we have her complete that day's portion of the Challenge program and help her if she has any problems after we check her work. Just that morning we had been practicing these same kind of problems and my method of teaching her was a bit different from what the teacher was teaching. So she did it my way.<br /><br />After giving the students a moment to try and solve the problem she gave them, she called on a few to give their answers and tell the class how they came up with that answer. The first three students skipped a few steps and came up with the wrong answer. Then she called on Jade to give her answer.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v5/p711309511.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p711733701.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv5%2Fp711309511.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv5%2Fp711309511.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"Yikes! She called on me!"</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p949007219.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p882035156.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp949007219.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp949007219.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Explaining Her Answer</span><br /></div><br />The teacher asked the first three students how they came up with their answers and wrote it on the board as they explained. The problem just to the left of Jade's paper is from the previous student's explanation. Since Jade got the answer right she just had Jade explain what she did. Since my method of teaching Jade was a bit different from how she was teaching the students, she didn't write what Jade was saying on the board. I was all "Come on!"<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v4/p876038979.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p792256253.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs5%2Fv4%2Fp876038979.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs5%2Fv4%2Fp876038979.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"My daddy taught me."</span><br /></div><br />So the teacher asked Jade how she learned how to multiply like that and she told the teacher that I had taught her. In all honesty, I don't think my method is any different from what most people learn in America. I just think it's one of the differences learning mathematics in Japan.<br /><br />Then the teacher had Jade sit down and actually went in detail how Jade got her answer as you can see in the next photo. I was happy she explained it that way. I thought it was easier for the students to understand.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p655312383.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v19/p571935735.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp655312383.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp655312383.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >End of Class</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p670462406.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p567320179.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp670462406.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp670462406.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Bashful Girl</span><br /></div><br />After class ended we congratulated her and she got embarrassed. Jade is easily embarrassed and I'll admit that I sometimes take every chance to embarrass her. I am a proud parent and it's times like this that makes me want to stand up and say, "That's my child!" But then I would probably get a punch from my wife.<br /><br />Jade made me very proud when we returned home to America to visit family last month. We only speak English in our home and I do my best to help her learn English. We only watch movies in English and she only watches American cartoons in English. You may think this is plenty for a child to learn English, but in my mind, it's completely minuscule when compared to the amount of time she spends speaking Japanese at school, with her friends, cousins and other family. But when we went to America, she put my mind at ease as she slipped into a state and English took over. Obviously it wasn't perfect English, but it was good enough that I think a few of her relatives completely forgot that she lives in Japan and speaks Japanese. I couldn't ask for anything more. So when I see that she may not be that great at math and Japanese, I know for dang sure that she can beat the pants off most Japanese speaking English.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-71323972165155807622011-04-20T07:00:00.003+09:002011-04-20T07:23:17.175+09:00Instant Feast Machine<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p339617607.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p171953930.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);font-size:85%;" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp339617607.jpg&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv22%2Fp339617607.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Feast in an Instant</span><br /></div><br />I had the opportunity to attend an open house for my daughter last January. Some of the pictures the students had made were displayed on the walls of the classroom and I got a kick out of Jade's. When I asked what kind of machine it was, she told me it was a machine that magically <span style="font-style: italic;">zaps</span> the food together. As you can see, she was probably hungry for something along the lines of a happy meal when she was making the picture. Although we don't have a McDonalds here in Amami, we do frequent the <a href="http://www.mosburger.com.sg/about_mos.php">MOS Burger</a> here. MOS Burger is a known gourmet fast food chain establishment throughout Japan. MOS stands for Mountain, Ocean and Sun.<br /><br />When you first try any of MOS Burger's burgers, you think they taste pretty good. But after a while you get used to the taste and then it's not so tasty. I prefer <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2010/05/barbecue-at-its-best.html">my own barbecued hamburgers</a> with pickles, lettuce, tomato, onions, smothered with American style barbecue sauce. Dang, I'm getting hungry!<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-42252597680460496552011-04-19T16:59:00.007+09:002011-04-19T20:55:50.079+09:00Early Spring Day<div>I know, long time, no posts. <i style="font-weight: bold;">sorry </i>It's been a hectic few months. In my last post back in January, I said that I was getting over a case of influenza. I missed a bunch of work that I had to make up and with as busy as my schedule is, it was hard to make up. We also had a trip planned for the end of March to the States to go visit family which made things even more difficult. I haven't been back home to the States in 8 years so dealing with getting new passports for the family and re-entry visas for myself, it was quite a hassle with no immigrations office here in Amami. To make matters worse, I got ear infections in both ears 3 weeks before we were set to leave. A few days before our departure date, my ears had not yet cleared up and I ended up getting minor ear surgery on my right ear. I'll tell you about that some other time. It wasn't pleasant.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we got back to Amami the first week of this month and did our best getting back in to the groove of things. It was a new school year for Jade so we were busy trying to get her prepared. We had only returned home the day before school started for her. It being a new school year, I also was busy with my teaching job out in Uken. We had a whole load of teachers transfer out which meant we had a whole load transfer in. They had a welcoming party that weekend that I had to attend. I got to meet all the new teachers and found that most of the teachers I work with teaching English had transferred out. Now I'm in the process of learning to work with new teachers.</div><div><br /></div><div>I got the afternoon off today and I thought I would go and look at the photos I've taken over the past few months and was surprised at how many I have. Although I haven't been posting, I'm still taking my camera out with me and taking photos of whatever. These photos were taken back in January at one of the schools I teach at. I'm not sure what kind of plant this is with the red leaves (are they leaves or flowers?), but they looked pretty so I shot them.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p886656302.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p824813043.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp886656302.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv20%2Fp886656302.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Kind of Late For Christmas</b></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>But pretty non-the-less</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>They kind of reminded me of poinsettias which they very well maybe, but I really don't know. It had rained earlier that morning and there were still water droplets on the red leaves which I kind of thought looked cool.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p732474603.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p1043492631.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp732474603.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp732474603.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Poinsettias?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>They sure look like it.</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v26/p1002784877.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p782434277.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv26%2Fp1002784877.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv26%2Fp1002784877.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Hanging On</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v26/p678100713.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p655335734.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv26%2Fp678100713.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv26%2Fp678100713.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v19/p591139808.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p636426161.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv19%2Fp591139808.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv19%2Fp591139808.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p1015007884.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p1026596412.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 24mm, 1/60 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- <a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p1015007884.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Papayas in the Jungle</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Just up the hill from where I was shooting, I noticed this papaya tree with a load of papayas growing. This last photo was doctored just a bit. I dropped the clarity a bunch and upped the blacks to give the brighter areas in the leaves a glowing effect. I thought it looked nice so I threw this one in too.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-76299828514494472372011-01-30T17:22:00.004+09:002011-01-30T20:56:25.939+09:00Naze and Itsubu Recreation DayFirst off, I'd like to say, <span style="font-weight: bold;">influenza sucks butt!</span> I caught it earlier last week and I haven't felt <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> sick in a long while. It knocked me flat. But, I'm recovering and now and I'm just trying to get over a nasty cough that I'm left with.<br /><br />Last Sunday all the 3rd graders from my daughter's school, Naze Elementary, and all the 3rd graders from a nearby school called Itsubu Elementary, got together to have a recreation day together.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >First order of business...</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Dodge Ball!</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v15/p595798793.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p623001132.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4 , ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs9%2Fv15%2Fp595798793.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs9%2Fv15%2Fp595798793.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Lining Up</span><br /></div><br />They played a few different matches. At first they had the children divide by school and then played all boys and all girls matches. They also had fathers play a match against theirs sons and did the same with mothers and daughters and at last, school against school. There were so many kids the school against school was almost impossible and all they did was threw in three balls and let the kids pelt each other. It was complete chaos and none of the children followed the rules. They'd get hit, pick up the ball and throw it right back without sitting out. But it was fun to watch the kids get so excited like that.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p897404068.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v6/p902051388.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4 , ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp897404068.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp897404068.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Throwing Heat</span><br /></div><br />Jade is a pretty competitive girl and it's matches like this she really enjoys. She also started playing basketball this year for the school team and is having a ball (pun intended).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Next order of business...</span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Making Mochi!</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v6/p699598005.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v16/p777052677.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv6%2Fp699598005.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv6%2Fp699598005.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Smooshing the Rice</span><br /></div><br />You're probably asking, "What is <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span>?" Well, simply put, it's pounded rice. I don't think they use just any rice to make <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span>, but a special kind specifically made for <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span> making. They cook it like regular rice and while it's still warm they dump it into a large mortar like this and begin to<span style="font-style: italic;"> smoosh</span> it with large wooden mallets.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v11/p931625101.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p552060442.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/800 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv11%2Fp931625101.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv11%2Fp931625101.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Just the Right Amount of Smooshing</span><br /></div><br />Once the rice becomes quite pasty, it's ready to be pounded to into <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span>.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v16/p796278352.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v7/p731445778.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs10%2Fv16%2Fp796278352.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs10%2Fv16%2Fp796278352.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Pounding Begins!</span></span><br /></div><br />They had fairly light mallets for the children to use and they let each child take a few swings at pounding.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p623749689.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v13/p797397332.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp623749689.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv25%2Fp623749689.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Loads of Fun for Everyone</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v6/p828048926.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p601647397.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv6%2Fp828048926.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv6%2Fp828048926.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >The Big Mallet</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v10/p998956783.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v12/p1046818504.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv10%2Fp998956783.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv10%2Fp998956783.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Like Puddy</span><br /></div><br />Once the rice is pounded into a puddy like consistency, it is ready to be divided up.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23/p537080548.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v11/p1056173167.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp537080548.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs3%2Fv23%2Fp537080548.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Dividing the Mochi</span><br /></div><br />The white flour-like substance is most likely cornstarch. This is used to keep the <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span> from sticking to everything. The <span style="font-style: italic;">mochi</span> is divided up into golf ball size pieces and then is rolled into nice round balls.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p936143747.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v10/p666665063.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp936143747.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs1%2Fv21%2Fp936143747.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Making New Friends</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v7/p996647824.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v2/p575939708.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs7%2Fv7%2Fp996647824.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs7%2Fv7%2Fp996647824.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Rolling the Mochi into Balls</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v12/p588457693.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v14/p561813620.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv12%2Fp588457693.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs8%2Fv12%2Fp588457693.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Enjoying What They Made</span><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v5/p976774240.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v13/p1000526526.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/320 sec, f/1.8, ISO 800 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv5%2Fp976774240.jpg&url=http%3A%2F%2Famamisuperman.zenfolio.com%2Fimg%2Fs6%2Fv5%2Fp976774240.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Group Photo</span><br /></div><br />It was a great day and all the children had fun playing dodge ball, making mochi and making new friends. Some kids from my daughter's school didn't want to miss out and even though they were sick and had fevers, they still showed up to have a good time. I think it was here that I caught influenza. A few days later I wasn't feeling well and my daughter was sent home from school early because too many of her classmates were absent after catching influenza. Go figure.<div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-37028053819274812402011-01-14T07:00:00.000+09:002011-01-14T07:00:00.342+09:00Ghetto Studio For The Win<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p754965634.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v19/p820127148.jpg" style="border:1px solid #323035; padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/30 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p754965634.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p754965634.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>100% DIY</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>So in my last post I said I would make a post about my set up I used for my Halloween studio type photos and here it is. </div><div><br /></div><div>I made this black backdrop with some fabric I bought at the local fabric store. I used 120cm wide fabric cut in 4 meter sections and sewed them together to make it. The backdrop is held up by 2 long bamboo secured by hooks and wire on opposite walls. I gathered a bunch of cardboard boxes from my wife's family's Sanrio shop and covered the windows with them and duct tape. My wife and I went to the mountains and gathered up 4 full trash bags worth of leaves to spread over the tarp on the floor. We bought 6 jack-o-lantern pumpkins and received some other types of squash to use as props. On the left side of the photo you can see a short table stood on end. This table was my reflection board. I covered it with aluminium top to bottom. On the right side of the photo you can see my DIY soft boxes and also a long florescent light covered in orange and yellow film.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p662413159.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v19/p881319937.jpg" style="border:1px solid #323035; padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/40 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p662413159.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p662413159.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>My Soft Boxes</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>I made these soft boxes last year for last year's Halloween photos. I looked around the interwebz for plans for DIY soft boxes and ended up designing my own based on the materials I had at hand. The local hardware shop had some big plastic sheets kind of like corrugated cardboard and decided to use that for my boxes. I made some calculation and made a few mock-ups using A4 size sheets of paper. I designed them so that they were one piece and I would just have to fold and connect the edges together with duct tape. Before I folded them, I lined the inner side of the design with aluminium foil and then folded and taped them together. I cut a hole in the back and used a cheap garage drop light equipped with a 200 watt tungsten bulb. I made 2 of these soft boxes. The stand I used for these soft boxes is pretty basic. I got a large can (about 1 gallon size), stuck a long sturdy piece of lumber on the inner edge of the can and filled it with cement and let the cement set. Very cheap and works well as a stand. I also used duct tape to hold the soft boxes in place on the stands as the garage drop light's clips weren't very strong. I used an extension cord with multiple sockets with ON and OFF switches to power my lights. I turned off my lights when not in use because my soft boxes are made out of plastic and 200 watt bulb create a lot of heat. I've used these soft boxes twice now and have left them on at least 30 minutes at a time and I've seen no signs of melting plastic what so ever. The fronts of the soft boxes are covered in a rayon type fabric (not really sure what kind of fabric), and it did a very good job diffusing the light.</div><div><br /></div><div>For my camera settings, I used my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for all my shots. I really don't have any experience using flashes so I only use low key lighting for my photos. Because I'm not using flashes I set my camera to Aperture Priority with an aperture at 2.2 to 2.8 with an ISO of 400. I usually get shutter speeds anywhere from 1/40 second to 1/80 second depending on the brightness of my subjects costumes. I left my White Balance on my camera on Auto and adjusted the white balance in Lightroom 3 when I post edited the photos.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p575998493.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v22/p627642063.jpg" style="border:1px solid #323035; padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p575998493.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v25/p575998493.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Besides trying to get small children to hold still for shots, my biggest problem was shooting group photos with these settings. I really didn't have too much problems shooting smaller groups like the above photo of my friend Toshi Nagai's family. This next photo was a challenge.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p849953325.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v1/p831580273.jpg" style="border:1px solid #323035; padding: 5px;" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/2.2, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p849953325.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>This was probably the most difficult photo to take. The room I'm in isn't that big and I had to position everyone so they're in the shot as well as the edges of the makeshift studio I made. I don't have a lot of room to back up and this photo pushed the limits of the size of the room's settings. The other problem I had with this photo is my wide aperture. Wider apertures have smaller focusing planes and 3 rows of people was very difficult. I had the people in the back lean forward as much as they could without making it look like they were leaning forward so that their faces were somewhat in focus. The lighting I was using was insufficient for the group I was shooting and used quite a bit of Fill Light in Lightroom 3. When you up the Fill Light, you get an amount of noise. I used a lot of Fill Light so I got a lot of noise and had to compensate with Noise Reduction and Sharpening. The above family wanted a S10R size photo printed (4PW Japan size), and I thought it turned out OK. If you got right close, 2 or 3 inches way, you can see the distortions from the Noise Reduction and Sharpening but couldn't notice if you didn't look close. I really don't like to use that much post editing on a photo, but this one couldn't be helped, I had to to make it look relatively nice.</div><div><br /></div><div>So that's the set up I used for my Halloween photos last year. I'm going to make a slide show post of our Trick-or-Treat parade and maybe another slide show post of the other shots I took of my students and their family Halloween portraits.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-756762554076215586.post-64971517384896770042011-01-13T17:32:00.008+09:002011-01-14T09:18:19.185+09:00Happy New Year!<div>I apologize for not posting in so long. My last post was back in October just before Halloween when I was busy trying to get ready for Halloween so I guess I'll pick up from there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our Halloween Trick-or-Treat Parade went off without a hitch. We originally had the parade planned for October 31, but we had a typhoon come through days before and we thought it may interfere with our plans so we postponed it until November 3. I took studio type photos of my students and their families again this year and they turned out pretty much like <a href="http://www.amamisupermanphotography.com/2009/11/halloween-2009.html">last year's Halloween photos</a>. This year, instead of making a big wall out of lumber I found at the dump, I bought some black fabric and sewed it together to make a backdrop and got a bunch of pumpkins for props as well as leaves to use on the floor. I just chose a few photos to share.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p231563432.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p476605060.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/2.2, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p231563432.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p231563432.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><b>Daisy Duck</b></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">(Kanon)</span></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p305903679.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p360553293.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/2.2, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p305903679.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p305903679.jpg">EXIF</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><b>Bat Girl</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">(Unoka)</span></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p407695908.jpg"><img src="http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v21/p340856788.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(50, 48, 53); padding: 5px;" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:85%;">Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/2.2, ISO 400 -- <a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p407695908.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p407695908.jpg">EXIF</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">(Junki)</span></span><br /><a href="http://regex.info/exif.cgi?b=3&referer=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p407695908.jpg&url=http://amamisuperman.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v24/p407695908.jpg"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></a></span></div><div><br />The kid's name in the above photo is<span style="font-style: italic;"> Junki</span> (joonkee). So no mistakes are made, I wasn't saying he was<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>junkie or junky. lol<br /><br /></div><div>I'm pretty happy with how the photos turned out. There were a few difficult shots that I had to make of a family group using a wide aperture, but I think I'll save that for another post. I'll also make a post of the set up I used to take these photos (super low tech).</div><div><br /></div><div>I tell you, I had a pretty terrible month with my internet connection. Here's my story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last month before Christmas my old Airport Express broke. Well, I thought it broke. I started to look for a new router and I wanted one that I could connect to by LAN and wireless. Apple's routers are a bit expensive and I decided to go with a NEC Aterm WarpStar WR8700N.<br /><br />My new router arrived around the 27th and I got it out to get set up. After hooking it all up and going in and putting in my ISP settings I opened a browser and saw the internet immediately. "Great!" I thought, as I went to check my email. I use gmail for my email and things come up right away with no problems, but when I tried to send an email with an attachment, the router would stall and the <i>ACTIVE </i>light would go out meaning it wasn't connected to my fiber optic modem. I didn't know what the problem was and I started to search for online support since it was late and the Aterm Support lines would most likely be finished for the day.<br /><br />While I was searching online for some support for my router, I remembered that I wanted to do a speed test of my connection now that I wasn't on a wireless connection. I went to a speed test site and started the speed test only to have it stall again and the <i>ACTIVE </i>light go out on my new router. Now here's where I get thrown off trying to figure out the problem. I didn't know whether it was a setting with my computer or the router so I decided to connect my computer directly to my fiber optic modem and so see what would happen. After getting it connected things went smooth and I didn't have a problem downloading or uploading. I figured it was a setting with my new router so I decided to call them up the next day.<br /><br />The next morning after 9:00 o'clock I called up the Aterm Support Line only to find that they were closed for the holidays and wouldn't be back until the 4th of January. Ugh! So I waited patiently with only one computer being able to connect to the internet. Once the 4th rolled around, I called them up only to find the support line busy every time I called. I called several times throughout the day and wasn't able to get a hold of them on the 4th. I tried again on the 5th and finally was able to get through around noon. The support representative was very kind and helpful but in the end, she didn't know what the problem was and said that I may have bought a faulty router and told me to contact the store I bought it from and have them replace it for a new one.<br /><br />I bought the router from an online shop through Amazon and called them up telling them my situation. They agreed to send me a new router. After talking with them I received a phone call back from them saying that they were sorry and didn't have any more in stock and I would have to wait until they were able to get some from the maker which would take a few days. It took a week for me to get my new router and once it arrived, I didn't want to take any chances so I called up support to have them help me set it up. They pretty much told me exactly what I did to set up my first router. I opened a browser and tried a speed test... It stalled again! What the freek! The representative asked me to try a few different things and we couldn't get it to work. She finally asked me what fiber optic modem I'm using and I read her the number off the back. She said that I had a pretty old modem and maybe <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> might be the problem.<br /><br />I called up NTT and asked them to come out and check my connection. In less than an hour they had a guy out here with his laptop testing my connection. Low and behold, he couldn't get it to work on his computer either. It turned out that it wasn't my router that had gone bad, but my fiber optic modem and I never really needed to buy a new router at all. The NTT guy pulled out a new modem and hooked it up to my fiber optic line and connected his computer and it worked like a dream. I hooked up my new router and got everything going and now I have my internet back. Yeehaw!</div><div><br /></div><div>Our holidays were pretty regular. We got together with my wife's family on New Year's Day, but with the rainy, cold weather we've been having, we didn't do much more than that. With the start of a new year, I'm back to work teaching again and busy as ever. We're planning a trip to America at the end of March which we're pretty excited about. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season and I look forward to sharing more photos with you this year.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">奄美大島、写真、Amami Oshima, Amami, photography</div>Amami Supermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11475719827384411096noreply@blogger.com1