Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Hachigatsu Odori
The kids in the center ring doing hachigatsu odori are my students from Taken Junior High School. I had a lot of fun attending this festival. I knew most of the people or their children here and it didn't matter where I went, I was continually being greeting by so many people.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Shogo Maekawa
The young man smiling with the towel wrapped around his head is Shogo Maekawa. Shogo is younger brother to Kengo Maekawa whom I photographed earlier this year. Shogo took first place in the Kagoshima Prefecture for Judo this year. It's his dream to be able to go to the Judo Nationals. For the most part, the students at Taken Junior High are well mannered and easy to get along with. I really enjoy teaching there. It's the least I can say about them and more than I can say about others. One of my students from another junior high completely ignored me when I greeted him which is pretty dang rude in Japanese society. Anyway, stifling my urge to knock him around a bit, I met up with his volley ball coach a bit later and let him know what happen. If you know anything about sports in Japan, coaches are pretty strict with their players and demand they show the upmost respect in and out of the whatever game they play.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Sunset Before the Fireworks Procession
As it got closer to the time for the fireworks procession, I made my way back to our car and got the rest of my camera gear. I took this photo on the way.
Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/25 sec, f/10, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/2 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 -- EXIF
The Booths and Stores
The matsuri here in Uken is not anywhere near as big as the Amami Matsuri, but they still had a fairly good size crowd none the less. This was kind of a test photo I took as I was setting up to take photos of the fireworks and I kind of liked it.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 10 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
A Bit Far Away
When the fireworks started, I noticed that they were pretty far way. The above photo was cropped a bunch. I had a lot more people in the original like in the next photo, but without the crop, the fireworks looked pretty pathetic. I did zoom in after this, but the smoke started to accumulate and the most of the photos after this weren't very good.
Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 20 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Suichu Hanabi
(fireworks in the water)
It wasn't until I came to Japan that I saw my first water firework. They basically just drive a boat in a straight line dropping fireworks over the side at intervals and they blow up every couple of seconds. They do this pretty close to the docks as you can see and it's pretty fun to watch. I remember when I first saw the fireworks here in Uken, the water fireworks were so big and close that they blew up and streamers fell into the crowd. It was pretty exciting then. Now they don't do that sort of thing anymore for safety reasons. I was actually talking to one of the head fire department personel there in Uken and he even said he misses the old fireworks. They used to have a pretty neat lazer show too during the procession halftime.
I'm finally getting to enjoy my summer vacation. I hope it doesn't go by too quickly.
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Keep the language clean please. I have family that see this. Tell us what part of the world you're in.