Amami Superman Photography

A Place to Share My Photos

Mar 4, 2010

Last Classes of Shinai Youchien 2009-2010

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Roza-gumi

I teach English at a Catholic preschool here in Amami called Shinai Youchien. Shinai means truth and love, youchien means preschool. They name their classes after people and things from the Bible. I'm not quite sure what the above class' name translates to. I think it's the Rosa Class.

The Japanese school year ends part way through March and the new school year begins in April. They have spring break in between. Last Thursday and Friday were my last classes so I decided to take some photos on Friday.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Zaberio-gumi

Again, I'm not sure about the name for this class either. I think it is the Xavier class.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55m f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Mikaeru-gumi

I think this one is the Micheal class? Maybe. I'm not quite sure.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Maria-gumi

This class' name is pretty much said the same way in Japanese, Maria class. Our daughter, Jade, was in the Maria-gumi all three years she went here.

Those are the 4 classes that I taught on Friday minus the kids that are going to graduate this year. The kids that are graduating were in a special rehearsal for their graduation ceremony they're having next week and couldn't participate with their regular class so I taught them separately in a different class.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
The Graduating Kids of the Previous Four Classes

After teaching my regular four classes on Friday, I taught the kids that were rehearsing for their graduation ceremony. It was almost enough to get me all choked up. For 6 year old kids, some of them are very talented and picked up English right quick. I'm proud of them with how much they learned this past year. I always look forward teaching these classes on Thursday and Friday. The kids are so full of energy and are hungry to learn something new in English.

I completely forgot on Thursday that these were going to be my last classes for this school year and I forgot to bring my camera. I decided to go take some photos of Thursday classes while they were finishing their lunch and doing some free play time.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Agunesu-gumi

I think this one is Agnes class? They were pretty much already finished with lunch.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/50 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Yosefu-gumi
(Joseph class)

This isn't all the kids in these classes. It would be too much of a hassle to get them all together to take a class photo so I just chose one that had most of them in it.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/50 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Yohane-gumi
(John class)


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 1/50 sec, f/3.5, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Seshiria-gumi
(Cecilia class)


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 24mm, 1/50 sec, f/4.2, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Saying Goodbye

So those were some of the photos of my last day teaching this school year. I'm looking forward to the next school year and meeting some new students. Congratulations and good luck to all those how are graduating and moving on to first grade. Just to say it in Japanese for my Japanese viewers, 信愛幼稚園の卒園するお友達、ご卒園おめでとうございます。小学校でも頑張って下さい！

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Feb 9, 2010

Bus Stop

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/5.0, ISO 400 -- EXIF
All Lined Up

On the way back from Takachiho Shrine last Wednesday, I came across some girls that go to the same school as my daughter. Although I didn't know them, they all knew me. As I was walking towards them, I could hear them saying, "ジェイドのお父さん" (jeido no otousan), which means, "Jade's dad". I thought they were cute all standing in a row holding their umbrellas and bus passes dangling from their randoseru. I had to take a photo.

We've been having some pretty sucktacular weather since last week. I want to get out and take some sakura photos but I'm afraid I'm going to miss them. We took a drive up to the mountains were I photographed some earlier last month. Half the trees were finished but a lot of them were still mid-bloom. Although it was raining, I still got out to try and take some shots. I'll save those for a different post.

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Feb 3, 2010

My Walk Around the Block

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Oshima Dry Cleaning


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
The Sun Is Bright


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Head to Toes


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Perfect Model


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Hanging On


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Pipes


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec, f/5.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Cob Webs

Today's post is a continuation of yesterday's post. After shooting the old guy and his plants, I made my way around the block. The goal I had in mind for this walk was not to just shoot anything, but to think about the shots I was going to take and how to compose them. With that in mind, I did shoot anything, but I took the time to think about what I was shooting. Most of the shots didn't turn out that well, but some of them did and these are the shots I chose to share with you.

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Feb 2, 2010

An Old Man and His Horticulture

Posted by Amami Superman

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Watering the Flowers

I haven't been feeling well lately but it was such nice weather, I decided to take my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 out for a walk around the block to see what I could shoot. This old guy lives just down the street from me. He always has flowers blooming out in front of his house and I happened upon him as he was watering them.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Like a Gun Slinger


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/640 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Posing for a Shot

He didn't smile much, but he talked as if he was genuinely happy that someone was taking an interest in him and what he does. He was so happy that he invited me back behind his house to see more of some of the things he does.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Beckoning


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 -- EXIF
His Pride and Joy

He brought out plant after plant telling me about them and where you could find them here in Amami. Most of what he grows are native to here on the island. It was a bit difficult to keep up with what he was saying because he spoke some of the old Amami dialect.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/40 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Seeds

These are some of the seeds he produces from the plants he grows. I was really amazed at all the different plants he had back behind his house.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/15 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Sprouts

He would show me some plants and the seeds he got from them. Then he would show me the spouts he produced from those seeds. I could tell by the way he spoke of the different plants that he really has a love for what he does. In a way, I was envious of him. He has so much knowledge of what he loves to do. Someday I would like to be the same.

I decided to change these photos to black and white in Lightroom 2. I think it gives these photos more flavor then they would have in color.

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Jan 29, 2010

An Old Man and His Dog

Posted by Amami Superman

On the way back home from the cafe in my previous post, we drove past an old man walking his dog. I don't know why, but I felt I had to stop the car and go take his photo. I asked him first and he smiled and said okay. I only snapped a few. I didn't want to be too bothersome.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 -- EXIF


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 -- EXIF

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Jan 28, 2010

Westerner's Cafe

Posted by Amami Superman

I took the family out to Yamato Village to go eat at a new curry restaurant we heard of. A friend had eaten there and told us the owner loves cowboys and indians and the curry wasn't half bad. So we decided to drive out and see for ourselves.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
One of the Many

The name of the cafe was "Westerner's Cafe". He had so many signs on the side of the road and around his cafe that you could close your eyes, throw a rock and probably hit at least one.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Another One of the Many


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
"Hey there pilgrim..."
(he didn't say that really)

This guy is the owner. He had the whole John Wayne thing going on. He walked with his arms kind of bent and swayed a bit as he did and he always put his hands on his hips. His little establishment was loaded with nicknacks, trinkets and signs that he made himself.

When I say his "little establishment", it really was little. Inside it was pretty cramped and there were only 2 tables. My daughter and wife and I sat at one table and there was probably enough room at the other table for 2 more people (although you would probably bump elbows with them). On the other hand, he did have a deck outside that sat probably 5 or 6 more people and some tall tables you could stand at to eat.

When we first got there, there were a bunch of cars and bikes parked out front. I didn't think we were going to be able to get the chance to eat there but some were just finishing up so the timing was just right. I wanted to take a photo of his cafe but there were too many cars out front and just couldn't get a nice photo.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/40 sec, f/3.2, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Curry and Naan

We all ordered the naan curry set. When he makes rice, he only makes a certain amount and when that runs out, it's out and you have to order something else. Since we were having a late lunch, he was out of rice and we went with the naan.

The curry and naan was pretty good. The serving was rather small but I was grateful for this because I'm trying to slim down and I'm watching my portion sizes. In the above photo, the glasses with water aren't much bigger than a shot glass. So you can kind of get the idea how big the set was.

After I finished eating, I went out to take some photos of some of the signs and trinkets he had.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Clean Your Boots and Check Your Guns


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/4000 sec, f/2.0, ISO 100 -- EXIF
John Wayne
One of the Greatest On-screen Cowboys


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/80 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Chained Up Hog


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 -- EXIF
Some of His Collected Plates

As I said, he had loads of trinkets and signs to photograph, but we didn't have too much time so there are a few of the ones I did take.

Again, I only brought my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 along. Probably for the next couple of times I go out, I'm only going to take this lens with me for practice.

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Jan 26, 2010

Winter Camp

Posted by Amami Superman

Because Amami has a warmer climate than most places in Japan, it becomes home athletes during the winter. It's not an unlikely scene to see a herd of runners making their way through town to the local sports park. We occasionally have baseball teams that come for winter camp as well.

I like to swim at the pool and I always see runners running the cross country course around the park. I usually don't bring my camera to the pool because I don't like to leave it in the car and don't want to store it in the lockers at the pool. But today, I thought I would bring it and try to take some photos of some of the runners.

Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Blazing Fast


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Keeping Pace


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 105mm, 1/250 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Walking and Running


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 55mm, 1/1600 sec, f/5.0, ISO 200 -- EXIF
Getting Ready to Bloom

I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but it looked like it may bloom some type of flower soon. I took this photo on the way back to my car and I kind of liked it so I threw it in.

As I was taking photos of these runners, I caught myself saying, "What I wouldn't give to be in shape like them..." Well, obviously I wouldn't give the time and effort they put in. lol But I'm working on that.

I didn't know if it was OK to take these runners' photos or not. I thought about getting my fat butt to run beside them and ask if it was OK, but I would have probably died of a heart attack before they could answer. One runner waved me off as I was taking photos of him so I didn't include them.

These shots let me get in some good practice. I was able to use the Continuous Focus feature on my camera which I don't have a lot of experience using. I felt these photos came out OK. I could have upped the ISO to 400 and used a faster shutter speed to lessen some of the motion blur so that's something I can think about in the future when deciding shutter speed.

Although I've had my camera over a year now, I'm still learning about its different features. 2 things that I really need to get busy and study up on are the Metering Modes and AF-Area Modes. I still don't have a good comprehension of these so that's something I'll be doing very soon.

I'm still trying out Zenfolio and these photos are all linked from there. I'll try a few more posts to decide weather or not I like it. If not I'll look elsewhere to upload my photos. If it doesn't work out, I have this same post copied and I used photos I uploaded to Photobucket.

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Jan 22, 2010

Went for a Walk

Posted by Amami Superman

I was cruising the interwebs looking at different photography sites and blogs and just got bored with it so I grabbed my camera bag and tripod and took a walk. It was in the evening around 9:00pm when I left so it was pretty dark out. I'm not that good at night time photography so it was good practice for me. I didn't have anything particular in mind that I wanted to shoot, I just headed down the street toward the fishing port snapping shots of different things. I tried to think about the shot I was taking and how I wanted to compose it and I took 5-10 shots every time I stopped.

Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Nangoku
A little mom-n-pop type Chinese restaurant.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Amami's Main Drag


Nikon D60, Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 18mm, 5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Night Time Fishing
Nothing was biting.


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/40 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Fishing Boat at the Port


Nikon D60, Sigma 30mm f/1.4, 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 -- EXIF
Mental Training Before Bedtime
Kengo Maekawa

While I was down at the fishing port, I tried to take some long exposures of the city, but I pretty much screwed them all up. The photos were out of focus or I had the wrong settings and the brighter lights blared. It would be better to try to take some photos like that closer to dusk when there's a little more ambient light. I'll have to put that on my list of things I want to try.

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Jan 17, 2010

Isolated in Amami

Posted by Amami Superman

Mouse over the images to see the originals.

Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 116mm, 1/125 sec, f/4.8, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Going to Town


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 135mm, 1/400 sec, f/5.0, ISO 800 -- EXIF
Windy

I had last Wednesday off, but it was cold and windy and I didn't want to go out. It was so cold that it hailed for a few seconds. It usually doesn't get that cold here in Amami. So instead of going out, I sat in my wife's shop and snapped shots of people walking by. The originals weren't that great so I tried to think of something to do to them to make them seem a little more artistic. I cruised around the interwebs looking for ideas and I came across a few photos that isolated the subject by turning all the colors besides the subject to black and white. I thought this would be something cool to try.

After importing my photos to Lightroom 2, I selected the Edit In feature and brought them into Photoshop CS3. I then made a duplicate of the background. I selected the background copy and used the Desaturate feature to make it black and white. Next, I adjusted the Contrast and Brightness to the desired effect I wanted. After that, I made an opacity mask of the background copy and commenced to hide the subject revealing the color image underneath. Once I finished, I saved it and returned to Lightroom 2 to do a few more tweeks upping the blacks and giving them some vignettes. I thought they turned out pretty nice compared to the originals.

I wanted to show the originals also but I didn't want to just stick the originals into the post so I decided to do a little html work and make some mouse-over images. I hope you like them.

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Oct 4, 2009

120%

Posted by Amami Superman

So yesterday was my daughter's field day. In Japanese they call it "undoukai". It's a pretty big event all the way up through high school. All the families of the children come out to watch and eat lunch with everyone. I want to get better at taking action shots so I pretty much photographed everybody during the race portions of the field day.

Today's post is of some 4th graders running the 100 meters (about 100m I think). The reason for posting these shots is the kid on the far left of the photo; he really looks like he's giving it his all. Sort of like a young Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid. The facial expressions are priceless.


Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 180mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
The Gun



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 180mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
They're Off



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 180mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Do you hear that?
(Chariots of Fire)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 150mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.3, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Throttle Wide Open



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 122mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.0, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Taking The Lead



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 110mm, 1/160 sec, f/4.8, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Turbo Boost



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 66mm, 1/160 sec, f/4.2, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Substantial Lead



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Home Stretch



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
Photo Finish?
(I don't think so)



Nikon D60, Nikkor 55-200mm f/4.0-5.6 @ 200mm, 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 -- EXIF
He Looks Happy

Congratulations Mr. Kubo for a well ran race! "久保" or "Kubo" is his family name and is written on his gym uniform.

So that's one of a few posts of my daughter's field day. I was having trouble with my camera. I wanted to set it to Aperture Priority for f/4.0 at 55mm and have the camera Auto Expose for the ISO and shutter speed, but for some reason, it kept the shutter speed very slow and a lot of the photos were blown out. I ended up putting it on manual and shooting. It's most likely operator error so I'll need to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Some of the photos are a bit out of focus. I had my camera set to Auto Focus Continuous so this maybe just a bit of motion blur. I think a shutter speed of 1/200 sec would have been a better choice.

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