On a side note, fireworks in Japanese is 花火 (hanabi), which literally translated means "fire flowers", and firework events are happening almost nonstop during summer in various places. So if you are crazy enough to visit Japan during boiling summer, then you should definitely scan the area for one of the firework shows.
Today, together with a Tokyo based photographer Alfie Goodrich, his lovely family and his friends, we, and the other three million people, stormed (or swarmed) the Amercian Navy base in Yokusuka, south of Yokohama. The day was hot as hell, humid, and bloody crowded, but we had a great time and managed to snap some firework shots. Here is one of my captures. I started to shoot with a wide angle lens, but since the foreground was rather boring I switched to my telephoto glass. I am thinking of creating a video tutorial for my photoshop and photography tutorials Youtube channel, with ideas on how you can edit your firework photos, to make them really pop and wow.
On a side note, fireworks in Japanese is 花火 (hanabi), which literally translated means "fire flowers", and firework events are happening almost nonstop during summer in various places. So if you are crazy enough to visit Japan during boiling summer, then you should definitely scan the area for one of the firework shows.
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Wearing a traditional wedding kimono is a full time job. That is a lot of fabric. Japanese service is usually over the top, but during wedding ceremonies it is completely bananas. One has to see it to believe it, 7 people fixing the kimono, 2 photographers and 6 assistants, and the list goes on. Come to think of it, there are more organisers than guests. No wonder that a wedding at Meiji Jingu in Tokyo costs up to $100,000.
All craziness aside, wedding kimono is a piece of art. They are extremely expensive, for which reason brides rent them for a wedding day. If you are visiting Tokyo, make sure to visit Meiji Jingu on Sunday for the endless parade of wedding ceremonies. It is quite a sight. Shichi-go-san is a festivity held every year in Japan on November 15th, and it is a very special day for 7 year old girls and 3 and 5 years old boys, a day of transition of the youngest ones into a middle childhood. This tradition goes back to the Heian period (8th century), and the idea behind the ages 3, 5 and 7 is linked to the ancient numerology, as those numbers were considered lucky. This is the day when the boys wear their first hakama, and girls replace the cords with an obi (belt) to tie their kimono. I shot the photo of this lovely little lady last year in Meiji Jingu (明治神宮) shrine in Tokyo, but I re-edited it today in black and white. I think it looks more dignified. The Japanese calligraphy in clerical script is also written by me, and it reads 大和撫子 – i.e. a woman who displays the virtues of old Japan.
I took this photo last year, during my visit to Hamarikyu Imperial Gardens (浜離宮恩賜庭園) in central Tokyo. I actually went there with the intention of photographing landscapes, but I got lucky and bumped into a wedding photo shoot, so I could not resist. Traditional Japanese wedding kimono is a true masterpiece. It is hand-made, and painfully expensive. Prices can go as high as $30,000 USD. For this reason, most of the couples rent kimono for for their wedding.
I love this photo to bits. I bet the photographer who was paid ridiculous amount of money to shoot this wedding will not be a happy panda when he sees this. I love that cheeky smile of her, and the fact that her parents are in a completely different zone. She is just enjoying herself. So how how did I do this, you ask? Oh, it is simple. I am over 190cm tall, and easily the size of two Japanese photographers combined, whichever direction you would not expand them, or even three of them if they work too much, and their bodies turned into dried prunes. Being different has its advantages, even in Japan, or perhaps especially here.
Wata boshi (綿帽子) lit. means "silk hat". What you see on the below photo is only one type of the traditional Japanese headwear worn by the brides during a ceremony in a Shinto shrine. The girl is also wearing a hand made white kimono called shiro muku (白無垢), which means "white purity". The wata boshi white silk hood symbolises obedience to the husband. I took this at Meiji Jingu Shinto (明治神宮) shrine in central Tokyo.
If you go to a traditional Japanese wedding, then stand on a side and close your eyes and only listen to the surroundings, you will not know whether this is a wedding or a funeral procession. It is slow, traditional music sounds are a rather dramatic, and everyone is dead serious. However, the stunning parade of women and men dressed in traditional kimono, and the wedding ceremony itself are well worth witnessing. It is really beautiful. Wedding party, on the other hand, is something that you can skip, as it is being animated to the last detail by 1456 wedding animators, extremely stiff, need to fill an application with a pastport photo every time you want leave the table and go to pee, cant really talk to anyone as you are given a seat and have to stay there for the whole thing, and get kicked out after 3 or so hours. Not my idea of whoopie. Photo was shot in Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo, where weddings such as this one can cost around 100,000 $ (yup, thats hundred thousand).
Japan is not only about gadgets, life in a rush, packed train stations and instant cup noodles. If you slow down and look around you, even in the most crazy places like central Tokyo, you will notice that there are things that remain unchanged for centuries. Calligraphy originated in China, but today Japan is considered to be be a country where calligraphy research and studies are on a very high level, and calligraphy exhibitions are a vital part of that tradition. It happens so, that the picture you see here was taken during one of many Japanese calligraphy events that take place in Ginza, and I was one of the participants. Person on the left hand side is my calligraphy teacher, 74 years old Master Kajita Esshuu, and to the right is oen of his students.
The Warding off Evil grand festival (厄除大祭) is one of the Japanese Shinto religion ceremonies, which is held in major shinto shrines. It involves prayers, symbolic purifying fire, ritual dance performed by the shrine maidens, and traditional Japanese music. Below photo shows two Shinto priests, who play traditional Japanese instruments - the Japanmese shime daiko drum (締め太鼓), which is a small drum played with sticks called bachi (桴(, and the flute, that looked to me like kagurabue (神楽笛), which is a transverse flute used for Shinto religion ceremonies, mainly for the kagura dance. I gave this photo an antique look. I think it fits the mood perfectly.
When I went to Odaiba, a district of Tokyo that was built on reclaimed land, I planned on photographing the panorama of Tokyo from the Rainbow Bridge, which is a bridge that connects Odaiba with mainland Tokyo. You can see it on the below picture on the right hand side. By chance, while trying to find my spot on the bridge, I met another photographer and we started to chat. He told me that there will be a short display of fireworks over the Odaiba beach. When I checked on the internet I found out that it was the last day of fireworks display. It was a really cold and windy night, and I was frozen stiff after spending about two hours or so on the windy bridge, but I decided to wait up till 7pm and see the show, and perhaps take a few pictures. Fireworks are not that hard to photograph, but it gets trickier when you want to inlclude the scenery, while capturing an interesting explosions of fireworks in one frame. I was lucky to capture a few good shots, or so I believe, and here is one of them. I might be adding some Japanese calligraphy to it, not sure. What do you guys think? Buy a print of this photo at my store on Fine Art America
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Ponte Ryuurui (品天龍涙)
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