Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oh My! Ouch!!
Reacting to a magician's “knife through the neck” trick.
The outing that I mentioned yesterday (that produced the car at sunset advertisement-esque shot) was an hour's drive away, to the German-themed Blumeの丘, a name with German and Japan components that translates in English to “flower hill”. It's a park full of flowers, farms, restaurants, shops, and entertainment, that was pleasant, although as far as I could tell, the German theme extended only so far as the font used for signs, and the music played throughout the mini town mall.
We didn't really know what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable day. We went with the intent to try a BBQ restaurant that Fumie had read about, but as we arrived at the almost deserted park, Anthony's attention was drawn to a magic show that was going on.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wow, Did You See That!!??
The fuddy-duddy bumbling magician with no sense of showmanship was so bad that it was actually entertaining to witness. There's no way he could have faked how bad he was... it took years and years of practice, manually going through the same mechanical steps to the same gags day after day, decade after decade, until he could do them blindfolded and without regard to the audience. He had truly achieved the pinnacle of mediocrity.
But that made it fun; you couldn't help but laugh.
To kids, of course, it was all still magic, so it was wonderful to see Anthony be amazed and astonished. I tried to capture the look in the shots above and below, but it's hard to get.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thrusting in the Knives
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Extracting the Knives
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony
( just a nice shot that I liked )
After dinner at a BBQ restaurant that could seat 100+ families (but had only two others besides us when we were there), we made our way to a go-cart area, where Anthony got to drive for the first time in his life...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting Out Tentatively
He couldn't reach the pedals, so I squished my legs inside and did that, while he did most of the steering.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
End of the First Lap
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
In Control
but still tentative
Each lap was a separate “ride” (at $7/ride) and took about two and a half minutes. By the end of the second lap, he knew what he was doing and felt much more comfortable....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
End of Second Lap
On the third lap, I tried to get a few shots with my iPhone, with marginal success...
I love the look on his face, though.
He also took one lap with Mommy, which was great fun...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting Out with Mommy
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony's Driving!
The real fun for the day, though, still awaited us, but I'll save that for a later post.... here.
Nice post, does indeed look great fun!
Just a note, photos 1-5 and 7 have some weird bar/encoding problem on them – first time I’ve seen it on this blog, just a heads up.
Oops, I had some HTML boo-boos at picture #6, thanks. Did that take care of it? —Jeffrey
Of COURSE Anthony was more comfortable driving the second lap: for that round he was sitting in the CORRECT driver’s side (for a kid who spent the summer in the U.S.)!
🙂
When in Rome….. (the go-car was laid out like a normal Japanese car, for the driver on the right). There was no room in there for my legs, so the first time I thought I’d get more by sitting on the wrong side and reaching across, but it was horribly uncomfortable. Subsequent times, I just cut off one leg and left it by the side of the road, leaving a bit more room for the other to work the pedals… —Jeffy