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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Archery Instructor
staredown at the Sanjusangendo Temple, Kyoto Japan
It's been a while since I last posted about the traditional Japanese archery event that I attended last month. I left off a while ago with “Traditional Japanese Archery: More Ladies, Part 2”, and you can see all the posts about the event via any of the “nearby photos” link under each picture.
The main event was for 2,200 twenty-year-olds, but when they were done a couple dozen instructors got to shoot, so I'll post from that group today. I'm still buried updating my plugins for Adobe Lightroom 4, so mostly just pictures today...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inspecting the Results
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Contemplation
Like a Boss
the archer from “Traditional Archery Like a Boss”
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tiny Veranda
of the temple
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
in the background is the archer from “More Badass Japanese Archery”
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Almost Made it Fit
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Marching Back
to present the results
Leave a comment...
Outstanding shots, Jeffrey. I think my favorite ones are the older guy mentally preparing himself and then shooting, but on the first pass I counted 11 that I classified as first rank if I were laying out a photo essay. That’s more than I would expect the photog to come back with. (I’m slipping back into newspaper mode because I seem to be interacting with old newspaper colleagues a lot on fb.) Sometimes I think you get too obsessed with shallow DOF, but here’s a case where all that practice pays off with stunning results. All those people in the bg were shooting pictures from the wrong side, huh? Assuming most of the archers were shooting right-handed, that is.
Any idea how the instructors did in comparison to the pupils? It reminds me of my fencing coach in University. National Champion multiple times in Japan and the US. Into his fifties he could defeat us students with either hand while simultaneously critiquing the technique of the fencers sparring on the next strip over. Because of his keen eye, he was usually recruited to referee matches at the national championships, and then afterward is was customary to have him fence the winners in an exhibition match. He defeated the national champions so often that the organizers decided to end that tradition. This photo of him scoring a touche from underneath his French opponent is legendary in fencing.
Yes, I have a penchant for shallow depth of field…. it seems to be my thing.
The folks in the background were on a small veranda hanging off the packed-to-the-gills temple proper, who had probably entered the temple by mistake and had probably spent the last half hour having been swept in slow increments around the internal hallway and, finally having seen daylight, spent another half hour trying to reach it, only to find that it was the “wrong” view of the archers that they had come to see in the first place. In Japanese archery, everyone shoots holding the bow with the left hand, so there is no variation on that front.
I suspect that the instructors did much better than average, since this was not a competition limited to the upper echelons of young talent, but I had a difficult time seeing the targets, so I don’t know. The only dead-center bulls-eye I noticed all day was from one of the instructors, but then, I know that when the three guys in the shot just above the veranda crowd shot together, only one hit the target at all.—Jeffrey
I continue to be intrigued by your images of this competition – you’ve got some amazing work. From an archery perspective, I find it intriguing that none of them have forearm guards on their left arms to to prevent the ‘slap’ from the bow string. Not sure if that’s bravado or simply a different way of holding the bow.
Mike.
Thanks for sharing these pictures and your commentary of how and where you took them, it gives a flavour of the event and I really enjoyed the photos.
You seem to be developing a penchant for that Nikkor 300mm too.. I suppose you have to make it worth the cost. Amazing lens and Amazing shots