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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/2, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading To Gion Matsuri
“yoi-yoi-yoi yama”, the first of three festival evenings
I missed most of Kyoto's Gion Matsuri this year, except for one evening when I stepped out for a few hours with Anthony. Unlike last year where I shot with a massive 300mm f/2 lens, this year photography was secondary, so I just brought along a simple 85mm f/1.4.
No particular theme to today's photos... just snapshots I took along the way.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shijo St.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sitting Wherever You Can Find a Seat
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Side Street
The wall of lanterns above (which are really warm orange, but appear white because the color channels were blown out) is on one of the big yamaboko floats that are a major part of the festival. Up inside the top, music was being played for the crowd...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Musicians
The side streets were filled with festival vendors of all types. Here's one where one tries to use a tissue-paper scoop to collect wet marbles...
In former times (and still now) you had to try to collect as many goldfish as you could from a bin of water before the tissue broke, and you could take them home (where they presumably soon found their way to the toilet). This version with marbles seems better.
The tissue breaks very quickly once it gets wet, and I don't think the girl above got any marbles, but an older boy had a great technique where he held the thing vertically to put most of the weight of the marble on the plastic rim, and he was scooping them up...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Good Technique
certainly quite satisfying
However, at this vendor you could pay a bit extra and get as many marbles as you could transfer with two big plastic scoops:
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Jackpot
perhaps less satisfying, but you get a lot of marbles
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.6, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Disgusting
This disgusting stall featured a lady who would lean directly over... waaaay over... the cooking food when exchanging money with customers, with her cigarette sporting a long trail of ash. Ugh.
Another stall seemed a bit more sanitary...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Candy Apples
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Candy Pot
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Another Large Float
featuring a small tea room in front
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Open-Air Tea Room
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 7200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tea Girls
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Adult Girls
enjoying an adult beverage
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cucumbers on a Stick
refreshing cool snack on its own, but also great with beer
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 11400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chicken Skewers
apologizing to potential customers about the wait needed until they're done
( we had a bunch of these; they were great )
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 12800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Home
I wonder what will become of the massive blow-up cartoon hammer
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 12800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Festive Mood
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 12800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op
Looking at the “nearby photos” under any of these will likely bring you to lots of photos from last year's many outings.
When did you go? Looks like the night of the 16th, that’s when I was there, too.
Unfortunately I couldn’t go to see the parade the next day as I had to work.
Great photos!
Yoiyoyiyoyama is the first of three nights (the 14th). It’s the least crowded night, at least it was last year. —Jeffrey
Nice set of photos.
Cigarette ash is actually perfectly sanitary. It’s probably the least of what you have to worry about when eating food cooked by dirty, greasy, yakuza-paid wage-slaves using the cheapest ingredients from Chinese factories, where they are filled with who-knows-what toxic chemicals.
I don’t know what “sanitary” has to do with it… it’s disgusting even if perfectly sterile. —Jeffrey
I wanted to go on the 14th too, but I felt somewhat sick, so I went the next day. And boy, it was ten times more crowded than on Saturday (judging from the pictures)! There were times when walking simply was impossible…
In generally I found certain stalls to be quite questionable. I mean, a heavily tattooed , chain smoking guy selling balloons to little kids? Huh…
But I still managed to run into Paul Barr that night! Must have been strange for him: “Hey, you don’t know me, but I saw you on Jeffreys Blog!”
Anyway, great pictures. I am also heavily impressed by the High-ISO picture quality…
Ah, that was you! He mentioned that someone picked him out of the crowd! You always run into someone you know at Gion Matsuri! 🙂 —Jeffrey
Oh what a flair you have for captions. ‘DISGUSTING’ would have been maybe another nondescript photo… but after the caption it becomes the center of the conversation.
A. Is it disgusting because of that big ol’ cancer stick hangin’ out of of tin pot lady’s mouth.
B. Is it the, “Hey, it pays the bills, okay!?” look on tin pot lady’s face?
C. Is it her older age and lack of subjective beauty compared to the grace and charisma of Princess Chestnut Hair in the photo below?
D. Or Maybe it’s that pot full of tare sauce and its unspoken yet loud-and-clear message to you, the viewer: “Just add more tare… that will fix everything! Heh! Heh! Heh!”
Your further explanation notwithstanding, my money would have been on A or D.
Im amazed! im just amazed! how did you get those images with that ISO but without any noise at all? was it the camera? the LR? i just dont get it! i loved the pictures btw, they are beautiful! (i just ran into your blog as a casualty, im glad i did (by the way, excuse my english, i actually speak spanish))
It’s a combo of the camera being good, Lightroom being good, and smaller sizes hiding details, I suppose. —Jeffrey