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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/800 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Jidai Matsuri (“Festival of the Ages”) 時代祭
Kyoto, Japan

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Busy day today... caught the fringe of two famous Kyoto festivals. In the afternoon was Jidai Matsuri (時代祭 — “Festival of the Ages”), more or less a re-enactment parade representing the many periods Kyoto's long history. I caught the tail end of the procession as it made its way past my place.

(I'll post more another day, I'm sure, but in the meantime, for a different take on the genre, check out Stéphane Barbery's photos from three years ago, and from today.)

In the evening was the Kurama Fire Festival, which involves a lot of fire being heaved and hoed by men with bare buttocks. I'll save you from the bare buttocks, but there's fire'a'plenty in this shot of some very large (multi-story) torches being lit:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lighting the Torches
the very big torches
Kurama Fire Festival (鞍馬の火祭り)

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Continued here...