Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Little Princesses at Play
Aoi Matsuri, at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park
葵祭、京都御所
The Aoi Matsuri festival (葵祭; at Wikipedia), one of Kyoto's big three festivals, was held the other day, and I stopped by for the first time in many years to photograph the folks in period (circa 1000AD) costumes.
A cursory scan of the initial photos shows that I missed focus on most of the shots taken with the Nikkor 300mm f/2 with a 1.4X TC, so I'll have to look into whether the camera or my technique needs an adjustment. In the shot above, the gravel shows the plane of focus is well behind the kids. )-:
The biggest problem with these “period costume” festivals such as this one and the Jidai Matsuri (“festival of the ages”) is when modern things like utility wires and glasses ruin the shot. The whole “old vs. new” thing can be fun, but it gets old quickly. One way around this is to frame very tightly (such as here), or to edit out the backgrounds with creative processing, such as here.
However, this time I was able to get somewhat sweeping views without modernness by going to the staging area for the parade, where the background was the wall of the imperial palace. (Thanks to Stéphane Barbery for the great advice.)
Now if I could just find the time to check out and post the photos more fully. I won't be holding my breath... I still have barely even looked at those from the Jidai Matsuri event six months ago. )-:
Two very strong compositions! Thanks for highlighting your efforts to manage long lens focusing issues. It’s a problem that I relate to as well.
I look at the images and try and imagine the participants in ordinary day to day clothing
of current day Japan. Then I notice; where visible, everybody is wearing white socks
which I would assume are very modern day items.
Otherwise very visible and as you noted, some focus problems with long lenses.
Could be any number of factors.