icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Energy / Spirit”
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Strength”
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lots of Tai Chi at the Heian Shrine
Kyoto, Japan
There was a short event at the Heian Shrine the other day that involved some 600 tai chi practitioners from around the country, doing a short routine at the shrine to, as it was told to me, show the gods their performance in the hope that it would please them.
Now that I think about it, I don't know of any other shrine that has a courtyard large enough to handle numbers like this.... it's a lot of people, so first they had to get them all in...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ducky Crossing
long parade from a staging area at a nearby park pauses to let people cross
The young girl in kimono has probably just come from a shichi-go-san event, which fill a shrine's autumn weekends with cute kids in kimono (including my own kid last year).
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 58 mm — 1/800 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Streaming In
the white signs with kanji are to mark each group's location
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 58 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/11, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Getting Set Up
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inconsiderate
these three ladies ruined the wide shots for the entire phalanx of photographers
Sigh. At least they didn't decide to wander in through the group!
I was forced to abandon wide-angle shots, so went in for the zoom...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting the Routine
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Free Show
I'm sure that most shrine visitors had no idea what was going on
( I didn't know too much what was going on either, but at least I'd had a few minutes forewarning )
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 290 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse Angle
After the five-minute routine was done, they filed out and that was that.
I wonder whether there are any other shrines in Japan with courtyards this big? The owners of the shrine use it for all kinds of things, such as music and art performances, a large Setsubun event, which itself includes an intense burn of tens of thousands of wooden wish offerings. Then, of course, there are the innumerable portraits taken, such as my family portrait last year, lots of kids in kimono, and the weddings that fill the weekends.
But my favorite photo here in the courtyard has just one person in it.
‘Inconsiderate’ in my opinion, is a prime example of embracing wholeheartedly, the technology of ‘photoshopping’. While the photo unedited is interesting because of your comments, it would be nice to see it without the interlopers. A little rubber stamp; a little clone tool and that would be perfect. Purists be darned.
These photos also show the deep influence that China has had on Japanese culture. Buddhism, tai-chi, kanji, the 1st hints of fall in kyoto, classic chinese/japanese architecture… your inner culture nerd must have been doing somersaults.
It may be my perverse (or immature) nature… but the first thing to pop into my head was how it reminded me of scenes from Enter the Dragon. *Sigh* almost certainly my immature side.
About ‘photoshopping’: I gave a try to the new ‘context aware fill’ in CS5 on that picture, and the people are gone in no time, just a rough selection and click. Perfect in this case…
It can be cleaned up just fine using even Lightroom controls alone, but for whatever reason, I wanted to present it with the ladies in it. —Jeffrey
Fantastic shots. I’d like to go to Kyoto and see some of these kinds or events. They just don’t have these kinds of things in Amami. 🙂