Today was the Setsubun festival at the Heian Shrine (and many shrines around Japan). I've written about the overall festival earlier, such as “Setsubun and Mamemaki: Driving out the Demons” nine years ago, and “Attack (and Repulsion) of the Evil Spirits” five years ago.

Today I went only to watch the final bonfire event. I explain it in some detail in “Intense Burn: Shinto Rite at the Heian Shrine” from nine years ago, and so like this post from five years ago, this time are just some photos.

I wandered over to the shrine about half an hour before the fires were to start, only to find that they were almost done already! )-:

That was a bummer.

I broke out my Nikkor 300mm f/2 and started shooting as best I could without having done the prep I should have (camera settings, etc.). My photography mojo has gone downhill since cycling has taken my attention.

(Again, what's going on during this festival is explained in this blog post.)

I'm having the hardest time with the white balance for these shots. The scenes include any number of things that are ostensibly “white”, such as parts of the red/white striped banners in the background, and the shirts/collars of the chanting priests, but using them with Lightroom's white-balance tool yields wildly crazy results that are just all over the map.

On top of that, they feel washed out and dull, and the focus is off. I dunno. Gotta get my mojo back.

300mm seems to be a bit tight for this event. I used Lightroom to stitch together a few shots to make this:

Check out the ripples in the upper-right corner:

It was over pretty quickly, and that was that. I've got to use this lens more than once a year to get used to it.

While things were winding down, I chatted with a group of students on summer break from their university in Australia. They posed for a photo: