Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116mm — 1/250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vanquished or Victor?
With kendo, you can't really tell
The other day I attended some very high level kendo (Japanese fencing) bouts, my first real exposure to it other than having seen a bit six years ago during a visit to a Japanese high school.
Last week I posted a couple of lone photos here and here, but finally I'll actually write a bit about the event.
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/2500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Registration Table
at the Kyubutokuden (旧武徳殿), the oldest martial-arts arena in Japan
Kyoto, Japan
The sign says something along the line that it's the 110th All Japan Kendo Martial-Arts Exhibition.
I live a short stroll from this place, so it's a shame that it's taken me 10 years to make a visit. I had no idea what to expect, so I went in gingerly and observed how others acted to determine what I could do.
There seemed to be two bouts going simultaneously, each with two practitioners facing off against each other and three judges in suits.
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/80 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Single Bout
two fighters, three judges
Court-side are tatami areas for upcoming participants to get ready... kendo has quite the impressive uniform.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — 1/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Getting Ready
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Face Off
The armor flap in front shows their city and name.
The bougu protective uniform is quite impressive, with 100+ years of martial-arts tradition built on top of thousands of years of samurai-warrior tradition. There's meaning in every little bit, as illustrated by the length of this introductory description. Later I noticed some stalls outside the venue selling sets of the “armor” part of the uniform at prices ranging from $700 for a set, to $10,000. I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.
As for the sport itself, apparently they get points for making a strike to certain areas of the other's armor, but only if done with sufficient control so as to never let themselves be open to counterattack.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Attack
Bouts last just a few minutes, and have a slow highly-choreographed look for the most part, except that it's punctuated at moments by short ferociously-quick bursts of energy of movement.
Everyone I saw was at a sufficiently high rank to be considered a master of masters, yet some were still so surprised and caught off guard by the sudden burst of energy from their opponent that their feet couldn't keep up with their body's retreat, leaving them sprawled on the ground.
Even to someone like me who knew nothing, this was amazing to see.
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/80 sec, f/1.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Next Up
Not only couldn't I tell who won each bout, I truly couldn't tell whether there was a winner at all. According to the Wikipedia page on Kendo the referees have colored flags to match colored ribbons on the back of the fencers, but this was not the case here.
I checked out the nameboard to find a hint, but after a match both names got an unceremoniously final red “X”, and then they were slid off the end and removed from the display....
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Upcoming Bouts
An interesting tidbit from the photo above is that the bout just completed is numbered 429. It was a busy tournament.
Also of note is that the referees are listed, each name given with the honorific reserved for the highest kendo rank. If one devoted oneself to kendo from childhood and advanced at the fastest rate possible, this highest rank could be achieved no earlier than 54 years old. So we know that all the referees are older than 54, and are the highest masters of kendo.
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/80 sec, f/8, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bouts in Progress
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Changing of the Guard
so to speak
Reasonable color balance was a challenge due to the wildly-different nature of the gymnasium artificial lighting from the shade flooding in from the huge entrances in each wall. The color in the shot two above is probably more realistic than that of the shot immediately above, which is balanced more for the guy in the foreground.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 140mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wielding Two Swords
apparently is okay
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chair and Vice Chair
of this year's exhibition
They had quite the good seats, but lucky for me they didn't occupy them most of the time I was in a position to get nice shots.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/3.2, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Parting Bow
a kendo master prepares to depart the dojo after a bout
I've been feeling remarkably unproductive of late, sorry. I'm hoping soon to have a proper post about the kendo (“Japanese fencing”) event mentioned a couple of weeks ago, but for now here's one picture from it.
I've been subscribing to Netflix's video-streaming service for a month or so. For $9 bucks a month it's a great deal and I recommend it, but that being said, it's also a big disappointment over what I expected.
YouTube has defined what's expected in video streaming, and the Netflix experience is so much worse. One problem is that the video quality is usually pretty bad — blocky and pixelated — even though I have a very fast connection (even via the VPN that I require to access Netflix from Japan). I can watch super-HD 1080p videos on YouTube without problem, but Netflix remains fairly blocky on average. (Only once that I recall in all this time has it ever kicked into basic-HD mode.)
While watching YouTube, if you want to jump back a few seconds, or skip forward a few seconds, you just grab the little location cursor and move it where you want, and usually playback starts from there immediately, because these locations not far from your previous playback spot are in the playback buffer. Not so on Netflix... any movement of the playback cursor — even just back a few seconds — requires a full restart of the stream, taking 10+ seconds and reverting to the lowest-quality video. It's maddening.
Other problems include...
Movie selection: I never knew that there were so many crappy movies made over the years, but Netflix has conveniently assembled them all in one location. To keep things consistent, good movies are kept to a minimum.
Every time I've searched for a specific movie by name, it's not been available. Every. Single. One. Examples include Avatar, 300, Harry Potter, Inception, Major League, Game of Thrones, The Spanish Prisoner, Frozen. Not available.
With an inability to find good movies by name, you're left to browse the cesspool of crappy movies to find the occasional good movie that somehow snuck in, but Netflix makes this very difficult because the rating system is almost useless.
First off, they're always shoving “rate this movie” interstitials into your face, encouraging you to give a haphazard answer just to shut the thing up. An ignorant or unconsidered rating is much worse than no rating, but they aggressively encourage the former, strongly diluting the meaning and purpose of ratings.
While browsing you can mark a move as “Not Interested”, but there's no description of what this actually means. Does it mean:
Already seen this movie (it was great!) but don't want to see while searching for something new.
Already seen this movie (it was horrible!) and never want to be reminded of it again.
Not interested in this specific movie that I've heard bad things about.
Not interested in this genre/director/actor/subject.
or something else entirely? Does it impact the rating system? Who knows.
When they show a rating for a movie, sometimes they show the average customer rating, and sometime they show the rating Netflix thinks I'd give. While browsing, you'll see one or the other, but they're presented with the same appearance so you actually have to read the fine print to know which they're showing.
And if you do want to spend the time to rate a movie, there's nothing between “Didn't like it” and “Liked it”. There's no “meh, it was okay”. I'm sure that a thousand years of consumer research shows that a movie rating system must have exactly five stars, but Netflix picks a lopsided five levels that artificially encourages more positive reviews:
Netflix's Rating System What I think it Should Be ✭ · · · · Hated it Hated it ✭ ✭ · · · Didn't like it Didn't care for it ✭ ✭ ✭ · · Liked it So-so ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ · Really liked it Liked it ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Loved it! Really liked it Actually, I think a 10-star system like IMDB would be much better. IMDB gives ratings that actually mean something.
When you're watching at TV show and the episode reaches the end credits, they show the blurb for the next episode, making it easy to skip directly to it. “Easy” is wonderful, but the blurb about the next episode can give away important plot points, destroying much of the fun of watching. As far as I can tell, you can't turn this off.
The Netflix original production “House of Cards” illustrates how little they get the concept of on-demand video. With broadcast TV, especially before recorders and timeshifting, the title sequence of a TV show — those 60 seconds or so of theme music with actor and production credits over generic video not related to the specific episode — served the important function of being a time buffer during which the viewing audience could tune in and confirm that they've gotten to the right channel at the right time, and if they join in early enough in the sequence, allow them the comfort to use the bathroom or grab something from the fridge without worrying that they'll miss something.
This time-buffer purpose has no meaning in an on-demand world of video streaming and DVD rentals where you press “play” when you're ready to watch. The title sequence can of course be useful to set a mood and to give credit to the actors and producers, so it makes sense to have it at the start of the first episode, but House of Cards has almost two minutes of generic title sequence stuff tacked on to the start of each of its 26 episodes. It's exactly the same every time, so after the first episode it's just maddening to have to suffer the 101 seconds of title sequence just to watch the video you wanted to see back when you pressed “play”. I'd rather have commercials.
All told, the wasted time over the course of the 26 episodes adds up to almost 44 minutes, almost as long as a full episode! Clearly, someone doesn't get the concept of “on demand”. And as I mentioned above, Netflix makes it difficult to jump ahead, so you're pretty much stuck watching over and over who designed the costumes, and who the half dozen executive producers were.
(That all being said, House of Cards is an amazing, riveting, fantastic show. It's painful to sit through the title sequence each time, but House of Cards by itself makes the Netflix subscription more than worth it.)
YYMV.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Japan's Biggest Waterwheel”
whoop-de-do
at the Michinoku Hot Springs (みちのく温泉), Aomori Prefecture
While driving around the sparsely-populated coastal/mountain area of western Aomori Prefecture at the northern end of Japan's main island during a short family trip last week, in the middle of nowhere we suddenly came across something billing itself as “Japan's largest waterwheel”.
It seemed at least a bit photogenic, so I stopped for a quick look.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/3.2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
The tree in the lower left of the photo above hosted the “Dark, Brooding Camellia” (乙女椿) that I posed last week.
The “dark brooding” was because of an underexposure. A shot soon after was way overexposed, but I think I recovered something interesting(?) in Lightroom...
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Overexposed and Overprocessed
Eventually I got it right.
I suppose the one above is not the best example from the tree, but I was still happy with some of the shots that I got. Then the other day my friend Akiko posted some camillia shots on her blog that put mine to shame. I've got to try harder next time.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside the Waterwheel
the wheel drives the chain descending at left
power split between up/down pounders at rear, and rice grinding in foreground
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pounders
rotational energy lifts heavy beams, lets gravity drop them onto beans
It looks like they're making kinako, as we did at home years ago.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Business End
One could wander up to the top of the service building where the wheel's axle came in. I didn't see a soul the whole time I was at the property, so I hope it was okay that I went up. The view out the window was nice...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Missing a Lynchpin
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Back Down
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tea Room Next Door
also deserted
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/250 sec, f/9, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wider View
I have no idea what the large concrete stairway structure is at left. I also had no idea at the time where the water came to drive the wheel, but the base seemed improbably dry to be driven by a stream.
I eventually found a video showing the wheel in action, but it was a disappointment because it seems that water is pumped up a pipe to the top of the thing, then poured over it, which means they use more energy to drive the wheel than they can get out of the wheel, so it's all fake. I'd sort of hoped it was some real vestige of years past.
Oh well.
In my search I also found that there were multiple places claiming “Japan's largest waterwheel”. I hadn't realized that there was competition for the distinction.
Anyway, at least the cherry blossoms were nice.
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — 1/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Late-April Blossoms
several weeks later than Kyoto
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/80 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Waiting
Kendo master next in line for his match
If you don't know me personally you may not have a good grasp of just how stupid I am, but today's story should fill you in plenty.
Online reviews for Sigma's new 50mm f/1.4 “Art” lens have been universal in praise for its quality without respect to price, made all the more amazing that its price is ¼ that of lenses of comparable quality. I've not had good luck with Sigma in years past (as reported here and here), but all the stellar reviews made me give them another try.
Yesterday I ordered it on Amazon Japan, and it arrived today just as I was about to head out to photograph some kendo (“Japanese fencing”). It wasn't the best focal length for the situation, but I used it here and there throughout the day.
Prior to loading photos into Lightroom I have to pre-process the files to fill in missing lens details that Lightroom doesn't let me edit after the fact, such as replacing the “0.0 mm f/0.0” that the camera puts for my favorite non-CPU lens with a more descriptive “Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5”. With the new 50mm lens, I wanted a full description so as to differentiate it from other 50mm lenses I might use, so I needed to update my pre-processing program to fill in something like “Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM”.
Updating my program to handle the new lens involves finding out exactly what data the camera writes for it, then mapping that to whatever I want to change.
It's at this point in the process (after ordering the lens the previous day, receiving it today, testing it, and then using it throughout the day) that I realized I'd ordered and received the 35mm version, not the 50mm version.
Doh!