First shots on my new 30D

So I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR. I got a Canon 30D for a great deal used at a camera shop in Japan. Here are a few of the first shots I took today.

The best thing I have seen in a long time

I went for a bike ride with some guests a few days ago and when we stopped for ice cream I saw this funny looking little thing running around the parking lot. I thought it was a cat at first and then when I got closer I realized it was a dog and was able to snap this one off.

 

Long time no Post

Well it's been a really long time since I last posted and a lot has changed. I an now living in Nagano Japan about 4 hrs from where I was before. My wife and I started our new life up in the Norther Japan Alps. Yesterday we went to this cool place about an hour from here. Anyway, I am out of time for this post so here is a new shot. 

Sunrise over Tokyo

This morning I woke up to a cool sunrise. We are are flying to Oregon this morning and have to catch a train later today. I will post some more once we get to the US. 

More Snowboard Shots

Here are two more shots form the NORTHSTAR park

Nakashima Graduation

Yesterday was the graduation at the school I am working at and of corse I shot the event. It was pretty standard as far as graduations go. Long, slow and sleepy. But I got a few cool shots. 

Japanese Magic

Last week I went to see a cool Japanese Magic show. They call it "tezuma" which means the hand is faster than lightning. Kind of like what we say in English, "the hand is faster than the eye". I was pretty amazed by what I saw and the style of magic has been around for hundreds of years. Here are a few photos.

Hashima City Chamber of Commerce

A few weeks back I shot a festival for the Hashima City Chamber of Commerce and they sent me the newsletter that they made and ended up using one of my photos in. I know this is not all that big of a thing but it's still cool to see my photos in print.

Chorus Concert

Yesterday I shot a chorus concert in Hashima City. The biggest school with almost 300 students in their second grade class won. Here are some of the shots.

Catfish Festival - なまず祭り

Yesterday I had an awesome opertunity to shoot a fall festival called なまず祭り or "Catfish Festival" in English. The festival has been going for over a hundred years and is very traditional. I am still processing the images so here are just a few to hold you over. The photos below are of a Japanese fox wedding. There was a drama group that put on an amazing performance and I got to see some Japanese culture that I have never seen before. More photos to come.

日本の体育祭 "Japanese Sports Festival"

I just finished shooting a Sports Festival for the junior high school that I work for. Sports Festivals are pretty amazing in Japan. The kids trained for 3 weeks for the event and they ran their hearts out. I have never seen anything like this in the US, if you ever have chance to check out a Sports Day I highly recommend it.


A Japanese Taiko Drum


Over 700 Students


The students all chear and sing for their team. The team colors are Red, White, Blue, and Yellow.




The teachers also compete with the students and they get pretty into it.




They do this event that is like a chicken fight and try to get the hats off the other teams heads while fighting to keep your own.




Group jump rope anyone? They jump rope as classes with about 40 students together and see who can get jump the most. The max this day was 130 in 5 min.










And the last event of the day is a group cheer. All the students of each team do a 5 min cheer and to see who will take the glory.

Tyler in Gifu

So the last few days my buddy Tyler was in town. He worked at NORTHSTAR for about 6 weeks and then on his way back to Oregon, he decided to visit us. It was nice hanging with Tyler and we went out and shot a few times, did some swimming to beat the heat and all that fun stuff.

At the River

Here are a few photos from the Nagara River near my house. I took these when Tyler and I went for a swim.

Hashima Student Parade

Today was the first day back at school for me and first thing this morning the vise principal asked me to shoot the student parade and the 2nd term opening ceremony. And of cores I am always happy to shoot so I said not problem. The parade is to show off the trophies that the kids won during summer break at the local competitions. The girl riding in the front of the convertible is the number one rhythmic gymnast in Japan. So that gives you an idea how serious they are about sports at this school. Anyway here are some shots.

T-Bolan Live

A few days ago the Junior High School that I am teaching at hosted a live rock show by a band named T-Bolan. They were actually pretty good but I don't think the kids were all that into them because they were popular about 10 years ago and the kids are in junior high. Anyway here are a few shots. Read more…