Malaysia 34th Bon Odori 2010

Bon Odori is a Japanese Buddhist custom which is held annually to honour the deceased spirits of one's ancestors. It is meant to be a joyful celebration, bringing families together, and celebrating rather than mourning the lives of the dearly departed. In Malaysia, the celebration is more geared toward celebrating the Japanese culture rather than Buddhism. These are some the pictures taken by me (アズルル写真) aka a.i Photography during that lively and cheerful event.

Japanese women wearing Yukata during the event

What I did...

Main problem

The main problem for most of the photographers during this event was to take a descent picture with a limited range since the main stage parameter was off limited by 5 meter range . With the place crowded with people the space and range became more limited. That's why I chose my 70-300mm lense to do this dirty work..

The opening started with drummers showing their skills

Secondly, as the event was going on until night, photographers had the problem of balancing their aperture and shutter speed during limited light sources (well, this is a classic night photography problem). Most of the time I maintained my camera mode to the aperture priority mode so that I can control the amount of light came in without having the headache to think about the shutter speed.

Flashgun and ISO

Women are dancing on the stage with the drummers as a background

Flash gun and ISO settings also really come in handy during night photography. As my camera ISO is taken into consideration, I maintained the ISO ranged from 500 to 1000. Depends on the camera used, my camera has a very limited noise problem when go to 1000.  Flashgun played a crucial role in balancing your shutter speed and aperture usage. More light comes in means bigger aperture (less F number) can be achieved with faster shutter speed. For those who are not using flashgun, lenses with big aperture ability really come in handy during night photography.



Feel free to browse few collection of Bon Odori 2010 pictures here.

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When the shutter speaks again V2

Its been almost a year since I launched this blog. Well, a lot of things happened in between in which makes me forgot the existence of my own blog. Well, I will be becoming a student again soon and I hope I have plenty times to update this blog as a hobby.
I would like to extent my Thank You to my friend Aslam for pointing out the 'existence' of this blog to me. Hahaha Thanx Bro! 

P/s: This is Aslam. A guy that going to Japan earlier than me. I feel like wanna kick his a*s.. ahaha Just kidding Aslam.. LoL

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KLCC

KLCC Night Photography

ISO: 800
Focal Length: 19mm
Exposure: 1/8
Aperture: 3.5
Nikon D40x
Manual Mode

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Swan

Swan in Malacca Zoo
ISO: 800
Focal Length: 90mm
Exposure: 1/320
Aperture: 4.5
Nikon D40x
Manual Mode

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ISO: 400
Focal Length: 55mm
Exposure: 1/500
Aperture: 11
Nikon D40
Manual Mode

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The City of Ipoh

View of Ipoh from Kinta City Rooftop.. quite flat.. not really high..

ISO: 400
Focal Length: 38mm
Exposure: 1/641
Aperture: 5.6
Nikon D40x
Manual Mode
Date: 7/1/2010 6.12pm

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Variation of Ipoh Railway Station

ISO: 400
Focal Length: 18mm
Exposure: 1/60
Aperture: 5.6
Nikon D40x
Manual Mode
Date: 7/1/2010 6.42pm

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Ipoh Railway Station

ISO: 400
Focal Length: 19mm
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: 5.6
Nikon D40x
Manual Mode
Date: 7/1/2010 6.39pm

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Introduction

To be frank, I'm a big fan of High Dynamics Range picture. Yes, its HDR. This technique I learnt to compensate my Nikon D40 drawbacks. Well, if you meet some "old-schooler", they might say that what I'm doing here is "The Work of Devil" and a damn taboo in photography. Actually, I DON'T CARE!. For me, it depends on the photographer stand and point of view about the picture they want to represent.

Well, enough of this nagging... Just enjoy my pictures and please drop any comments to improve my skills. Have a nice 2010 yeah!

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