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.