Koenji Awa Odori Festival

[lunaticitizen]

Awa Odori is one of the biggest traditional summer dance festivals in Japan. Originated in Tokushima Prefecture in southern Japan, the dance festival also spread to Tokyo, becoming what we call now Koenji Awa Odori festival. It attracts more than one million visitors every year and had more than ten thousand amateur dancers performed last year.

There were also hundreds of professional and amateur photographers, including me!

(1)


(2)


(3)


(4)


(5)


(6)


(7)

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Marie Hass]

Hi, Leo!

This looked like a great place to take pictures - but also a difficult place to take pictures. You have a lot of action going on, and you managed to capture that. I was still looking for a central focus though. Like in the last one. Does that make sense? Just my humble.

Nice series.

Marie

[NorthernFocus]

Interesting scenes, Leo. Collectively they give a good sense of the activity. Nicely done.

[Javier]

Nice pictures, plenty of colorfull and movement¡¡¡ Congrats

[rpcrowe]

Nice series. I love the expressions...

[Sergio M.]

Enjoyable series. Well captured.

Sergio

[bnnrcn]

Nice series

[lunaticitizen]

Thank you everyone!
I didn't realize Photoshop removed my EXIF data I used it for the first time just to add borders to the images, but... I didn't really like the result Oh well..

Hi, Leo!

This looked like a great place to take pictures - but also a difficult place to take pictures. You have a lot of action going on, and you managed to capture that. I was still looking for a central focus though. Like in the last one. Does that make sense? Just my humble.

Nice series.

Marie

Hi Marie, thank you for the comment. Yes it was a difficult place to take pictures, at least for me. I made around 500 exposures, but only 20 or so made the cut. Well that was the best I could do at the time. I understand about the need for a central focus, it is just so difficult to put in practice! Any advice? I also like the last one, by the way!

[IzzieK]

My preference of the lot are #1, #5, #6 and #7.

#1 because it is a happy shot. That woman is beautiful. I like Japanese women per se. They are cuties.
#5 shows a good dance shot. I like it.
#6 is my first favourite because it is another happy shot. and of course,
#7 comes second to my favourite -- you finally got a separation of focus here with this little fella.

Not bad...not bad at all...

[lunaticitizen]

My preference of the lot are #1, #5, #6 and #7.

#1 because it is a happy shot. That woman is beautiful. I like Japanese women per se. They are cuties.
#5 shows a good dance shot. I like it.
#6 is my first favourite because it is another happy shot. and of course,
#7 comes second to my favourite -- you finally got a separation of focus here with this little fella.

Not bad...not bad at all...

Hi Izzie, thank you for your comment.

Talking about separation of focus, it might worth mentioning that I used a 24-120mm f4 lens in that particular occasion. Analyzing my shots, most of them were shot at 120mm f5.6. I deliberately chose f5.6 since the lens vignettes badly when shot wide open; but looking back again I might have gained better separation of focus with f/4 aperture.

Next time I shall bring a 200mm f2 lens or a 70-200 f2.8 lens, I guess.



ps.
_{^{Rental, of course...}}

[John 2]

Nice series that brings out the joy of the occasion. I particularly like the last one.

[lunaticitizen]

Nice series that brings out the joy of the occasion. I particularly like the last one.

Hi John, thank you for the comment.

Yes, this particular little guy was really lively that night. I think he really likes dancing and singing!

Here are some more pics of him and his group. Nothing special with the composition but I think you can get the idea.