Another Koenji Awaodori come and gone. This year Hector and Harold joined me to enjoy the event. They were Awaodori newbies so I took them around the course and showed them all the different aspects. This year it seemed like there were not as many people, probably because it started a little earlier at 6pm. I took about 350 photos mostly using my 50mm F1.4 lens. It’s a beautiful lens but hard to use on moving subjects because of the shallow depth of field. Although with a fast lens like this one it’s amazing what you can get with just available light and no flash. Above is a shot of the Microsoft-ren at the end of the festival. More photos after the jump.
Darn, I couldn’t make it because of work, had to settle for a short snack with my colleagues at a local matsuri in Ogikubo.
I also use the Nikon 50mm, but mine is the F1.8 model. I’ve taken some fantastic photos with it, but its a pity it doesn’t autofocus with my D40.
Nice photos Roy. If I stare at them long enough I can almost imagine the sounds of being there.
Personally I really like the shallow DOF for crowd scenes, and the use of the ambient light makes these photos look absolutely realistic. Great job, Roy. A lot of the shots look like you’re right in front of the dancers, how did you do that?
面白いですね！写真もきれいですね。
blauereiter, why don’t you join us next year?
Dylan, next time I will provide video if I can.
Randy, with a standard lens I had to get pretty close. There were some narrow places where the dancers practical walk right over you so I could get some nice closeups.
Saff, thanks!!
Looks like a great time. Should have just got on the plane ANYWAY! Serves me right for getting sick…
You write that the crowd was smaller; was the number of participating ren smaller too?
Edokko Ren started first on Saturday, right?
Hey Rodney, we missed you this year.
Yeah, it was the same as last year except it wasn’t as dark as it usually was when it starts. Also, it was crowded but not as crowded as the year we went. There were more Rens though.
Hope you can make it next year. I’ll let you crash in my basement if you promise not to talk about politics ;-)
love ur site!! informative and entertaining!!
Hey Roy, is that ‘Random Kanji’ thing on your home page new or am I just so blind I never noticed it before? It seems to hang and slow down the page loading quite a bit. I just tried reloading about half a dozen times, and 50% of the time the kanji didn’t show up anyway.. just a blank box with the link in it.
Yeah I’m experimenting. It seems down for some reason. I will remove it for now.
Agreed! See you next August…