Goddamnit, and Incredible Fireworks

So the Edogawa fireworks display is really big.  I don't know if it's the biggest in Japan, or whether it has any particular accolades in terms of size or variety, but just shy of a million and a half people view it yearly.  As such, it's a pretty big deal, and a large number of fireworks are thrown into the air for the occasion.

This year I wasn't in England and I had some time off from rugby so I decided to go along.

It's worth remembering that the Summer here is particularly warm, with the humidity also being a factor.

The result is that it gets unbearably hot during midday.

In order to secure a good spot to see the show it was necessary to go relatively early.  It began at 7.15, so we decided to head down around two o' clock, throw down a tarpaulin and sit under an umbrella.

Firstly, the place wasn't nearly as crowded as I was lead to believe it would be at this time.  With two people you could probably arrive around four thirty or five and still find space to sit down.  Whether it's always this easy is up for debate, but on the Chiba half of the river (the show is half paid for by the tokyo side of the river, and half by the chiba side) seating is a fairly simple affair.

The umbrella wasn't see-through, it was entirely opaque.  I still got burnt.  I have no idea how, but it happened.  It also wasn't big enough for my whole body (I need to get a fishing umbrella!) so I draped towels over my legs, making a kind of lean-to against the umbrella.

Long story short, it was hot.  It was too hot.  I do not recommend going before four P.M. for the simple fact that you will melt.  It was the hottest I have ever been while not playing sports, and it felt like I was going to die.  It was horrible.  Really, soul crushingly horrible.

As a caveat I'm the kind of person that would rather be too cold than too hot, so maybe it was just me.  There were a few intrepid locals sitting out in the sun, covered with only T-shirts, drinking beer.  Insane.  They weren't even sunburnt by the end of the day.  They must be made of radiators and zinc oxide.

Anyway, aside from nearly dying, I also fashioned a makeshift tripod.  Basically, there's no way to shoot long exposures without something to balance the camera on, that's why we have tripods.

None of my photographs are very good when you stop and look at them, but they hold up to a cursory glance for reasons that I'll explain later - but even getting these results took a bit of crafting.

I cut a slot into one big cardboard box and put a smaller one inside it at an angle, giving a fairly stable triangle.  I then taped it, cut wedges into the top, put towels over them and finally plopped the cameras on top.  It's good enough for video, the wobble is barely perceptible there, but for stills it's an entirely different story.

Before I get to the pictures, this boat sailed straight into this clearly marked area ignoring the obvious hazard, got caught up in some kind of net (dozens of fish made a bid for freedom when the propeller snagged) and burnt out their engine.  Seconds after this picture a big puff of black smoke emitted from the rear and lots of shouting happened.  I flitted between wanting to die from heat stroke and laughing at these idiots being hauled out of the net by a couple of other boats.  The women on the front did not move one iota the whole time.

When you're on the water, look out for buoys, people.

Anyway, onto the pictures.

It was a pretty day.  After my near death exposure experience there was a nice sunset.

There are only two pictures in landscape today, I learned something pretty quickly about which orientation suits fireworks the best.  Especially individual fireworks.

This is an odd one in that it's the only 100mm+ picture that wasn't a total mess.  Obviously the more zoomed in you are the more stable the platform needs to be, but I didn't realise quite how stable.  Cardboard doesn't cut it most of the time.

This is the other landscape.  It's also the only picture with more than one firework going off in the same frame.  If I had a tripod I could have taken a dozen pictures and overlayed them which can give a cool look with lots of simultaneous colours.

If you don't like this style of picture you can probably close the page now.

This is one of my favourites because it looks like a UFO.

This is another one of my favourites because it looks like a flower.

There was a lot of smoke in the air after only a few volleys which meant pictures often came out with the smoke effects you see here.  The top left of the flower at around 11 o' clock is hazy, residue from a past explosion.  There are also artifacts from reflected light lower down.  I could erase them but it's not really a true image then.

Not that 'true,' means anything in this digital age.

This is a bit earlier or later than the others, it shows the orange afterglow or initial explosion rather than the colours.

This is probably my favourite, just because of the mix of colours and the layers, central bright with a petal texture looking outwards.  Just like a flower.

 So if you enlarge any of these pictures and look at the lines of light, you'll notice that they wobble, they're not perfectly straight.  This is where a good base come in handy, it stops that tiny amount of shake and keeps every line looking pristine.  Or at least as it would look in real life.

I don't really like the colour of this one, but it's nice to have context in the form of some housing in the distance below.

The same with this one, the colours are bad but at least there is a wonky horizon, so the firework has a little more context.

 This is another of my favourites, it's super blurred (artistic effect, if anyone asks) but it's a nice colour.  If only all the pieces would come together every time!

 I like the colours here, I like how the horizon is almost straight, and I like the light pollution coming from the city.  It just doesn't grab me for some reason.  Taking 'dem pictures is hard.

This isn't a sharp picture, nor does it have interesting colours, but it's probably my favourite.  Have I already said that?  Either way, I'll probably make it my phone background at some point.

This last one I've chopped up to make it look like some strange sea creature.  Or a bizarre cell.  Or an artists rendition of a crazy quantum experiment.  Or one of those plasma balls.

I would also mention that the wind was in our faces, meaning we were absolutely pelted with the detritus from the explosions.  We were covered in soot, charred paper and big lumps of cardboard by the end of it.  It might be worth bringing something with a peak to cover your eyes, even if only a marginal improvement over your hands.  It definitely added excitement to proceedings because it's pitch black directly in front of you and it's hard to see when you're about to be clocked upside the head.

Hopefully some of that will show through in the video.

That's it.  I got quite a few shots I like, and one or two that will go into the 'keepers,' collection, which is a rare thing indeed for a single outing (for me at least)!

I also shot some video, it's taking a while to edit but I'll put it up here when it's done.

Oh, and some film too.  That'll be done in a month or so.  Exciting.

A Few More

These ones are a bit of a hodgepodge, but they were all taken within a week of each other.

This is a sculpture set outside the imperial palace in Tokyo.  The part of the palace that is opened to the public during specific holidays (toff birthdays and whatnot) is exceptionally boring.  It's the most dull plaza I've ever seen, quite deliberately so by the looks of things.  Sometimes designers completely misunderstand the space within which they work and you end up with things like the gherkin (something I hate and love depending on any arbitrary measure, such as which way the wind is blowing).  The designers of this place just seem to have given up trying to design anything at all, instead focussing on the gardens hidden behind vast walls and the building itself.

Fuck the plebs.

These lanterns were quite common but difficult to place in their surroundings due to their style.  I can't tell whether these are a Japanese interpretation of a long-past European style, an original Japanese creation or something else entirely.  I feel like they belong in an old German town or something.

Anyway I took a couple of pictures to show both the shape and the colour - both were rather interesting when place within the old grounds of the palace.  Although, to be fair, if you walked into the place without knowing it was a centuries old place it's entirely possible to mistake it for something much newer; and much more European.

The colours in this picture are all messed up.  The pink of the flower is as they were (at least on my non colour controlled screen) but the background green is luminous - decidedly unlike the leaves of the various lilies around Japan.

A man on a horse.  It's either a very important man, or a very important horse.  The outside shot is that it is, in face, a very important hat.

The shape of water is always fascinating when photographed.  I haven't the time or patience to take pictures of droplets, so this will have to do.  Water on a lily (I think it's actually lotus) leaf.

This one was actually taken outside Himeji castle, pictures of which follow.  It had an absolutely magnificent tea house overlooking the castle, along with a fantastic pong replete with waterfalls and enormous fish.  A perfect example of the Japanese style in such things, and a great thing to try and replicate should you so wish (and should you have the space in your own garden).

A very, very long time ago, I wrote a couple of blog posts showing pictures very similar to these.  It's interesting to come back and take another look at something that I saw four, five or six years ago.

I doubt these pictures show much in the way of my improvement when taking photographs.  There are only a finite number of vantage points by which you can view the castle, so I assume the pictures from before almost perfectly match up with these.  I wouldn't be surprised if they were in black and white too.

Anyway, that was the journey to Himeji and the surrounding gardens (and one or two other places I'm sure).  I think next up might be Kyoto, but I'll have to trawl the archives to find out.

Lion Rugby

So this is the third time I've written on this post, I hope they stick this time.

This game was against the second placed team (the team behind us) so it was quite important.  A win would secure the league.

These are all entirely out of order, so you have to imagine them being replaced.

I'm a bit muddy so I guess this is later in the game?  I don't really know but it looks like a slow jog kind of day.

The height/weight discrepency here is immense, so this little fella' didn't stand a chance.

I think this is the second time I went past him in the first half.

That angry face.

I don't know why I'm sticking my arm out here, but I'm definitely going to be tackled.

This might be the first try of the game?  Let's just pretend it is.

This might be the second one, who really knows at this point.

This is the second half, and the only break I made of that period.  I probably made a hundred metres this game, including both scores.

This is the one tackle the little winger managed on me - I took the ball at head head with no momentum.  He could have probably intercepted the ball, it came so slowly.

This is a picture in the buildup to one of the tries.  I really don't remember which one.

This is the precursor to the tackle above.

This one looks pretty far out, but I don't know where it is or what the leadup was.

It's like a slideshow!

This is a cool side-on shot of the guy I hand off.  Once again I look pretty angry for some reason.

Whenever I put my head down to run my hair immediately goes up to look more intimidating... or something.  Maybe it's like those dynamic fins on modern sports cars.

This ball was completely awful, but luckily I'd positioned outside their last defender so had a clean run to the line (with one defender to beat, if you can call that clean).

The leadup to one of the tries.

This might be a duplicate...

This one looks pretty cool.

Look how far away from the try-line I am, yet I appear to be falling to put it down.

The ministry of funny walks.

The ministry of funny hair.

I really like this picture, it looks like a proper try!

I think prior to this picture, I actually had some fingers in his mouth.  Ewwwwww.

And I include this picture because you can see the factory in the background, it's a serious company making a serious number of goods!

I've got some climbing pictures for the next post, so check back next week or so.