Summer is the season for matsuri in Japan, or literally, festival. One of the ways in having a festival in Japan is to fire truck-loads of fireworks onto the hot and humid sky.
Yokohama is known for holding one of the largest fireworks event in Japan every year. So, my Vietnamese friend Lam invited me to join the matsuri at Yokohama with his group of friends on July 20th, 2008.
Lam's friend went to preoccupy the space at the best fireworks observation field with a large canvas sheet during noon time on that day. In Japan, everybody does that during matsuri time.
However, we spent quite a fair bit of time looking for Lam's friends as the train station was as congested as a sardine can! Something that was even worse was that the by-pass bridge was closed to pedestrians and we had to make a big round turn to get to the observation field.
When we arrived at the observation field, we had problem locating Lam's friends again, because the whole field was filled with matsuri goers!
By the time we settled down, the fireworks were almost half way through. I quickly set up my camera on my flimsy tripod and started shooting. I didn't have a cable release and a sturdy tripod, so it was quite a challenge to take fireworks shots.
I depended on my instinct on timing and the camera's self-timer to capture the shots. It can be considered as partly depending on luck too.
It was just barely past 9 p.m. when the fireworks had ended, so we continued drinking, eating and chatting. It was another great night out with my Vietnamese friends in Japan.
4 comments:
When it's summer, I miss winter, and say "It's global warming". But now, when it's winter, I do miss summer! (And say "Is it global cooling?")
Hi Tap, life is always like that, isn't it? :)
Haha. We ain't gonna satisfied with what we get. By the way, beautiful shots CK. :>
Thanks, Ah Dom. I normally don't bring along a heavy tripod whenever I'm travelling. :)
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