Last month in amongst going to some fashion shows I made it to one of my favourite festivals, the Kinryu no mai (dragon dance festival) in the grounds of Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. It’s a really vibrant traditional festival, it maybe doesn’t draw as big a crowd as some other Asakusa festivals, but for photos it really is amazing. I really enjoyed going down there, it wasn’t a job, just something fun to photograph an I hadn’t done that for a while, so it felt good.
According to legend, Sensoji temple was founded in 628 by two brothers who found a golden statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy on March 18th whilst fishing in the nearby Sumida river. Despite returning the statue to the river, three times it returned to the brothers and it it’s honour they built a temple nearby the river bank close to where they found the statue in which the image was to be kept safe. Once the temple was built, it is said that 1000 pine trees spring up around the temple over night and a Golden Dragon about 30 m in length was seen dancing in the sky and then it descended into the new pine forest and disappeared. The temple is now called Sensoji, but it’s official and original name is Kinryuzan, which means mountain of the Golden Dragon.
For around the last 60 years, on March 18th a Golden dragon dance, called “Kinryu no mai” is held to commemorate the legend. At the start of the festival, local male volunteers parade through the grounds of Sensoji temple carrying a long Golden Dragon whilst a cart full of local Geisha is pulled behind them. It’s a really good festival to photograph, it’s packed with people, police walk in front of the parade to keep people out of the way and it’s mobbed with photographers trying to get a shot. I find the best plan is to get a good spot and stand your ground as the parade passes.
As the parade made it’s way through the narrow streets of Nakamise dori leading up to the temple, I shot with my wide 24-70 lens on one body and my 50mm lens on my back up.
Then as the procession made it’s way to the wide open spaces in front of Sensoji temple I switched over to my 80-200m lens as the procession passed me and put my 24-70 onto my back up to get some nice wide shots to show what it was like with the crowd. As the Geisha were passing me I had a good angle and good light to rattle off some shots with my 80-200mm lens of one of the Geisha inside the float which ended up being my favourites of the day.
Once the Geisha float had passed and I was on the outside of the crowd I got some decent shots with the long lens again. As you can probably see from the crowd I had to shoot over a pile of people, so it was hard to aim blind, so I used the live view on the back of my camera which I was holding above my head and got some OK shots. Some not bad images for stock.
18 Comments
I love the second and third picture especially. I didn’t know about this festival will try it out next year. Damon
Great shots!
Paule
http://www.paulepictures.com
http://www.paulepictures.com/blog
I´m dying to go to Japan. You just made it worse
Don´t you need a 6ft5 tall assistant to carry your gear?
I’m impressive, your photo are beautiful, your culture is so different. I like very much colors and traditional costumes. A bientôt Val
All good pics and my most liked is the one with the circular blur, enhancing the dragon movement of the marchers/dancers.
This time I took some time to read your other stuff – 5D and the Mk II. Last year I bought the 500D, but nearly bought the Mk II. What I found very interesting was that the 500D and the Mk II has very much the same attributes – the big diff being full frame sensor, some more pixels etc for the more expensive camera. In the end my camera choice was motivated by affordability, more than anything else. I am after all not pro and will not earn with the investment. But the heart still beats for the one not bought
Since then the 550D and the 7D saw the light and the mind boggles. I believe that Canon is bringing new models too fast to the market. The life span of some models is less than a year. The first time they did the fast replacement, was replacing the successful 40D with the 50D and that was not a good replacement at all.
Your ideas around selling pictures makes sense. Selling the books about stock photos sounds like a good option
Fortunately I have taken a decision not to even try for pro. Wouldn’t mind having more time for photography, though.
All this was just by way of chatting. Cheers and have a nice saki on photography.
Beautiful serie of pictures. Matsuri are fun to photograph and in Tokyo you seem to have a lot of opportunities.
I love the picture at the top.
Thanks for the comments everyone. Damon, you should check out the festival next year, it’ll be right up your street. Goran, all my assistants have to be exactly 6 foot 6, you narrowly missed out, but with low heels on I could make an exception
Louis, I hear what you are saying about the rate canon is pumping out new cameras at, a lot of the features of the higher end 5d and 1D models are similar to the 7D, 50D models etc, the full frame sensor bumps up the price but there is also a big difference in build quality. My gear gets used a lot and I need the solid build, were it not for that the 50D or the likes would do, to be honest I don’t think there is going to be massive differences in image quality, just durability. Canon’s marketing does make us want to upgrade a lot though…
The news article is amazing, like which you must customary to see to us. Excellent takings. First of the dragoon it seems to me fabulous.
Warm greetings
Definitely can notice the clarity and sharpness in the Canon glass that you use Will. Of course the great photos are what really count, the lenses are only the tools used by the photographer. Excellent and fascinating images as always. Fortunately for me, you can take me to beautiful places I’ve never been before with your stunning work.
Breathtaking clarity and colour on all of these images, their costumes and make-up really comes to life. Picture perfect.
Thanks for the kind words everyone, I really appreciate the visits and the time you all put into commenting.
Will
Very informative article, great documentary images as always!
wow!!! absolutely beautiful shots. the women playing the flutes are particularly incredible. so clear and crisp!! and great colors too
amazing work.
I like your composition and close up work on these – I feel like I am right there!
Photos of great beauty, very artistic, like a lot. Good day.
Amazing moment and great photo either, like this very much
Your lead shot on this post is an absolute blinder. The kind I always fail to get for my blog. I just read your post re editing with interest. Didn’t know you were in the Mac camp. I’ve heard great things about Aperture.