Saturday, August 06, 2005

Rain crashes Matsumoto Bon Bon

松本 ぼんぼん


[A*, 86mm, 1/125s, f/2.8 ]

This being the third consecutive year that I been attending the Matsumoto Bon Bon festival. Matsumoto is a city in Japan where I reside. Bon Bon is more like a street carnival, people from different institutes and offices form groups and dance to the tune of "Bon Bon Matsumoto, Matsumoto Bon Bon....". It takes place on the first saturday of August every year. The dance parade starts at around 5:30PM and goes upto 10:00PM. Its a 6 kilometer stretch that runs through all the main streets of this small city. This year around 295 groups too part.

I, Anand and venkatesha logged into the city at 3:00PM, we loitered around coffee cafe, books shop and the castle till 5:15PM, the weather wasnt promising, it started to drizzle. The festival was kicked off as scheduled. I was all set to have a field day and it was a pleasant start. A small kid playing with soap bubbles was quite an enchanting sight. I was almost walking away from the soap bubbles scene when two teenagers stopped by and posed, back home when I was reviewing the snaps I was delighted to notice the fans imprinted with the caption "Matsumoto Bon Bon".



[A*, 200mm, 1/160s, f/2.8 ]


[A*, 120mm, 1/40s, f/5.6 ]

For a moment it looked like the rain almost subsided. I walked up and down the street trying to get some candid potrait shots.


[A*, 155mm, 1/50s, f/4.0 ,cropped : left]


[A*, 110mm, 1/125s, f/3.5 ]

Ladies dressed in yukata ( Japanese summer cotton kimono ).


[A*, 78mm, 1/60s, f/3.5, Flash ON ]

All of a sudden the light faded and I had to switch on the flash. Not adept at setting up the SB-600, I took the leeway by flipping the built in wide flash adpater and use it as a fill fash. Above shot is that of a group of kids dressed in hawaiian outfit. The moment the girl realized that I was shooting her she stopped dancing and posed for the shot. "Arigato akachan".


[A*, 120mm, 1/60s, f/3.5, Flash ON ]

I was scanning for the ladies in kimono, and caught sight of them just before the rain took its toll.


[A*, 200mm, 1/60s, f/3.5, Flash ON ]


[A*, 70mm, 1/60s, f/3.5 , Flash ON ]

The lady wrapped her kimono in a polythene to protect it from the rain. A few moments after this shot a heavy downpour brought a premature end to the 2005 Bon Bon.

Camera: D70 Nikon
Lens: 70-200 mm VR Nikkor f2.8 G
Filter: None
Tripod: NO
Flash : SB600
A*: Aperture Priority