bon festival

I've been really looking forward to this weekend, because my sister, brother-in-law and nephews came to visit!  In addition to just hanging out with them we went to the Obon (or Bon) Festival at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

What is Obon?
Obon, or the Bon Festival, is a traditional Japanese observance held over a three-day period in the summer.  Obon signifies a time when the spirits of deceased family members are believed to return for a brief visit to the world of the living.  Obon is a joyous as well as solemn occasion, serving to honor ancestors and thank them for contributing to the quality of life enjoyed by the living (http://www.morikami.org/).

To help celebrate the occasion, lanterns are decorated/written on to commemorate your loved ones, lit and floated across the lake. Also, you can decorate a slip of paper, which is then placed on a boat and set on fire as it floats across the lake.  Sounds pretty cool, huh?!

Now that I've learned how to actually adjust the settings on my camera (bonus! :-p) I've really been looking forward to photographing this festival. I have to admit that my visions of grandeur got a sharp smack down by my amateur knowledge. Everything was coming out blurry! I was lining up potentially great shots, but because it was night time, the distance of the subject and the fact that they were moving, everything was blurry!  Example:

What was I doing wrong?!
I kept adjusting all of the settings that I know - which, while I admit is certainly not all of the settings that are on the camera, these are the really important ones.  I was getting a little frustrated, and a little disappointed.

I mentioned to my sister that I didn't know what I was doing wrong and a random stranger asked my what my ISO was set at.  ISO is for light sensitivity, so for an evening/night time festival you're going to want a high ISO.  I told him my ISO was set high, and gave him a few of my other settings.  He said that they all sounded correct for this type of shot and that most likely my problem is the need for a tripod. When its dark, your shutter needs to stay open longer to be able to capture the light, and since it's hard to keep a camera perfectly steady, the images come out blurry...  Thank you random stranger!  You certainly made me feel better that I was at least adjusting the settings correctly!  While I do own a tripod (Thanks Dad!) I, of course, didn't have it with me...  Well, at least now I know.  And while I didn't get very good pictures, it was a good learning experience!

Here are a few more:

lighting the lanterns

two boats with the paper slips on fire



dancing light