Monthly Archives: September 2010

Experiences Fun

Metallica Live in Japan 2010 (pictures)

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Finally managed to go through all the 500+ pictures I took of the concert, and whittled them down to about 150.

As usual, all pictures are at http://shashin.njmatsuya.com

Challenges Photography

Just for fun challenge – “Fall”

Here are the submissions for last week’s challenge “theme” – “Fall”.  Presented in the order they were received (click to embiggen):

Mom

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J4

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J3

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Tet

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Me

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Next week’s theme has been chosen by Tet – “Hello, my name is [Nickname] and I’m addicted to (photo).”

Feel free to interpret that however you will and please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun! 🙂

Experiences

Metallica Live in Japan 2010

A couple of months back I was asked by a friend if I’d be interested in going to a Metallica concert.  Now, I’ve never listened to any form of heavy metal, and though I knew the Metallica name, I had no idea what their music would be like – to me, all heavy metal sounds pretty much like…noise.

However, I thought it would be an interesting experience, one of those things that you’d like to try at least once, so I went ahead and asked him to get me a ticket.  I also asked another friend (Leon, whose recital I recently attended) if he would be interested since I knew he was a Metallica fan from back in our university days.  He enthusiastically agreed, and said his fiancée would also be coming along.

The concert was yesterday (September 25) at the Saitama Super Arena, and the 4 of us met around 15:00, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed in to take our seats.

We stayed for the entire show which ran from 17:00 to almost 22:00.   There were 2 opening acts, one by a group called “The Sword“, and the another called “Fear Factory“, both of which garnered applause from an enthusiastic audience.  However, when Metallica came on, the entire arena burst into a frenzy.  Honestly, even though I’m still not a heavy metal fan, I have to admit that the sheer energy emanating from the audience was something to see and experience.  Watching a video on youtube or a music video on TV simply can not compare.

Though I was somewhat deafened by the end of the concert (seriously, I did have trouble hearing for a short period of time after the performance), it was actually fun!  My friends and I were commenting that we didn’t really see any teenagers in the audience – the youngest we saw were in their mid-twenties, and there were plenty in their 30’s.  In short, the audience comprised mostly of people who’ve probably followed the band since they first came on the scene in the 1980’s.  And there were plenty of fans – I’d guess at least a good couple thousand people were in the audience last night.

I took several hundred pictures last night (over 500…) and I’m slowly going through them.  I should have them uploaded in the next day or two, but for the time being, here’s a video clip I shot of the opening song.

Experiences Photography

Funabori Recital – Sep. 2010

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As mentioned in my previous post, I’d gone to see a friend perform in his first recital this week.  There were about 12 performers in total, each with varying levels of skill, and I tried to take all their pictures at least once.  To be honest, I’m rather disappointed in how the pictures turned out… low light + handheld situations is not something I’m very good at yet.  Practice, practice, practice I guess…

Otherwise, the show was quite nice.  It was peaceful, with an audience consisting mostly of family members and friends of the performers.

All pictures are uploaded to my photo section, http://shashin.njmatsuya.com .

Fun

Orion performance (Metallica)

A former university classmate started taking guitar lessons early this year, and today he had a small performance to show off his new skills.  He played 2 songs (though I only recorded one of them – I took pictures of the other one).  This is a Metallica instrumental, in which he plays with his instructor.  He think he did really well!

(will upload pictures within the next day or two as well)

Photography

Tokyo Game Show 2010

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Though I’m not much of a gamer, I swung by the Tokyo Game Show last Saturday since I know from past experience that it offers many interesting photo opportunities.  It was as crowded, as noisy, and as flashy as I remembered, but the exhibits, game demos, and masses of people provided plenty of chances for snapping a few (100+) pictures.

I ended up taking mostly pictures of the other photographers there.  Honestly, the gear that some of those people have is just crazy.  Reflectors, ginormous flashes, monster cameras (often more than one camera), and what I can only describe as a nearly obsessive determination to snap as many pictures of their favorite charactors/actors as possible.

The cosplayers (obviously) drew the largest crowds of photographers, many of whom were willing to line up for a chance to spend a few minutes taking pictures.  Some of the costumes were very well done (though I didn’t see Alphonse 🙁 ) but I was not quite dedicated enough to line up for my chance at a photoshoot.  All my pictures ended up being slightly to the side, usually trying to include another photographer in the image as well.

I’ve uploaded all images to http://shashin.njmatsuya.com – no tweaking done aside from a resizing.

EDIT: Tet also went (though on a different day) and took some pictures as well which can be found HERE.

Challenges Fun

Just for fun challenge – Dog(s)

Here are the submissions for last week’s challenge “theme” – Dog(s).  Presented in the order they were received (click to embiggen):

Tet

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J3

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Mom

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J4

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NJ/Me

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Next week’s theme has been chosen by J4 – “Fall” (feel free to interpret that however you will) – please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun! 🙂

Challenges Fun

Just for fun challenge – Clouds

And here we go – the submissions for last week’s challenge “theme” – clouds.  Presented in the order they were received (click to embiggen):

Tet

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Mom!

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J4

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J3

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Me!

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Next week’s theme has been chosen by J3 – “Dog” (or “Dogs”, if you wish) – please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun! 🙂

Humor

Joe Wong on C-SPAN

Though C-SPAN usually makes me fall asleep, this gave me a few chuckles (don’t take the subtitles too literally – they’re autogenerated by a computer and some of the words just don’t make sense)