In 2005 I was getting ready to leave one job for another (this theme is especially relevant to me these days..).  I had a short trip planned between jobs - to Vietnam - and I decided to treat myself to a digital SLR for the trip.

I purchased a Nikon D70 since I already had a Nikon setup with some lenses, etc., and since I couldn’t justify the more expensive D100 (and certainly couldn’t justify the more expensive Pro models).

With my new camera in hand I trekked over to Japantown with my sister and nieces to test out the system.  I was so excited about the immediate feedback from the LCD screen and I even appreciated the extended focal length for shots like these, where I was shooting over a crowd onto the stage.  In retrospect, I should have carried around my 70-200mm lens a lot more as this shot would have benefited from a little tighter cropping.  I try to carry that lens around a bit more these days, though it does weigh a ton.

I fired off several shots of the drummers and eventually settled on the slightly slower shutter speed which helps convey the motion in the blurred hands.

This and other shots were taken on April 23rd of 2005, three years ago this week.

Tags: festival, japantown, taiko drummers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 11:09 am and is filed under festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.