Author: travel67

Soma Nomaoi, Shinki-Sodatsusen

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If the kacchu-keiba (horse race) is analogous to the race into battle, then the shinki-sodatsusen is the battle itself. Here the riders test the skill, bravery and luck. The battle is made up of several skirmishes.  Each skirmish begins with a couple of fireworks blasted up into the sky. Each fireworks carry a banner which, after the explosion at altitude, come wafting back to earth. Any samurai who catches a banner, receives fame, glory and probably a few bit of yen. On a technical note these images were shot with the 645Z and the smc FA 645 300mm F4 ED (IF) which is equivalent of a 240mm on a FF35mm camera. I used a monopod to give some extra stability and it gave excellent results. The speed of the autofocus was slow, but it the overall sharpness was great.

Soma Nomaoi – Kacchu-keiba

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Carrying the flags of their houses, the riders race around the circuit. It’s always an interesting challenge trying to convey motion in a still image. I used a slow shutter speed and panned the camera with the subject. Get it right and you should get a blurry background while the subject remains relatively sharp. One rider was a young girl who galloped around the course with the men. I didn’t manage to get her name, but it was an impressive feat of horsemanship, irrespective of age or gender. The winners collected a piece of paper from the trackside umpires and then galloped up a zig-zag path through the crowd to top of the embankment where they collect their prizes.

Soma Nomaoi – The Riders Assemble

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On day two of the Soma Nomaoi festival, the riders parade back to the Higarigahara-Saijochi horse racing ground from their respective hometowns. Once at the ground everyone starts to get organized. Samurai on giant horses shouted instructions. Others put the final touches to their armor. There were plenty of aging samurai preparing for battle. Some took a quick break from the heat for refreshments. This shot sums up how I, or probably any foot soldier, feels when standing next to cavalry. You’re small, vulnerable, and fully aware why a horse is far more useful than any kingdom. Following the samurai are those offering spiritual protection. Ladies performed a traditional sacred dance, and mikoshi (portable shrines) were carried into the arena. Armor on, flags unfurled, prayers offered, time to ride. And yes in the above epic samurai shot, the horse is sticking its tongue out to the camera 🙂

Soma Nomaoi – Yoinorikeiba

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It’s a long hot trek from the three outer shrines to the Hibarigahara-Saijochi, but some made the ride in style, and in the shade. Once at the track, the riders and horses had a rest before mounting up for the afternoon’s races. The horses are fast, but the equipment is pretty rudimentary. There are no modern helmets for head protection, so you have got to be a great rider or know how to tuck and roll.

Pentax 645Z and the Double Big Mac

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The new Pentax 645Z sensor is 51.4 megapixels. Great for image quality and an amazing amount of detail, but this can lead to a few issues. A 64GB memory card can hold only 566 images.   (Compared to 712 images on the 40MP 645D  or 1198 on the Pentax K3) Larger files mean that it’s slower to download the data from the SD card, and slower to import into Lightroom, and slower to create 1:1 previews, and slower to edit in Photoshop. With the 645D, I’d got used to setting things running on my old Mac Pro 1.1 and then taking the dog for the walk or making a cup of tea. Recently, however,  when shooting more frames, and at higher resolutions the speed of my workflow was no longer efficient. I wanted a Mac with 32GB RAM, and a PCIe SSD with about 500GB of memory. The easy option would be to look at the new Mac Pros, but a model with the specs I wanted would be around 5,000 dollars. Instead, for around half …