Pan Pacific Festival Parade - 6/12/2011

Final day of festival is the parade. This year the parade seem shorter than previous year since it ended just before sunset and I didn't have to even use a flash. This year, I used a 100mm and practiced my newly discovered technique.
I saw the tuba player pass by and notice the really cool reflection on his shiny instrument.
Of course in every parade, there will be a pageant queen.
There were these big hair kimono customed women.She was really cute, but some lady got right in front of me w/ her iphone..There were students from a Sendai School.The finale of the parade are these lanterns. They stopped in front of us and then heeve-ho and lifted this huge float.
The drummer drummed on the float.
I took two shots then stitched them together to get the entire float.
Then it was all over.

Pan Pacific Festival - 6/11/2011

Wow..it's already been a year since the last Pan Pacific Festival. This year we found a different spot and were directly across from the center of the stage, although we were right behind the entertaintment staff so it was hard to avoid their heads in my shot. I used my 70-200mm lens to get closeup. This time I tried using manual settings and also the center focus point and it worked out really well. The trick is to use it to focus first then reframe for composition. Previously I had been moving the focus points but that didn't always resulted in sharp shots. I did a lot of practicing on the center focus point for these shots.
As usual, there were hula dancers...
It was pretty dark at the stage. I used mostly ISO650 without a flash.There was a gospel singer who was sang really well in English.There was a Taiko performance from the local Okinawan group.This guy came in the front to capture his family members on stage and I thought I'd capture him in my shot.Then there was a Kimono Fashion show of antique Kimonos from Hiroshima Japan.These are antique Wedding Kimono. It was hot in the afternoon and I'm sure they were really uncomfortable in these heavy outfits. They really looked like Japanese Dolls I've seen at Shirokiya.Then there was this musical about mythical creatures. I really love their bright and colorful costume. I heard this costume weighed 30lbs..The mythical devil was shot by an arrow and finally killed. The color of this costume was so cool.