Martin Nieto

Just afew more pics from the Yosakoi I had processed long time ago… They may not be the last ones as I haven’t developed 3 rolls of film I took during this festival. mmm, Well, they may have been ruined by the x-rays as I left the film on my baggage. maybe that’s why I haven’t bother developing any of the rolls of film I took.

This was the first time I used Photoshop to process a batch pictures. I though it was very time consuming but actually its not.  Before I have mainly used lightroom as I can apply a preset to process tons of files I have selected and then just export those pics with a smaller size in just a few minutes. I just mainly do some basic changes in the exposure, fill light, blacks and tone curve, but still sometimes I have to adjust a picture manually like the exposure or other stuff as not always the pictures I took look the same, but most of the time a preset works well with most of my pics…

So now I’m starting to apply actions in Photoshop to a huge batch of files in a folder and  save them automatically, in just a few minutes. I think they look a lot better processed with this the actions in Photoshop than with the presets in Lightroom. I like especially the tones….

Another batch of photos from the Super Yosakoi. I really enjoyed taking pictures here. There were so many teams with those colorful costumes and the people as always were all full of enthusiasm and energy. I stayed mainly at yoyogi park but there were also spots at harajuko and omotesando. It was not so crowded at yoyogi so I decided to stay there as I was able to move freely. I don’t like to be just at one place as I like to move around and also take some spectators photos too, so it was just perfect. I think I got a lot of nice shoots here besides the light under the trees was great. I didn’t wanna leave until all was over but I had already agreed to meet someone at the Koenji Awaodori in the afternoon, which btw I didn’t enjoy shooting there as much as I did at the yosakoi.  It was totally the opposite as it was so freaking crowded. there were more than a million people, so it was difficult to move so I didn’t like it at all… even though we managed to get a decent spot but we were like sardines in a can, very uncomfortable.

I still have a bunch photos that I like so I may post them if I don’t get bored with those…  its really hard to choose just afew…

she was very cute and pretty funny while she was dancing, and omg she is so thin!

Yosakoi (よさこい) is a unique style of dance that originated in Japan. Yosakoi started in the city of Kōchi in 1954, as a modern rendition of Awa Odori, a traditional summer dance. Yosakoi-style dancing has spread throughout much of Japan. The style of dance is highly energetic, combining traditional Japanese dance movements with modern music. The choreographed dances are often performed by large teams. Along with a number of professional yosakoi schools and town dance teams, yosakoi is also a popular event during the sports festivals held by Japanese elementary, junior, and senior high schools. Yosakoi participants include men and women of almost all ages – sometimes within a single team. In the dialect of Tosa province (modern-day Kōchi Prefecture), “yosakoi” means “Come at night.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi