You can say the Bon Odori dance is infectious when bystanders start dancing from the stands into the pitch.
Photography Tip: While the crowd is your centrepiece here, include little elements that enhance the story when you compose the picture. The lanterns represent festivities and the stadium’s grandstand indicates the scale of the celebrations. A tilted angle complements the chaos and energy.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f4, 1/8 sec with FL-50R flash.
Tudung and Yukata. Slow Flash and Grunge Filter.
I like how the Bon Odori Festival takes on a multi-ethnic theme, locally. The trick in photographing the Bon Odori is to dance or glide the camera alongside the circles. Move at the same pace and turn around in between to shoot.
Don’t stay in one spot to photograph, fire on the fly instead. The crowd was really enjoying themselves, it shows on their faces. Enjoy it yourself and the good shots will come naturally.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f4, 1/13 sec with FL-50R flash.
Bon Odori is a Japanese cultural festival celebrated during summer. At the Panasonic Sports Complex tonight, the Japanese community and their Malaysian friends danced together in a circle to honour the spirits of ancestors.
The 37th Bon Odori was organised by The Japan Club of KL, The Japanese School Of Kuala Lumpur and The Embassy Of Japan.
Photography Notes: Because it was twilight, I decided to combine a slow shutter with flash when photographing this dancing mother. The flash lit the foreground faces while the slow shutter preserved the fading blue sky in the background. The shutter speed was also slow enough to blur movement, thereby injecting some dynamism into a frozen scene.
Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f4, 1/10 sec with FL-50R flash.
