Is It Not?
Saturday. To bed around nine-thirty. I'd been watching the first part of a Foyle's War episode that ended much later, but decided to get to bed and not rock the boat with a late night (for me ten-thirty is a late night). To sleep within a reasonable time, up without an alarm at seven, off to breakfast and back in the car by eight feeling fine (thank you). So we'll see what kind of a day is ahead.
J-Pop is on in San Francisco today and tomorrow, so we're off to J-Pop later. I'm up for it, we'll see if I'm in any shape to shoot the Chinatown StreetFest here in Oakland when I return, as it's not far from the downtown BART station. I'm remembering my shooting of both the Nihonmachi Festival and Art & Soul recently, how tired I was after that first day after shooting both and how it may have affected the pictures. One does not want to negatively affect one's pictures and dragging ass will certainly do that. Hard enough to get them as it is.
So, who knows? Maybe a nap to prepare, maybe just futz around as I usually do here, but a good weekend of shooting ahead. Be nice if they'd had one or the other of the festivals last weekend instead of this weekend, but beggars can't be choosers. Not in this fanciful existence here on Lake Merritt shores.
Later. Now I remember why I said I'd not again photograph two events in one day, one being more than enough. And it was. No thought to go by the Chinatown StreetFest later this afternoon when I arrived back from San Francisco, I'm done for the day except for guitar and Photoshop. Much time will be spent in Photoshop.
A bus all the way downtown, instead of getting off at the BART stop on 20th, thinking I'd take a look at the progress they'd made on that chalk mural I'd photographed yesterday and indeed there it was. Difficult to shoot without getting up on top of something, but then I suspect viewing it from the edge is one of the, um, unique features of the medium. Interesting. I'll see if it's still there again tomorrow.
Anyway, a bus downtown, one or two pictures of the mural, a train over to Montgomery Street, a 38 Geary bus to Japantown to find the city overcast (the sun was coming out as I was leaving Oakland, but it never appeared in San Francisco, only to return when I came back under the Bay again).
J-Pop seemed smaller this year, just as the Nihonmachi Street Fair was smaller, not as many canvas booths, fewer streets having been blocked off, fewer food carts. Still, two hours of shooting walking up and down the street, pictures of the first band and then photographs of the fashion show that followed.
There were a number of activities going on I only stumbled across by accident - raffles, contests in one or two of the buildings and such - I'd have liked to have known more about, but that said, I was tired after two hours and it was time to go home (so I went home). Hup.
Evening. What to say? I seem to have come up with another two sections of J-Pop photographs, but by the skin of my teeth. I'm not sure I like them as well as last year's photographs, although there are indeed twice as many. You do depend on your luck to some degree, maybe mine today wasn't as good as it could have been, maybe I wasn't on the ball. What the hell, another go around tomorrow. I'm always unsure of how I feel about them at the first viewing.
Guitar and time in Photoshop (and whacking out web pages), but not enough time on the guitar and too much time chopping up photographs on the computer. We'll have them done sometime tomorrow, who knows how tomorrow's shooting will go or how much time it may take to get all of those finished and ready to post? Probably Monday. We are not complaining, we will have had two good long days of shooting and that is indeed the idea, is it not? Hup?
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