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Shichi Go San Tokyo
  • Tokyo, a fascinating place to be. It has so many different sides, a busy one, a quiet, peaceful one, a highly modern but also a very traditional one. I was lucky when I visited Tokyo on the weekend of November 15th last year that on this day the Shichi-Go-San festival took place at the Meiji Jingu Shrine in Tokyo. It is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three- and seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys, held annually on November 15 to celebrate the growth and well-being of young children.

    In front of the Meiji Jingu Shrine I listened to the music of a street musician, who really captivated me. He was playing on kind of a homegrown instrument, mesmerizing! Later, I googled him, found him on twitter, contacted him and he was so generous to provide the music for this film, writing an original song - thanks Sam!

    Here are his contact details:
    Sami Elu
    twitter.com/sami_elu
    facebook.com/elusari

    Shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera in RAW, Sigma 18-35mm f1.8, Rokinon 85mm T1.5, graded in DaVinci Resolve

    Enjoy, and let me know your comments!

    twitter.com/gunmac

  • 6 Replies sorted by
  • Brilliant images, maybe you should be making a doc of some sort though. image wise I can't fault it.

    I gave up on the BMPCC camera cause I could get stable shots handheld. How did you manage it? Post?

  • Thanks @suresure123, I did a lot of post - stabilizing, also the slo mo reduces camera shake.

  • Nice shots! So nothing for stabilizing and all handheld? Amazing with just post stabilizing.

  • Thanks @tinyrobot! What I do is I have my camera bag wrapped around my shoulder and I place the cam on the bag - that helps to stabilize it a lot.

  • People don't talk about them ever these days but a simple sand bag the size of a paperback book is a great tool to have in your kit bag. You can make one yourself even for almost nothing.

  • Hi @suresure123 the sandbag is exactly what I am using a lot as well! Very handy, works a treat!