Pockets of Light

On January 13th Japan celebrated the Coming of Age where the 20 year old dress up in kimonos.

This ceremony is celebrated since the seventh century and the young Japanese, who turned 20 that year, walk to tempels, mostly with their relatives and friends. This custom attracts a lot of people as the girls are dressed in special kimonos with long sleeves and wear special hair accessories. The girls gladly pose for photos also taken by complete strangers to them.

This woman extends her arm to show the beautiful colors and design of her kimono.

I did not want to join that group but rather shoot photos which were not staged. Walking back from the Meiji Shrine I noticed the strong afternoon sun shining through the trees giving pockets of lights to the people walking the wide alley. So would it not be a nice idea to see the kimonos and girls illuminated by these sun rays? The following pictures are the result of this exercise. First two shots at the back.

And then the first pockets of light from the front.

But of course there are pictures you just have to take regardless of the light.

Next a couple in and out the pocket of light.

The next two pictures came close to the idea I had in mind.

Same with this group of three. As the light was still hard at 2:00 pm the contrasts are pretty strong.

The next two girls were pretty aware that their glamorous outfit attracted like honey bees.So I would consider the pictures half staged, but not for me.

And two more couples…

And at the end four young women came along. Forget about the pocket of light ! They staged for somebody else and I joined taking shots from the back and then the front. This was easy….

Taking these photos took me more than an hour. Not too many women came to the temple that day compared to all the other taking a walk on this national holiday. So a lot of waiting. And then manual focussing on moving objects with a tele lens on the Leica M 9 is not an easy thing to do. I have to admit, a rangefinder puts you in a tough position in this case. But it was a lot of fun anyway..