It won't hurt - Trust Me

Another tattoo being done. I heard someone saying it won't hurt, trust me................. Followed by, "Ok, it hurts a little". No electric here. They take that metal rod to tap the needles into your skin. I can't even imagine getting a full tattoo like this. It is fascinating to watch and these people are artists. It is even more fascinating to watch the people getting their tattoos.

Samoan Fireknife Dance

The modern fireknife dance was born from Freddie Letuli. Since it's humble beginning, the fire knife dance has become an art that would awe people everywhere. There is even a world fire knife championship held every year in Hawaii. Locals and tourists alike are fascinated with the performances of the fire knife dance. Unfortunately, many come away with photos that are less than desirable. In order to get a good photo, your shutter speed has to be slow enough so that it can record the full circle of the flame. Around 1/15th of a second is a good starting point. If the dancers are moving all around, you will be disappointed as they will be blurred. In this photo, I had my camera on a tripod set at 1/15th of a second. I had a flash set to 2nd curtain sync (that means your flash fires at the end of the exposure - although I think you would be ok without it). Wait until they are standing still and fire away (put your camera on shutter priority). Check to see if you got sufficient detail. Without some flash, the performers will likely be underexposed. Try lots and lots of exposures and you may just get one you are happy with. That is the great thing about digital, you can just delete what does not come out.

Samoan

I'm not normally into black and white photography, but some photos lend themselves well to black and white. This photo of American Samoans performing is a good example. There was a lot of color cast from different lights that made it difficult to get an effective white balance. So, I decided to make this a black and white photo. Now although some cameras have a black and white mode (digital cameras), I prefer to shoot normal. Since I use Raw, I know I have all the information I need to keep the color file, or convert to black and white. Since I use photoshop, I converted this image in photoshop. Now, I have been considering getting a lensbaby (www.lensbaby.com) to get some selective focus. These lens allow you to get a unique selective focus. The use of selective focus allows you to get focus attention on your focal point and blur distracting elements. But I already had purchased a suite of photoshop plug-ins from onone software. This included focal point, which simulates the effects you get from a lensbaby. I used this in the photo to attempt to draw attention to the subjects. I like the effects I get with this and will have to play with it more.

Samoans are great performers and I never get tired of watching them perform. This was a great evening and a couple of photos to add to my collection. It was dark and I had to shoot at ISO1600, even though I was shooting at f2.8. I was using a sigma 70-200 lens. The lens is good (the only non canon lens I own) but has a hard time focusing in low light. Also, wide open the quality diminishes after about 135mm. But it was half the price of the canon 70-200. But if I had the same choice, I would save up for the canon lens next time.