Recital Behavior

"Sisters" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
“Sisters” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Today Bay had a piano recital in North Austin. 🎹 His piano teacher has a large number of students, so the recital is split into two parts, and each part starts with the beginning piano students and ends with the advanced students. I’m proud to say that Bay performed in the last slot of the first recital! 😄

He’s really come a long way since he first began several years ago… time flies… I remember when he was one of the first students in the recital line up.

Since we’ve been going to recitals for a while now, we’ve become old hats at it. I always set up my tripod and make a video of Bay’s performance, and I notice a lot things that newbie photographers do. I guess since I’m a photo enthusiast, and take photos sometimes for work, so I operate in a more discreet way, but I find some of the beginner “mistakes” interesting. For instance not setting the camera’s audio cues to silent. I hear the auto-focus beep go off multiple times before a shot is taken. The beep is annoying since you can hear it on the audio recordings.

Another thing is that people have their tripods set up in the middle aisle, which is fine, but you shouldn’t leave it there for the whole recital. Just put it there for when your child performs, then move it out of the way afterwards.

Also, don’t walk down the middle aisle during the performances. Use the side aisles, or at least wait until the song is over. And it’s nice if you keep your kids from constantly running down the aisle. And also, don’t give little kids in the audience bags of chips! Those things are loud.

Today there was a teenager with her dSLR sitting in the audience, taking photos of her young sisters or cousins who were also sitting in the audience. That is ok for one or two snaps, but not 20 or 30 photos, especially using flash + AF-assist flash, and pointing towards other audience members since your sibling subjects are sitting far across the room. Rude! People are trying to watch/listen to their kids perform, and then someone is firing her flash towards you and making a loud dSLR click noise. Plus, the flash is distracting to the performers.

Anyways, these are just minor annoyances… it’s not like we’re at Carnegie Hall! But I do find it interesting that some people don’t think it is rude, or is it that I am ultra-sensitive to these things? Probably a bit of both. 😋

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Today’s photo is of our cats, resting comfortably together on the sofa. There’s a word in Japanese that describes them perfectly: “Nakayoshi”, which means friendship, or closeness, often when snuggling.

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Cat’s Life

"The Pose" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/9 sec, ISO6400
“The Pose” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

Today’s photos are of our cats, who like to relax in extremely odd positions. Especially the tuxedo cat. I love it when they sleep like that. So funny! 🐱

We normally have kept them in a separate room overnight, but lately we’ve let them roam the house all night and this has led them to coming into our bedroom and hanging out with us. They don’t bother us too much while we sleep, but they tend to make messes in the bathroom. Not poop or anything, but they will knock over houseplants, jump on the counter and push things into the sink, etc. Very annoying! Mariko thinks it’s cute, but I kind of think it’s a nuisance.

"Cat's Life" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/110 sec, ISO6400
“Cat’s Life” Cedar Park, 2016

Like I may have mentioned before, I like cats, but my preference would be to not have any pets at all. I’m only one of four family members though, so I often get over-ruled on these things. Life’s full of compromises, though, isn’t it? 😜

I hope you had a nice Monday!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Tuxedo Cat and Godzilla

"Tuxedo Cat" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/75 sec, ISO6400
“Tuxedo Cat” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは!How’s it going?

So, one of our kitties is black and white – a “tuxedo cat”. I had never heard that term before, but I like it. And I heard that tuxedo cats are strange… not sure if that is a trait or not, but ours is certainly the odd one of the pair of kittens we got. They are sisters, so I thought their personalities would be more similar, but the tuxedo cat is really quirky. She’s a lot of fun!

Earlier this evening my friend Mikey and I went to see the movie “Shin Godzilla”. It’s in limited release here in the States so the theater was sold out. We both enjoyed the movie quite a bit! The special effects were great, and Godzilla was pretty amazing (and very destructive). This version reminded me of a Titan from “Attack on Titan”… anyone else think so?

What I thought was fun about the movie was that it was filled with so many recognizable Japanese actors. Seems like everyone had a cameo or starring role. I also thought Ishihara Satomi’s character was funny speaking English. It was just like her English in the dorama 5-9. It was silly and fun!

Lastly, the English acting from the gaijin was terrible… yappari (as expected). But all-in-all, I thought it was a good movie. And I am amazed at how many conference rooms could be shown in a single movie. They must have set a record. 😜

shin-godzilla

I hope you had a nice Tuesday!

おやすみなさい!

– B Barron Fujimoto