Following on from the last post, this is about (but not photographically limited to) the fire-walking event held last weekend.

It was, as I mentioned, held at a small temple near Atsuta shrine. I went there early in the morning to see what it was going to be like from a photographer's perspective and while I was there I happened to take some pictures, so are three which I quite like. All with the F2 105 DC.

The main event, though, wasn't going to start until 7 in the evening, and I wasn't about to hang around for nine or ten hours. So I went to look for a new lens. Like I mentioned earlier, the 105 DC is a very nice lens with amazing bokeh, but I estimated that its single focal length was going to be a problem. I went to one of the camera stores in Nagoya and found, for a very reasonable price, an 80-200 F2.8 zoom. I 'd used one before, and it was a pretty nice lens although I wasn't blown away with it wide open. I researched it online, though, and found many comments saying that it was in fact more than decently sharp at 2.8, so I may have had an iffy version. Either way, this 80-200 was Nikon's top pro zoom for quite a while, but as newer generations came in its price gradually dropped and this one was on sale for a price I considered extremely reasonable. So I picked it up. Its first test was going to be a literal trial by fire later that day.

It was also going to be a test of the D3S' legendary low light performance. At 7PM in Nagoya in December, it is flat-out dark. No hint of sunlight anywhere. Obviously, once the fire got going it was going to be OK, but in the period leading up to it, I was curious to see what kind of ISOs I could get away with. I was shooting RAW, so I wouldn't have the benefit of JPEG's built-in noise reduction. I stuck the D3S on auto-ISO up to HI 2 (25,600) and started shooting the preparations.

We had to stand around and wait for quite a while, but then things began to happen. A man dressed in his garb turned up with this branch. ISO 20,000. I'm not crazy about the background, but the man himself is pretty good for that level of ISO:

It was when I got this shot that I realised that it was a good idea to have bought the 80-200. This close-up was at 20,000 as well, and it cleaned up nicely in post-production: 

Again 20,000:

This one pushed the ISO to the limit I'd set, namely 25,600:

This also marked the entrance of the devotees who were going to be participating in the event:

Then Prometheus turned up:

...and whoosh

Now, they obviously weren't going to walk THROUGH that. They walked around it, chanting what I assume were prayers and/or complaining about the cold. This (the walking around, not the chanting) was what I was hoping for, because I wanted to get silhouette shots of people in front of the fire. The guy waving what looks like a cleaning rag is "encouraging" the fire to keep going.

Once they put out the fire, the actual "fire-walking" bit (well, "ash-walking bit") was entirely anticlimactic, in that everyone gathered round in a big circle and I couldn't get a shot for the life of me. Well, only one that I considered worthwhile:

But overall, it was fun to shoot, the D3S still continues to amaze, and the new lens did very nicely. Can't complain at all.

Thanks for looking!