The year of the snake
Last Wednesday, I finally decided to send my X-T5 off for repair after experiencing another f/0 error. My warranty is up on the 7th anyway.
Unfortunately, I picked the worst time to send it in for repair. This weekend was the Lunar New Year celebration down at Asia Plaza. I also needed to help stage a photoshoot on Sunday, and next week:
Poetry on Wednesday and Thursday
Photoshoot on Tuesday
Big event on Friday
And probably something on Saturday I’m forgetting
So, I had to rent a camera. I hope that mine only needs a quick repair. I miss it.
~
Anyway, I was glad to have a camera so I could shoot the Lunar New Year celebration. I went last year and took one of my favorite shots to date. It’s in my portfolio, of one of the Sho-jo-ji dancers.
After my guitar lesson (which went well!), I drove down to 30th and Payne and hurried inside to get away from the chill. The performance had already started, so I squeezed my way through the crowd to find a good spot for some photos. The dancers were great, as usual.
Once that performance ended, I dragged myself outside to the food trucks. Parilya was there, just like they were last year. I think that was the first time I tried their food. The chicken barbecue bowl and beef and pork lumpia are always good.
Sidenote…one of the food truck workers asked when I’m going to come to the actual restaurant. This probably means that I’ve been there one too many times.
While standing outside, I got some shots of the food truck, the sky, and the building. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so I had to pull my camera out and take pictures of everything around me. That’s my favorite part of a Deanna Day Out (DDO): it’s a day for me to be outside, exploring the environment around me with my camera.
DDOs bring me a lot of joy, and I definitely need to do them every two weeks or so to stay grounded. Now that we’ve gotten through January and all 800 of its days, hopefully things will start warming up so I can be outside more.
After I got my food, I went inside to watch more performances. I also met another fellow photographer! I’ve been chatting with Manny over Instagram for a few months now but never actually met him in person. I learned that he works for Cleveland Scene, which finally explains why he’s always photographing cool events around Cleveland.
The Sho-jo-ji dancers finally came on, and I was little disappointed to see that they didn’t have as many as they did last year. But what made up for it was the youngest Sho-jo-ji dancer. She was so cute in her kimono, and apparently, a third generation Sho-jo-ji dancer! The other dancers did a great job helping her with the dance moves.
My goal was to capture a photo similar to the one I took last year. I didn’t quite get the same photo, but I did take some other photos that captured the emotion on the performers’ faces, which is what I wanted.
All in all, it was a good Saturday. I definitely needed it.
