my muse

last week, the designer and i went to see a taiko drum performance at the music garden. this was a very significant day because it was the first day i truly used my slr on manual settings. i had played around with it before without much interest or success and, despite urgings from the boy and titi, i was too lazy to get into it.

now, without the wedding to distract me, i can finally take on some new projects, one of which will be to learn how to use my camera. the night before the taiko performance, i played around with iso, shutter speed, apeture, and white balance - i think i was starting to get the hang of it.

the designer patiently waited as i fumbled around with the buttons, adjusted and readjusted. i told her to stand here and there. from looking at my photos, if you didn't know any better, you'd think she was my muse. here is one of my favourite images - as i told the designer, no photoshop necessary! it helped that she had just gotten a great hair cut.



and now for the actual performance. it was not as intense as the playwright's all women taiko group but this performance was more refined. it was great in parts, especially at the end. this group played so many different instruments and you could tell that the group's artistic director really really really loves to perform. he was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

what i loved about the performance was the musicality, the synchronization, the elegance, the power, the beats, and the physicality. it looked exhausting!



here is some more information about the performance that we watched:

Echoes of Ancient Boundaries - In ancient Japan, village boundaries extended as far as the sound of their Taiko drums carried. Tonight, the thrilling sounds of Toronto’s outstanding Taiko ensemble Nagata Shachu (formerly known as the Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble) taiko ensemble transcend the boundaries of East and West, past and present.
(courtesy of harbourfrontcentre.com)