Heian Godan

Heian Godan, originally uploaded by efroymson.

Steve is Doctor from Chicago. He did Heian Godan for his Shodan grading. He passed.

This was taken at the Midwest summer special training, near Kansas City. Mike Lyon did a great job leading. It was a wonderful opportunity to practice. With only forty attendees and numerous high ranking seniors (including Godan John Teramoto) there was definitely no place to hide.

It was fun to use the RD-1 to take this sort of picture. Clearly not quite the right tool, but I was able to get some good pictures. Probably should have set the iso higher so I could stop down more. The DOF was narrow enough that I had to keep refocusing as folks moved up and down the floor. The shutter speed got a good balance between freezing some motion, and allowing some blur.

Kumite was very difficult for me, since I could not anticipate the attacks well enough to press the shutter at the right moment. Oddly, I have the same problem when I do kumite myself! Missing the picture or getting hit, with practice I should get better. With Kata it is easier, since I know when the jumps and strikes are.

400 iso, f4, 1/30th sec.