Heck of a Union
Every October the people of Naha City Okinawa, Japan get together and hold a Guinness World Record Tug-O-War. The East vs West sides of town tugged at the 600ft, 40 ton natural fiber rope for 30 minutes holding back traffic on the main thoroughfare of the island and the match was called a tie. Neither side could pull their opponent the 10 meters to achieve a win, yesterday. The crowd pulling the rope is estimated to be around 15,000 people.
To capture this shot, I stood on a small 2-step ladder in the middle of the street. I folded my tripod legs and fully extended them, supported the contraption with my belt buckle, used the tripod as a boom and guessed at the angle of the shot. My cable release was the trigger, once I figured I was in position and steady. I tried a few shots at f/11 ISO 200, but they were too noisy. This one at f/8 1/25 ISO 100 was the best I could do before the police ran me off. 11OCT2009 4:48PM Cloudy, Pentax 18-250@18mm.
Uploaded on October 12, 2009