Author: travel67

On the bookshelf – Seal Team Six

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Having recently read With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge, I didn’t expect the next book on my reading list to be another military autobiography. I blogged about With the Old Breed because it is describes Sledge’s experiences fighting and trying to survive through the battle of Okinawa. I heartily recommend it to anyone who has lived in Okinawa, or has any interest in what happens to young men when they are thrown into what Sledge describes as hell on earth. The book I just finished is SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper. I had followed the progress of this book for a while, because one of its co-authors Stephen Templin is a friend of mine.  In fact, he’s the guy in the aikido shoot I did a couple of months ago. Little did we know, that days later the members of Seal Team Six would kill Osama Bin Laden. Suddenly, just a week before it’s release date,  the book got the kind of publicity that normally is reserved for Harry Potter. …

F.A.Q.s – Shutter Release Cables

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I’ve had a couple of questions about shutter release cables for the Light Painting Workshop. You’ll need to get a remote which works with your particular model (not just brand) of camera. Pentax I currently have the Pentax Waterproof Remote Control O-RC1 It does the job when you’d like to reduce camera shake by not having to touch the camera to fire the shutter. In bulb mode you can press it once to open the shutter and once more to close the shutter. Another option for Pentax users would be a Pentax Electronic Cable Switch. For other brands of cameras, Trevor came up with this quick list of possible shutter releases. Canon For 10D,20D,30D,40D,50D,5D,1D. RS-80N3 Remote Control for EOS 1Ds Mark II, EOS 1D Mark II N, EOS 30D, EOS-1v, and EOS-3 For Kiss series and 60D Canon Remote Switch RS60 E3 Trevor wrote a blog about canon remotes here: http://fiz-iks.blogspot.com/2011/05/canon-tc-80n3-mod.html Nikon Nikon MC-30 Remote Release Cord for Nikon D300, D200, D100, D3, NIKON MC30 Remote Cable Release (31.5 in) Nikon MC-DC2 Remote Release Cord for D90, D5000 …

Tilt-Shift on Screen

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Several times over the last few months I’ve seen TV shows, movies and even advertisements that have been shot, at least in part with a tilt-shift lens. I presume this has something to do with the Canon 5D mark II revolution that brought a photographer’s wide range of high quality optics into the cinematographer’s playground. So what is a tilt-shift lens?  A lens that is able to  rotate the optics of the lens relative to the film / sensor plane (tilt) or  move the optics up or down relative to the film / sensor plane (shift). These “movements” are  usually done to control the plane of focus (tilt) or correct converging lines (shift). Landscape photographers might tilt a lens to increase the depth of field in the image ensuring front to back focus. Tilting the lens in the opposite direction creates an unusually narrow field of focus. This gives the effect of miniaturization.  It was used to shrink London for the recent BBC drama Sherlock, and  New York in the opening sequence for Gulliver’s Travels. …

June 16th 2011 Lunar Eclipse – Okinawa, Japan

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Got up at 3.30AM and drove over to Cape Maeda to watch the Lunar Eclipse. My plan was to photograph the moon reflected in the ocean as it neared the horizon, but this wasn’t possible due to clouds on the horizon. The image above is not a particularly interesting shot, (nothing to put the moon in context) but is a decent enough snapshot to remember the event. I was pleased that most of the sky was clear  so I could at least witness the lunar eclipse. This is in contrast to the  solar eclipse a few years ago when, having travelled all the way to Yakushima to be in the zone of totality, we spent the entire day under a thick layer of rain clouds.

Love & Hope – Pentax Forum Gallery II, Shinjuku, Tokyo

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A set of postcards just arrived at my house promoting the new exhibition at the Pentax Gallery. Nice to see my name on there in the bottom right, and just as impressive is that they have spelt Willson correctly with two ls. It may be difficult to see, but the small camera icon in the center reads “Camera GP Japan 2011 – Camera of The Year” which is fantastic news for Pentax. Last month the 645D won the Best Professional DSLR award from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). Not bad for a camera that most people thought would never get beyond the prototype stage. I hope to get to the exhibition, but most likely it will be for part III when the part I prints are put on display again along with some other images. I’m aiming for the long weekend of July 16/17/18 but will see what happens.

Typhoon Songda – A blustery night.

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Typhoon Songda has come and gone leaving Okinawa a little worse for wear. There was the usual cull of trees and antennas that were two weak or inflexible to survive the 100 mph plus winds. Power went off at my house from 10PM until about 4AM but luckily I have a wide range of dive torches and bicycle lights. A big tree in next door’s garden didn’t make it through the night, but thankfully it also didn’t make it across the road and onto my car. (Which reminds me, always wash your car after a typhoon to prevent the new layer of sea salt sending your vehicle to an early, and rusty, grave.)