Author: travel67

Lab Report – Bear gets her 9 vitamins and iron

Published by

Got up this morning went into the kitchen, ground some beans, stuck them in the coffee machine’s little gold filter funnel, filled the reservoir with water and swtiched it on. Normally I have granola, but today I grabbed an unopened box of Frosties and popped it on the kitchen counter. I went to turn on the computer and check the news while the coffee machine did its magic.   Five minutes later, having read that a North Korean ballistic missile was about to be fired over (or possibly into) Japan, I returned to the kitchen. I was greeted with the smell of fresh coffee and  …. There were two suspects. Pudding was fast asleep. Bear was racing around the kitchen with a mad gleam in her eyes. I picked up the trash, then had my cup off coffee with a piece of toast.

Time to say goodbye :(

Published by

First some background… Although I learned to drive when I was 17, I didn’t have my own car. I would pootle around in my mother’s Rover Metro. It  got my climbing buddies, Stewart and Jack, and me out to places like Stanage Edge and the Lake District on weekends. It did exactly what my dad said a car should do – get you from A to B. At university and for several years after I never owned a car. It wasn’t until 2001, a couple of years after moving to Japan I got my very first vehicle. For 70,000 yen (US$ 700) I got my very own monster truck.  The Toyota Hilux Surf as demonstrated on Top Gear is usually one of the toughest vehicles on the road. My aging Surf, however,  was on its last legs, the old turbo diesel engine would whine as it slowly built up momentum to it’s top speed of 80 kilometers an hour. The limited speed was however a bonus as the worn breaks, knobbly tyres and spongy suspension …

24 hours with David Levene

Published by

A couple of years ago I met David Levene a photographer for The Guardian. It was 5 in the morning and we were both  waiting to get in our respective hot air balloons while photographing the Bristol Balloon Festival. We had a good chat for an hour, and I said it would be great to meet again if he ever made if to Japan. I then got in my wicker basket and had my first (and only) balloon ride. It was a great experience and I got a few good photos.  A couple of months ago I got an email from David saying he was coming to Japan to get shots for the newspaper, particularly the two page center spreads, which are an amazing showcase for a photographer. Check out this short video to see the kind of work David does. (Then come right back!) David is in Japan for two weeks and came down to Okinawa for 24 hours to get some images of  Churaumi Aquarium I talked about in a previous post which …

Lab Report – OAARS Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society

Published by

The Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society  OAARS is a fantastic program whose main goal is to find homes for stray and unwanted animals on Okinawa which would otherwise be euthanized ( a polite way of saying killed).  I am writing about them here (in a blog that is meant to be predominantly about photography in Japan) because my friends Theresa and Michael saw that there were some labs that needed homes and hoped I’d be interested.  As much as I would love another lab, or two or three, Pudding and Bear are quite enough right now. Hopefully, however, there is a reader out there who would love one of these beautiful creatures, and make the dogs, the people at OAARS, Theresa, Michael and myself extremely happy.  As an added bonus adopt one of these dogs and you can then come and hang out with Pudding and Bear at the beach!   Labrador retrievers are quite possibly the best dogs in the world. They are loving, smart, sensitive, beautiful, playful and have great temperaments (although Bear has some issues). But….. …

Flickr

Published by

Do you know why we have two ears and only one mouth? Because we should be listening twice as much as we are talking. I think this little piece of wisdom is fantastic. (Although perhaps not correct from an evolutionary standpoint) Listening to others has helped me tremendously over the past few years. The initial design of my website was my idea, but it was the advice of my friend and webmaster Nick that helped me create something far better than I could have done alone. Flickr is another example.  It required the input of others for me to understand the usefulness of the Flickr ( “the best online photo management and sharing application in the world” ). I signed up to Flickr a couple of years ago, put up 4 or 5 photographs and pretty much forgot about it.  At the time it seemed to be unnecessary to put my photos on another website when I had just spent so much time and effort creating my own.  Meeting the computer gurus in Tokyo last month, was …

On the bookshelf – Sport & Action

Published by

Another title in Rotovision’s The World’s Top Photographers’ Workshops series is Sport & Action. For me this is perhaps the weakest in the series. My main niggle is that there are nine sports photographers and one wildlife photographer. Andy Rouse’s photographs are excellent, but they are completely out of place, especially when there is a separate and far superior book in the series called Wildlife.  The other reason for not enjoying this one so much is perhaps more contentious. It seems to me that for  sports perhaps the still camera is not the best medium for recording events. The opposite seems to be true in the world of Fashion & Advertising where a well crafted image has far more impact than catwalks or television commercials.

Mac or PC?

Published by

A year and a half ago I needed to get a new computer having caused the PC I was using (Seiko’s) to go into thermal shutdown so many times it had fried various essential components.  The problem was one of multiplication.   Most people print small (around A4) and the file sizes you are dealing with aren’t huge.  The amount of data I was dealing with was larger for several reasons. A2 sized prints – files 4 times the size of A4 Printing at 600 dpi   – files double the size of 300 dpi  Printing in RGB16  – files double the size of RGB8  What this meant was that the computer files coming from the scanner were around 750mb. If I started to use the cloning tool to remove dust specks, or even worse used layers, there was the distinct possibility of spontaneous computer combustion.  I wanted a computer powerful enough to run Photoshop and handle large data files without breaking a sweat, and to be able to do this while I am working …

Nakamura House, Okinawa

Published by

Nakamura House is a traditional Okinawan house that dates back to the 15th Century. Its roof is covered with red clay tiles while the walls are made up of sliding wooden panels. The moveable walls can be opened to allow cooling breezes in the summer heat or closed and braced against wind and rain during typhoons. A shisa – lion dog – talisman sits on the roof protecting residents from evil spirits.  The house has eight rooms, many with the tatami flooring – the rectangular mats made of woven straw. Some rooms contain artifacts including traditional bingata kimono. The house is located in the northern part of Naha City on the main island of Okinawa. Nakamura House is open everyday from 9.00 to 17.30

A presidential fitness dvd

Published by

On March 7th several friends of mine did the New Zealand ironman triathlon. John, Isla, Charlotte, Anna and Perry all swam 3.8 km, rode 180.2 km then ran 42.2 km. Impressive and inspiring stuff, but I am not even close to doing a full triathlon myself. I  recently began my very own “get fit with Jed Bartlet” program. There are numerous celebrity fitness DVDs on the market but this one is a sure fire winner. Follow the simple steps. Purchase the The West Wing box set. I got mine on Amazon in a special sale for 75 dollars. (HMV in the UK had it for 50 pounds) Set up bicycle in front of computer on trainer. (I am using a friend’s 1up trainer) Get on bicycle and pedal away while watching all 45 DVDs Purchase new trousers because legs have doubled in size. I am nearly at the end of the first series, and really enjoying it. I think my legs are getting stronger and my back is slowly getting used to being in the aero position. …