The latest shoot for the Karate Masters Portrait Project was with 10th-dan Meitetsu Yagi of Meibukan Karate and his son Ippei. Photographed on the black background in the Meibukan dojo in Naha, before shooting on location at the Fukushu Gardens.
For just 10 days, I’m having a special 20% off sale on my limited edition prints of Japan. http://www.travel67.com/prints/ This is the first time I’ve offered special pricing since I began producing the limited edition prints in 1998. It won’t happen again in 2014. A2 (17″x 24″) Edition 50 JPY ¥33,000 March 1- 10th 26,400 yen (approx US$264) A3 (12″ x 17″) Edition 100 JPY ¥22,000 March 1- 10th 17,600 yen (approx US$176) Price includes international express shipping with tracking and insurance. All prints are made with the highest quality archival paper and pigment inks so your investment will look great, long into the future. Ordering – Please email me with the name of the print(s) you’d like, and the size (s). I will then send you a PAYPAL request for payment. Payment must be made before midnight March 10th, 2014 to have the special pricing. Email: chris@TRAVEL67.com Living on Okinawa? If you’d like to come and browse the prints, then send me an email and I’ll send information …
I was disappointed to find out that the pilot is not forced to wear a Pikachu costume while flying the Pokemon 777.
After taking the studio images against the black background for the Karate Masters Portrait Project, I asked Shinjo sensei if we could walk down to the beach and get a few location portraits. I unplugged, then packed up the Profoto 7a generator and pro head I’d used in the dojo, and grabbed the new Profoto B1 battery powered head and the beauty dish. Set ambient exposure for the desired background then light up the subject with the flash. On location lighting with a bit of punch 🙂
A couple of my shots taken with the new Pentax K3 camera will be on display in an exhibit at the Ricoh Imaging Square in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The event takes place from March 26th to April 7th 2014, so if you’re in the area drop in and check out the photographs. If you’d like to see some images from previous exhibitions click on the Exhibitions tab above.
Narihiro Shinjo, Uechi Ryu karate master, and younger brother of Kiyohide Shinjo. He has won the kata section of karate championships so many times, James and I are having trouble working out the exact number. Just like his brother he is fast, conditioned beyond belief, and very very strong. He is also a lovely man, and has great control, which is a relief when a foot that could probably pass through concrete flies towards your camera.
Great fun was had by all at the first studio lighting intro workshop. After talking about the different types of equipment available we spent the rest of the weekend taking studio portraits. We began with a single light, added a reflector, and eventually got up to shooting with numerous strobes. Things got comical as we got dressed up for our hospital staff portraits. Individual images were composited together to get the group shot of all six people. Thank you Kathy, Molly, Lemont, Kevin and James! I’ll put dates of future workshop up on the Photography Workshops page. If you’re waiting for a specific workshop, or wanting 1 to 1 training, please send me an email.
It’s whale watching season in Okinawa. I’m doing some research and taking pics for a future article. Choppy seas, dark skies, and subjects that don’t respond to direction (Excuse me, if you would be so kind as to breach in front of the boat.) make getting decent shots a bit of a lottery. I have one keeper from the first trip, and hopefully I’ll get some more interesting pics over the next few weeks.
Firefighter Mac dropped by the studio and brought his gear so I could shoot some portraits. The black turnout gear about is for structural fires while the silver suit is for aviation fires I started shooting on a clean white background and then slowly transformed the studio and lighting to give a more atmospheric look to the images. Lighting – Charcoal background. Small Smoke Machine. Beauty dish powered by Profoto Pro-7a as the main light. Small softbox as low fill. Medium size strip softboxes on both sides adding rimlight (powered by Profoto compacts). A fifth compact aimed at the background. Strobes triggered with PocketWizards. All images shot with the Pentax 645D and the HD PENTAX-D FA645 MACRO 90mmF2.8ED AW S
I’ve just set up a 500px account, as another way for people to find and browse through my images. I had imagined that having a website, a blog, Flickr, Facebook and Google+ was more than enough exposure, but other professional photographers said that 500px would be a useful tool in reaching new markets. A more significant change is that on Flickr and 500px I will now start uploading images that are 900 pixels wide on the short edge. Posting larger images on the web is always a conundrum. Too large and you could have people stealing your photos and using them commercially without receiving payment, they also they take longer to load on webpages. Too small and the viewing experience for web surfers is diminished. As the resolution of screens has increased, and data transfer speeds have improved, some images on my website and blog were starting to look very small. The new larger images will still be watermarked and the copyright information is still embedded in the metadata, but hopefully people will enjoy …
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 