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 …
What is it? The Profoto B1 500 AirTTL, a powerful flash you can take on location. It’s like a cordless version of the Profoto D1 monolight. Power comes from a lithium battery pack. 500Ws makes it approximately 10 times more powerful than a speedlight. Clever electronics allow you to control the output accurately over 9 stops (full to 1/256). The lithium battery gives enough power for 220 full power shots. It’s also capable of operating in TTL mode with certain cameras. Flash duration is also rapid. A Profoto radio trigger is integrated into the head. Accepts Profoto’s light shaping modifiers. Why did you buy one? Power and a fast recycle time so that on location I can balance ambient light with flash to create both the shot I want, and also capture the moment after. The high capacity of the lithium battery means I’m not going to run out of juice during a standard shoot. As with all Profoto equipment the head is designed around a cylinder approximately 10cm in diameter. This means all my heads from …
The 21st edition of the Fodor’s guidebook to Japan will be released March 18, 2014. I updated the Okinawa and Kyushu chapters of the book which is why I spent part of 2013 whizzing around the country. It’s available on pre-order from Amazon, Amazon.co.uk and on Kindle.
Last weekend, while teaching my Fundamentals Workshop, I talked about the advantages of a fast prime lens for portraits. I often recommend the f1.8 or f1.4 50mm lenses to Nikon and Canon shooters. Pentax has the 55mm 1.4 which is one of their pro-grade DA* lenses. Fantastic quality, and priced as such at US$799. I used the K3 with the 55mm on the second day of the class as we explored the Yomitan area, and the combination produces a bright clear viewfinder with the ability to get a lovely shallow depth of field and nice bokeh. In many ways the results are similar to my 645D with the 90mm macro lens. Not the same resolution (however 24 MP is more than enough for most applications), but it is from a smaller, lighter, cheaper package. I often hear new photographers chatting about wanting to upgrade to 35mm full frame, with the notion that they can’t produce professional shots (either artistically or commercially) with an APS sensor camera. The reality is that APS sensor cameras can give …
Images (not verifiable) have now begun to appear on the internet of a new Pentax 645D II to be revealed at the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show in Tokyo next week. No news of the exact sensor, but a tilt screen would suggest live view, which would mean CMOS not CCD. The Pentax K3 is arguably the best APS sensor DSLR on the market, and it looks like the new 645D will rewrite the rules for medium format digital. For Pentaxians we live in exciting times.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 