Model – Yuki MUA – Summer Johnson Pentax 645D HD PENTAX-D FA645 MACRO 90mmF2.8ED AW S Lighting – Charcoal background. 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.
It’s always a challenge in photography to try and put the viewer into the midst of a scene with just a single image. Although I shot numerous portraits at Holi, I also experimented a little with movement to try and show the excitement, disorientation, speed and color of the festival. When you’re out on the streets, Holi is celebrated like a fast paced, contact sport. Bikes swoop in, unleashing a flurry of hands and powder. It’s all fun as long as you don’t mind dozens of extremely excited Indian men smearing you face and hair with paint. If you’re a woman, you’re probably going to get far more attention that you want, and the mob of hands will invariably stray from your head and shoulders. Depending on your outlook, this can be anything from annoying to a nightmare. The hotels recommended tourists to not walk around on the streets while the celebrations took place. I was particularly amused by this car full of bright pink bearded men. I hope the driver wanted a new more …
Last night, Gary Sinise performed with the Lt. Dan Band on Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. It was a great show. Of course this is partly because there’s a celebrity on the stage, but it was more about knowing the audience and what they enjoy. This means you got huge cheers when they started playing The Who’s Baba O’ Riley and everyone sang a long to classics such as The devil went down to Georgia, Chicken Fried, and of course God Bless The USA.
Tourinji Temple, founded in 1614, was the first temple in the Yaeyamas. Two Nio guardians stand on either side of the temple entrance acting as mythical bouncers and warding off evil spirits.
BAPE (A Bathing Ape) is the ultra cool Japanese clothing brand by designer Nigo. At the moment, you can only buy the clothing in the BAPE stores, of which there are around 19 in Japan and a few overseas. I just read the company was bought by a Hong Kong fashion conglomerate for about 3 million dollars, so I imagine that in the near future, the brand is going to become a lot more popular, and a lot less exclusive.
The Elephant Festival in Jaipur was meant to be meant to be an unmissable event. I love to document major festivals, therefore I’d timed my trip so I’d be in Jaipur on March 26th. Unfortunately, on the day before the festival, there was strange rumor being whispered around the city. By the evening, a piece of paper stuck to a hotel window confirmed our fears, this year the Elephant Festival would be elephant free. I completely understand and applaud the organizers, if they believe that it is no longer appropriate to use elephants to celebrate a festival. If the elephants have to be conditioned into a state of docility and obedience by violence then I’d hate to condone the behavior by photographing, and therefore promoting, the event. What was frustrating was that this decision had been taken weeks if not months previously, and yet it was only announced the day before the festival. This became obvious when, on arriving at the event, all the banners and printed materials called it a Holi Festival and there …
J Muzacz is an artist and a traveller. He’s spent most of the last year working as a sugar cane farmer on Ishigaki, and drawn his encounters with the island’s people, and wildlife in his sketch books. Very cool, inspirational guy. Check out his work here. I know J from his earlier project Japan 365 where he drew an image of Japan every day for a year.
After photographing Seiei Nakaza sensei, I took a few shots of his senior student, Brian Hobson. It might seem strange to call a 7th dan black belt a student, but even those who have studied karate for decades often visit Okinawa to learn from the masters of the art.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 