TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

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Meitatsu Yagi 10th-dan Goju-ryu Karate

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Meitatsu Yagi 10th-dan International Meibukan Goju-ryu Karate-do Association

I’d been hoping to photograph Meitatsu Yagi for the project for several years. In March 2014 I took portraits of his younger brother Meitetsu Yagi, and his nephew Ippei Yagi, but hadn’t been able to coordinate a time with Meitatsu Yagi.

Luckily at the Tookachi seminars for Iha sensei’s students I had the opportunity to photograph Yagi sensei and some of the other masters of Okinawa karate.

Amazingly Meitatsu Yagi was one of the first karate masters I ever photographed. I shot him with my Pentax 67 film camera in around 2004. I was visiting Murasaki Mura and asked the man in the white uniform with a black belt if I could take his photo. At that time I didn’t know his name, or that 15 years later, I’d still be on Okinawa, and spending most of my time photographing and interviewing karate masters.

Meitatsu Yagi, International Meibukan Goju-ryu Karate Do Association Hanshi 10th dan at Murasaki Mura Dojo around 2004

Tookachi – Celebrating 88 years

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Thought I’d post a few pics from the Tookachi 88th birthday celebration for Seikichi Iha. These are actually low res video stills but they’re enough to give an idea of what happens.

Traditional Ryukyu dancers wearing hanagasa hats open proceedings.

Iha Sensei pouring sake for honored guests and greeting those who come to give their best wishes. (His son sits to his left, his daughter to his right.)

Masahiko Tokashiki sensei chatting with Iha Sensei.

Miguel da Luz catching up with Iha sensei.

So many members of the Beikoku Shido-kan Karate-do Association in attendance, along with numerous Okinawan karate masters.

Thank you for having me to your party! Congratulations Iha Sensei.

Seikichi Iha 10th-dan Okinawa Shorin-ryu Karate

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Seikichi Iha and hundreds of his Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo Association students from across the world came to Okinawa to celebrate his “Tokachi” 88th birthday celebrations.

Seikichi Iha 10th-dan Okinawa Shorin-ryu Karate, Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo Association Photographed August 29th 2019 at the Miyahira Dojo, Naha City, Okinawa.

I was lucky to get to spend some time with the group as they visited Shuri Castle, an evening banquet, training at the Karate Kaikan, and an interview and training at the dojo of the late Miyahira sensei.

The interview and footage from his trip will form episode seven of the Sensei: Masters of Okinawa Series.

We did it! Portraits, interview and training footage all shot in 100 humidity in August.

A huge thank you to the members of the Beikoku Shidokan Karatedo Association for inviting me into your celebrations, and also for becoming one of the main sponsors of the Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate series.

Sensei Arcenio J. Advincula

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On August 20th 2019, I had the pleasure to meet, photograph and interview Sensei Arcenio J. Advincula a master of Isshinryu karate. He was a fascinating person to interview because of his role in bringing this style of Okinawa karate to North America, and also developing martial arts in the United States Marine Corps.

It will be a few weeks until the interview is posted to You Tube, but here are a selection of portraits documenting another thread in the fabric of Okinawan karate.

Arcenio James Advincula Isshinryu Karate / Ryukonkai Kobudo

Thank you to Advincula sensei and his students for traveling up to Motobu. It was a pleasure to have you in my studio.

Gamelan Dancers

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Early Sunday morning I had the opportunity to photograph the musicians and dancers of a Gamelan Indonesian dance group.

I shot portraits using natural light and a wide aperture against green vegetation.

I also used the felt black background and a single strobe setup from the karate masters series to create a second set of images.

Here’s a quick behind the scenes shot showing the black Lastolite background leaning against our car, and a Profoto B1 strobe with OCF beauty dish on the stand. Portraits were shot using the Pentax 645Z with the 90mm and 55m lenses.

A huge thank you to the Gamelan dancers and musicians, and to Michael Lyon for setting up the shoot. Looking forward to seeing your performances in the future.

Fall Workshops

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We had a fun movie-themed studio lighting workshop on Saturday. Started with some simple soft beauty lighting on a white background.

We then progressed to using multiple lights, and costumes to create roles for the characters from E.R. to Star Trek.

Huge thank you to Crissy our model, Cee Jay the makeup artist, Amy and Monica for being fun students. Great spending time with you 🙂

I’m going to spending all of August and September focused on the karate masters documentary, so I’ll return to teaching Fundamentals Workshops in the fall. Click on the link to reach the Facebook event pages and message me to book your spot.

October 5th and 6th 2019 Photography Fundamentals Workshop

November 2nd and 3rd 2019 Photography Fundamentals Workshop

Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate #5 Kiyomasa Maeda

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Things have been so hectic the last month I forgot to post about the release of Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate #5 with Kiyomasa Maeda.

A fascinating interview which shows the real love and respect these masters have for their own teachers, and the humility with which they approach their art.

Front cover of National Geographic (textbook)

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I did a double take the other day when checking out the reading materials at the local university. Spotted what looked like one of my photos on the cover of a National Geographic / Cengage Learning textbook about Mount Fuji.

Checked inside, and yes it was my photo, purchased through a stock agency back in 2008. Always nice to have my images on the cover of a book or magazine. Would have been even better if it had been the National Geographic magazine, but it gives me something to aim for in the future.

This image was shot back in the days of film with a Pentax 67 medium format camera. I’d travel around Japan with this wonderful beast of a camera, which is how this website got its name TRAVEL67.com

This photo was quite fittingly captured using Fuji film 🙂

Transformation

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Came across this fascinating digital painting that was based on one of the outtakes from the 2016 “fisherman” shoot with Michael Lynch for the Pentax K-1 exhibition.

UP! from hashem alshaer on Vimeo.

Michael was mugging for the camera and staring wildly at the sky. The digital painting version transforms the picture to a whole new level.

Here’s my finished photo of the wild seafaring Michael.

Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate #4 Takeshi Tamaki

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The fourth episode in the crowd-funded YouTube documentary series Sensei: Masters of Okinawan Karate is now online!

Please share, like, comment, and subscribe as these factors all influence the YouTube algorithm to get it shown to more people.

This is a real team effort. Thank you to those who helped make the episode including Gary Hughes, James East, and Yuki Willson. A huge thank you to Jerry Figgiani and Sadahiro Makino for setting up the interview, and of course to Takeshi Tamaki agreeing to be interviewed and sharing his thoughts.

I made the decision that I didn’t want this video series monetized by YouTube advertising so a huge thank you to the people and organizations who have donated to help keep this project going. Tomorrow I’ll start work on the edits for the next video which will hopefully be ready at the end of June.

Main Sponsors

Fusei Kise, Isao Kise and the OSMKKF-USA

Jerry Figgiani – Shorin Ryu Karate Do International

Series Sponsors

Cezar Borkowski – Northern Karate Schools

Marguerite “Peggy” Hess – Jensen Beach Uechi Ryu Karate Do Dojo

Reece Cummings – Cummings Karate Dojo

Michael Quinn – Okinawa Shogen-Ryu Karate-Do Europe

Series Supporters

Tim Herlihy

Robin Ross

Joshua Simmers – Okinawa Karate Podcast