Weather forecast: Cloudy with a chance of Chinese sand.
Spending the morning inside catching up on some editing.
Ursula - Urban Camo. (Pentax 645D with 67 105mm)
Ursula – Urban Camo
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The Royal Wedding as seen from Okinawa
Watching the Royal Wedding in Okinawa, Japan
Here’s my shot of the Royal Wedding as seen from Japan. Thanks to Yoshi for standing still long enough for me to get the shot 🙂
Aikido Master Kabayama Sensei
Aikido Master Kabayama-san
Shooting Aikido last night. This was a quick portrait of Kabayama Sensei I took at the end of the session. Converted to black and white in Photoshop.
Product Shoot for Ledeen Diamond Co.
A few weeks ago I did a jewelry product shoot for Ledeen Diamond Co. with fellow photographer Aviva Bowman. This shot is of “The Limoncello” which I am told is a “Fancy Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring- 1.64 Carat Fancy Yellow Cushion Cut Center Stone, 1.02 Carats of Micro Pave Fancy Yellow Diamonds.” All those carats will certainly help you see in the dark.
"The Limoncello" Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring by Ledeen Diamond Co.
Ledeen Diamond Co. Boutique will have its Grand Opening next Friday from 4 to 10PM in Kin Town, Okinawa. You can find more information on their Facebook Page. If you’re on Okinawa, drop by, make some new friends, and support a budding local business.
To take this shot I used a Lastolite Cubelite (a white indoor tent) that creates a very soft light and helps control reflections. A strobe was placed on both sides of the cubelite and these were triggered with PocketWizards. The flower then goes inside the tent which is zipped up except for a small hole.
PENTAX D FA645 25mm F4 AL[IF] SDM AW Testing
Pentax 645D with 25mm lens
I talked about the new epic super wide lens by Pentax in a previous blog. It doesn’t come on sale until next month, but happily Pentax sent me a prerelease lens to try out. I’ve been busy this weekend teaching the Photography 101 Workshop, but managed to get out the camera and 25mm lens for the sunset this evening. (Workshop went great, more on this later.)
Lens testing at Maeda Flats
I apologize for the cliche, but the lens is an engineering marvel. Really solidly built, and pleasure to use and hold. You can also use it as a workout device if you’re carrying it around all day.
Sunset at Maeda Flats (645D with 25mm lens)
As with the new 55mm lens, the first shots show it to be extremely sharp. This is the shot from today, but more will follow over the next few weeks.
Invisible Sea Horses
Went for a dive at Cape Zampa last weekend. Zampa is one of my favorite dive locations, but you should only enter when the sea’s calm. Otherwise you can find yourself being dashed on the rocks or dragged by strong currents out to sea. It also gets deep very fast. You step off the rocky shoreline and almost immediately there is more than 50 meters of water beneath you.
My dive buddy Hiroshi thought that we might be able to see Pygmy Sea Horses on the fan corals so we dropped down to a large group of fan corals at 40 meters. My watch blinked to tell me I was 60 centimeters below the limit, and more importantly that I had a maximum of 3 minutes at that depth. Our search for pygmy sea horses was therefore rapid, and not surprisingly, unsuccessful. We then slowly ascended before having a long leisurely safety stop at 5 meters.
I don’t take a camera with me when diving. There’s the hassle and expense of housings, combined with the fact that I like being able to simply relax while underwater. I let Hiroshi do the shooting and I just mug for the pictures.
Zen and the Art of Scuba Diving (Photo by Hiroshi) Check out my dandy underwater scissors!
We cant go any deeper Captain. (photo by Hiroshi)
"Oh no Gromit, all the Pygmy Sea Horses have vanished!" (Photo by Hiroshi)
Black Bear
Bear in Black
In times of need, Bear transforms into “Black Bear” a shadowy force that is more bite than bark.
Rather than a phone booth, Bear transforms herself in Photoshop, then charges off into the night.
Karate on the Beach
Matsubayashi-ryu black belt James Pankiewicz training on the beach in Okinawa
Building up a larger selection of karate photographs for an assignment I’m working on. James agreed to step out of the dojo for some beach training images. (The above sequence is an example of using a fast shutter speed to freeze motion when shooting without flash. I used a reflector to add some light as I was shooting into the sun.)
Matsubayashi-ryu black belt James Pankiewicz training on the beach in Okinawa
High Speed Apple
Just made a clever little upgrade to my computer which I thought I’d share.
In previous blogs I talked about the joys and pains of my Apple desktop behemoth. These Mac Pro computers are big and powerful, but also surprisingly easy to upgrade. The procedures to install new memory or hard disk drives are pretty much plug and play. I’d upgraded the memory (Photoshop runs faster) and hard disk drives (big photos need lots of room) and things were running fine. My friend Steve (not Jobs) advised me about the next step – a solid-state drive.
A solid-state drive (SSD) has several advantages over a standard hard disk drive (HDD). As they have no moving parts, they are more reliable and can access data faster. They’re also silent and run cooler than HDDs. The main drawback is that they are far more expensive per GB of capacity. For those people who are still using desktops that can hold multiple drives there is a fantastic opportunity. You use cheaper, much larger HDDs for storing the data (music, videos, documents, photographs) and a faster SSD for startup and applications.
Last week I ordered a 115 GB SSD along with a converter so that the 2.5″ drive would slot into the 3.5″ drive bay. Cost including shipping to Japan was around US$250. Yesterday I installed the drive, and then used the Apple startup disk to transfer the data from the old HDD to the new SSD then switch the drive that OSX boots from. Everything worked without any glitches. The computer now starts up faster, applications run faster and there is the extra bonus of reliability.
If you’ve got multiple drives in your computer this is well recommended.
115GB OWC SSD drive with ICY DOCK 2.5" to 3.5" converter
High Speed Bear (More Flash Duration Testing)
Some more flash duration testing this time with Bear as the model.
When using natural light you can freeze action by using a fast shutter speed. When using a strobe (and low ambient light) you freeze action with the light from the strobe rather than the shutter. The length of the pulse of light that comes out of the strobe is the flash duration. The shorter the flash duration the cleaner the image as you will get less blur.
In these shots I threw a dog biscuit with one hand and pressed the shutter with the other. Bear is quite happy to work for food.
High Speed Bear (1)
High Speed Bear (2)
High Speed Bear (3)
High Speed Bear (4)
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 