TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

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2010 Photo Highlights

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Snow monkeys, Nagano.

Snow Monkeys, Jigokudani, Nagano

Mount Ogi Fire Festival in Beppu

Mount Ogi Fire Festival, Beppu

Beppu Sand Baths

Sand Baths, Beppu

Onbashira Festival

Onbashira Festival, Suwa, Nagano

Korakuen, Okayama

Dogo Onsen, Matsuyama

Studio shoots with the new Pentax 645D

Studio shots with the Pentax 645D - Jessia

Location shoots with the new Pentax 645D

Location shots with the Pentax 645D - Liz

Akita Kanto Matsuri

Akita Kanto Matsuri, Akita

Nebuta Matsuri

Nebuta Matsuri, Aomori

Shinjuku Shoot

Shinjuku, Tokyo

Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo

Kishiwada Danjiri

Kishiwada Danjiri, Osaka

Naha Tug of War

Naha Tug of War, Okinawa

In the studio

In the studio - Tomoko

The final couple of images from my studio shoots make up this final post of the year. The model is Nina, Kim Clay did makeup and hair. Nina’s done a lot of modeling around Asia, so it was a great opportunity to work with her while she was back home visiting Okinawa.

Studio Shoot - Nina (1)

Studio Shoot - Nina (2)

So that’s it for 2010. Happy New Year everyone and see you in 2011.

Step by Step

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Studio Shoot - Feven (1)

It has probably become obvious that I’ve been doing a series of portraits that all have the same basic ingredients: model against a grey background, lit with a beauty dish and a fill light. For most shoots I did a simple, natural portrait followed by a second look in which the makeup artist, Kim Clay, could flex her creative muscle. The beauty shots are a great way for me to concentrate on the fundamentals. By not showing any jewelry or clothing, you simplify the image.

I take the majority of portraits close up and I usually like the model looking directly at the camera. It was during my exhibition that I realized that I work in the studio in a very similar style to when I’m traveling . The majority of prints I had put on display were also head and shoulder crops of people looking directly at the camera. As a photographer I think I am trying to capture a moment of connection between the subject and the viewer.

Step by step, I can now add more variables to the simple natural portrait and still be in control of (or at least aware of ) all the different factors. Advanced makeup, clothing, locations and multiple models are all possibilities, but at the core is still a person’s face that should connect with the viewer on some level.

Studio Shoot - Feven (2)

AutoStitch for iPhone

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A couple of weeks ago I put up the panoramic photo taken by Pete Leong of my exhibition.

Visions of Japan at Global Gallery Pete Leong

Visions of Japan at Global Gallery by Pete Leong

Pete took the photo with his iPhone using an app called AutoStitch. You simply take a series of overlapping photographs with your phone, then open the app, select the images and the app will stitch them all together into one seamless image.

AutoStitch is only a couple of dollars so it seemed like a fun thing to try out.

AutoStitch panorama Kin Town Golf

You probably will have slightly ragged edges to the image when it is stitched together, but the phone can automatically crop out the black space for you.

AutoStitch panorama Araha Beach

If you have an iPhone and feel like broadening your photographic horizons then it’s well worth playing around with.

Studio Shoot – Bianca – Variations

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Studio Shoot - Bianca (1)

Studio Shoot - Bianca (2)

Studio Shoot - Bianca (3)

I had a few misconceptions about using digital in the studio. One of them is how useful it would be to check the exposure using the camera histogram or the LCD screen. If you are using a light meter then you should be getting the reading correct anyway. The extra checks you can do with digital are reassuring, but not really necessary.

One huge advantage, however, is with regards to film costs or the lack of them. When shooting with the Pentax 67, it works out at about a dollar fifty each time I press the shutter. If I shoot a street portrait, I will usually have a chat with the person then take two or three images. I am pretty sure that one of those images should be a keeper. It’s costs a few dollars, but it’s manageable.

When shooting portraits in the studio you tend to shoot a lot more. Although professional models may be able to flash the perfect smile at a moments notice, for most people the first dozen (or several dozen) shots can look less than relaxed. I checked my files in Adobe Bridge and saw that with digital I was shooting between 75 and 150 shots per person per look. On some evenings I was shooting over 400 images. That’s around 20 GB’s of hard disk space, but more importantly it’s not $600 dollars of film and processing costs.

The larger number of images means you have more to select from. In nearly all the shots the exposure and focus is correct so you can chose between more subjective points such as the angle of the head or the kind of smile. More variations give you more possibilities, and hopefully means you will get the exact shot that you or the client are looking for.

Model: Bianca Makeup & Hair: Kim Clay 645D with 67 105mm lens. Beauty Dish and Octobox as fill.

Hasselblad XPan

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"Why so serious?" Hasselblad XPan image by Nathan Keirn

My friend Nathan dropped by recently to show me his newly purchased Hasselblad XPan camera. The camera is a technological marvel, a truly beautiful piece of engineering. Hasselblad managed to design a compact camera that was light yet strong due to the titanium body. It had excellent optics, and amazingly it could shoot both regular sized frames of 35mm film and also double length frames. This gave 35mm shooters the ability to get image quality on a level with medium format in a tiny 35mm rangefinder body. (The XPan negative is roughly the same width as a 6×7 negative, just half the height.)

Hasselbald XPan II 35mm film Panoramic Camera

The Hasselblad XPan is fantastic, but I am not the only person aware of this. At a time when the resale value of analog cameras has plummeted only a few rare and collectable cameras have maintained their value. The XPan is one of them. Used cameras range in price from around US$1500 to US$8000.

Of course there’s always the possibility you’ll see one of these “obsolete film cameras” going for a few bucks at a flea market or yard sale. While you’re there you should also pick up the Ming vase, the Fabergé egg and the sketches by a young man from Vinci.

Studio Shoot – Cece – Desaturation

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Another studio shoot, this time with Cece. Makeup artist Kim Clay first put on some natural makeup, and I shot a simple beauty shot using a beauty dish as the mainlight and an octobox softbox for fill.

Studio Shoot - Cece (1)

For a second shot, Kim darkened the makeup and gave Cece a jacket. I shot with the same lighting setup.

Studio Shoot - Cece (2) original

I liked the shot but it didn’t feel quite right. However simply desaturating the image a fraction produced a much more interesting cinematic look.

Studio Shoot - Cece (2) slight desaturation

In the future I would like to take this further and “process” the same image in a variety of different ways. Anyone who has watched the various C.S.I. programs will be aware of the differences in color palette used to give the different shows their own look (Compare the saturated colors and oranges of C.S.I. Miami to the desaturated blues and grays of C.S.I. New York.).

As a travel photographer the only things I regularly do in Photoshop are dust removal and minor color or exposure corrections. The levels of color saturation were chosen back when buying the film. However, if you are not trying to document reality, but rather create an image, then you’re limited by nothing more than your imagination.

Studio Shoot – Manda – Transformation

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Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (1)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (2)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (3)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (4)

This was an interesting shoot with Manda, one of the Marines based on Okinawa.

Lighting remained constant through the shoot. Makeup artist Kim Clay added a natural makeup look between shots 2 and 3, and then an evening makeup look between 3 and 4. Another key difference is that the first two shots were taken with the 645 55mm lens (approx 40 mm on a 35 full frame camera) and the last two shots were taken with the 67 105mm lens (approx 85mm on a 35mm full frame camera). The longer lens gives more pleasing proportions to the face, which is why lenses around 85mm are often described as portrait lenses.

Santa Dive 2010

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Santa Dive 2010 - Ho Ho Ho

Santa Dive 2010 - No Reindeer Here!

Santa Dive 2010 - Rising sea levels led to serious flooding of Santa's Grotto

My good friend Hiroshi and I did our annual Santa dive today. Cape Maeda was calm, and the water clear but chilly. Not many other people diving today, but did manage to amuse a few other divers and snorkelers as we glided by.

Website Updates

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Travel 67 homepage

There have been a few changes over at the TRAVEL 67 website, that I thought I’d mention. The image on the homepage has switched from a girl in maiko costume to an Ainu man.

Flickr Facebook RSS

In the top right there are also new buttons taking you straight to my Flickr account, Chris Willson Photography on Facebook and the RSS feed.

New Shipping Details Page When Ordering Prints

There is also a new shipping details page when people are ordering prints. Several years ago the webmaster and I thought it was unnecessary and possibly annoying for us to require customers to type in their shipping details on the website when they will be automatically included at payment with Paypal. What we hadn’t considered was that this could, and did, lead to people being asked to make payment with Paypal before they had given us any customer details. It could appear impolite, or dubious, to ask for money without first asking for a name and shipping address. So we’ve learned from our incorrect assumptions and hopefully people prefer the new version.

A big thanks as always to Nick Fraenkel for all his hard work keeping the site up and running.