Over the last year I’ve talked about a few inspirational photography books on my bookshelf. This time, I thought I’d make my discovery of the photographic masters a little more interactive. Would it not be more interesting to read the book at the same time as others? Similar to a book club, but with less Oprah and more photographs.
I thought we could start with a book I’ve just ordered for Christmas The Americans
The Americans by Robert Frank
American photographer Robert Cameron died last week aged 98. He specialized in aerial photographs, most famously for his “Above” series of books. Just three months ago he was up in a helicopter taking shots of the famously contorted Lombard Street in San Francisco.
What I hadn’t realized was that he took photos with a Pentax 67 attached to a gyroscope to minimize vibrations. Many of his photographs are stunning.
Photograph by Robert Cameron
This has inspired me to do some aerial shots of Okinawa. All I need is a plane or a helicopter, and a pilot.
So if you or any of your friends happen to have a plane in Okinawa please get in touch!
10 days ago my 1TB external hard drive stopped working. This hard drive was running Time Machine continually making backups of all my data. I took it back to the store. They said they would send it back to the manufacturer IO DATA. IO DATA phoned a couple of days ago and said they would fix it but I would lose the data. No problems I said it’s only the backup, everything is safe on my very reliable Mac Pro computer….
This morning turn on my computer and all I get is the Apple logo and a little thinking symbol.
Call Apple support. First question…
Is all your data saved?
AGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
After an hour of trying various things. The lady on the phone says that I should reinstall Snow Leopard, but I will lose all information on the hard drive. But there is hope…..
All my data is on my second “DATA” hard disk. Only applications are on the first “APPLICATIONS” hard disk. I figured I could reinstall on the first hard disk and all I will have to do is then reinstall photoshop etc which I have the disks for. (Because I was a good consumer and actually purchased the disk from Adobe!)
Lady on the phone talks me through the stages of clicking the Erase button followed by the various warnings saying are you really sure you want to do this…..
Snow Leopard is reinstalled. Computer springs back to life.
But….
Suddenly I begin to realize the consequences of my actions….
Anything saved to the desktop was on the now spotlessly clean hard disk 1. Images and articles I was currently working on have floated into the ether. The same goes for music, music videos, podcasts, ipod applications.
I connect the ipod to the computer. It says the ipod will only sync with the original computer, would I like to erase all the files on the ipod and sync with the empty folders on my spotlessly clean hard drive. I check the apple itunes store. It says please backup all music and videos as you can only download music and videos once. If you didn’t have a backup please purchase them again.
Insert Photoshop Cs3 disk to reinstall. Computer spits is out again.
Phone Adobe Japan. No English support. Explain situation in Japanese. I am told that they no longer give free telephone support to CS3 customers.
Without CS3 I can’t edit or print. But then again the images I was currently working on have vanished.
Suddenly realize that I am happy to be still using film so at least I have a physical backup of everything. Just need to rescan the latest images. Scanner needs to be linked to photoshop. Aggghhhh.
The internet. All my bookmarks have vanished. No problem, hopefully I will remember the address of anything important.
Go to WordPress.
Vent……
Feel better now.
Pentax ceased production of the Pentax 67II camera this year. Maybe it was just too expensive to produce in small numbers, or maybe Pentax decided it was simpler to make the move to an all digital lineup of cameras.
There are some photographers however that are still use, and love, the Pentax 67II. It turns out that Helena Christensen, supermodel turned photographer, is one of them. I spotted this image of Helena with her Pentax 67 on the home page of the Guardian newspaper.
It links to a slideshow of her images documenting the effects climate change is having in Peru. You can see the slideshow here. Well worth checking out.
Peruvian Woman by Helena Christensen/Oxfam
Here’s the second image from the model shoot of Nikki I did with Eboh last month.
Studio shoot with model Nikki Wright
I watched the Ryukyu Kings vs. Osaka Evessa basketball game today. This is the first basketball game I’ve ever seen in Japan, and only the second in my life. (I saw the Harlem Globetrotters play in Calgary, Canada.)
It was a great afternoon’s entertainment. Okinawa beat Osaka 82 to 77, which pleased the spectators. Of the 2815 in attendance, I think at least 2800 were Kings supporters.
I took my little point and shoot camera with me. The quality of the image isn’t that great, but of the few shots I took one of them was of a Kings player dunking the ball.
Ryukyu Kings vs Osaka Evessa
Thanks very much to the folks who came out to the Kadena Market Day. Overall, it was a good experience, met a lot of nice people and had some interesting conversations.
Kadena Market Day Display
Many, if not most, freelance photographers have to act as their own accountant, business manager, travel agent, website designer, publicist and even therapist. Adding the role of “vendor” has its own challenges to overcome, its own skill set to learn. I guess the only way to approach it is, like anything in life, to simply do it to the best of your ability.
I’ll be at Kadena Market Day in the Schilling Community Center from 10AM to 3PM tomorrow. Please drop by and say hello!
On a completely different topic…
Just checked to see if the Japanese release date for the new Sherlock Holmes movie is December 25th (the same as the US) or December 26 (the same as the UK). It turns out the Japanese release date is April 3rd. Bah, humbug!
Last Friday, the staff of One Shot Tattoo in Naha City were kind enough to let me take some photographs at their tattoo studio. Even better one of their clients gave me permission to photograph his full body irezumi. I am not going to even pretend this is an everyday occurrence for me.
I set up a black background in a small changing room then used a hammerhead flash with a softbox attachment for lighting. I used the Pentax 67II, Fuijfilm Provia 100F and a 100mm macro lens. When I had everything set up Kamiya-san came in, stripped of his clothes and I took two rolls of film. Not sure how long the shoot lasted, I was too busy checking and rechecking the settings on the camera and flash making sure that I was getting everything right. Supposedly I looked a little flustered which would be about right.
The dragon on his stomach was remarkable, it moved and changed shape as he breathed, and at one point while looking through the viewfinder I thought I might be having a hallucination.
Irezumi - Japanese tattoos
Irezumi - Japanese tattoos
Later I took some shots of the studio owner and artist Satoru Koizumi tattooing a new design onto Kamiya-san’s wrist. It looked painful but as you can see from the photo some people are able to control themselves far better than others.
Satoru Koizumi of One Shot Tattoo at work.
I’d like to thank Michelle and Annya for helping set up the shoot, Satoru Koizumi for allowing me to take images in his studio, and of course Kamiya-san for baring all and allowing me to share this ancient Japanese art form with others.
I’ll write a longer post all about the shoot soon, but for now I’ll just post the first couple of photos.
Irezumi - traditional Japanese tattoos
Irezumi - traditional Japanese tattoos
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 