TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

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4 people, 3 dogs, 1 happy family

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A wonderful family session booked by Michelle Gramkow Cronbaugh who wanted to capture memories with her husband, two lovely children and three dogs.

Michelle Gramkow Cronbaugh Family Shoot

Good luck with all your future adventures. I’m sure Okinawa will always hold a special place in your hearts.

More information about family sessions in Motobu, Okinawa can be found here.

100 Kobudo Kata Challenge at the Karate Kaikan, Okinawa

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A few pics from today’s 100 Kobudo Kata Challenge at the new Karate Kaikan in Tomigusku, Okinawa.

The event was organized by James Pankiewicz of the Dojo Bar in Naha. The welcoming message was given by Toshimitsu Arakaki, 10th dan Matsubayashi-ryu karate.

Participants spent 2 to 3 hours performing a hundred kata with various weapons including bo staff and sai.

Congratulations to all that took part, it was great to see people actively helping keep Okinawan traditions alive.

I also got to take a few new “Beyond the Dojo” pics of Arakaki sensei outside of the new Karate Kaikan building. Arakaki-sensei demonstrates a technique with two sai, while also reminding me that “Iron Fist” isn’t just something from comic books.

Gear: Pentax 645Z with 25mm lens. Profoto B1 with softlight reflector white.

Back up to the Future

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A couple more pics from the shoot with Brylee last weekend. I’m really enjoying trying to balance natural light with flash, varying how “lit” the images appear. For these outdoor shots I wanted to keep things looking a little more natural than usual.

Images shot with the Pentax 645Z and 90mm lens around f2.8 with the Profoto B1 and OCF beauty dish white.

After the shoot when I explained about setting up a Dropbox folder to share the completed images, Brylee asked if I could resend the images from her previous shoot. I last photographed Brylee in December 2013. A couple of the images from the shoot are below.

At some point Brylee’s computer had suffered a hard drive failure causing her to lose all her data. I can resend all her images from our shoot, but there will be so many family pics she can’t get back. At least she now has multiple backups so it never happens again.

Once again to all my family and friends, back up your data. If you use Time Machine on a Mac all you need is an external hard drive. Or set up a cloud service like Dropbox to save some or all of your data. Or even better do both.

Outlander

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Cool, cloudy and rainy in Okinawa at the moment. Feels like a British summer.

I hadn’t photographed Brylee for several years so it was great to meet up for some new pics. One of Brylee’s favorite TV shows is Outlander, and with the help of some drizzle, a few tartan shawls, and a green background we took a few new pics for her portfolio.

Photographed with the Pentax 645Z and 90mm lens. Shot at ISO 200 f2.8 giving the very shallow depth of field. Lighting with the Profoto B1 with OCF beauty dish white at very low power to balance with the ambient light.

The shawls are all traditional Scottish tartans: Hunting Stewart (top), Royal Stewart (middle) and Black Watch (bottom).

A huge thanks to MUA – Audra Pesicka and Assistant – Keith Robbins

Medieval Studio Workshop

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A fun day at the medieval studio workshop. Charles brought his armor with surcoats of the Knights Hospitaller, a crusader and his family crest. Charles competes in the “Armored Combat League” where you wear historically accurate armor, and then fight with blunted weapons.

Images were shot using variations of natural light, a single Profoto B1 strobe outdoors, and multiple studio strobes indoors. I used the Pentax 645Z with either the 90mm or 55mm lens.

Charles also brought another one of his military uniforms, this one from a galaxy far far away.

Huge thanks to Charles for bringing all his gear, I learned a huge amount about medieval and scout trooper armor! Good luck in your next armored combat league battle.

Mr. Benn

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Mr. Benn was one of my favorite TV shows when I was young. The very normal Mr. Benn enters a shop, puts on a costume, and goes on a magical adventure.

In the previous blog post you met Dan the Alaskan fisherman. However, Dan has on more than just one adventure.

Please let me introduce Dan the lumberjack, Dan the highlander, Dan the biker, Dan the convict, and Dan the mountaineer.

Images were shot with the Pentax 645Z with either the 90mm macro or the 55mm lens. Lighting was a Profoto B2 with an OCF beauty dish white.

Images were shot over a couple of hours around sunset. The lighting setup remained the same, I just slowly dialed down the power on the strobe as the sky darkened.

Huge amount of fun. As a kid I always imagined what it would be like to be Mr Benn. It turns out that I’m actually the shopkeeper of the special costume shop.

Thanks again to Dan, and once again a warning to visitors. If you pop in for coffee, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll find yourself going on your own adventure. 🙂

Dan – Alaskan Fisherman

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I invite my friends over for coffee and then force them to dress up for photos. As my little garden faces west I can get down low and place my subject against the colorful evening skies. In these shots I hid the setting sun directly behind Dan which avoids blowing out the highlights and gives both the Dan and the clouds some cool rim lighting.

Pentax 645Z with 90mm and 55mm lenses. Profoto B1 with OCF beauty dish white triggered with the Profoto Air Remote.

Practice, practice, practice.

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Last weekend I met up for a collaborative test shoot with photographer Jennifer Buchanan of Sunshine Soul Photography. Jennifer specialises in couture portraits of high school seniors, and is great at producing timeless images of the young ladies before they venture out into the big world.

Jennifer arranged for two high school students Sierra and Savannah (and their parents) to meet up with us in Motobu. In exchange for their time, we’d give them a few photos they’ll hopefully love.

Savannah – Senior portraits collaborative test shoot.

Jennifer and I took turns photographing the girls. We offered each other tips, watched how we posed the “clients,” compared the gear we use, but above all we could just practice.

Practice, practice, practice.

Savannah – Senior portraits collaborative test shoot.

Practice, and a lot of it, is required to become proficient at any skill. One theory states that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” is required to master something. Concert musicians are well known for playing hour after hour after hour. (Two thumbs up for the movie Whiplash).

Sierra Fitzgerald - Senior Session Colab.

Sierra – Senior portraits collaborative test shoot.

Sometimes it’s not the gear that is holding us back, but the limited amount of time that we spend practicing with it. I used to have a purple Washburn electric guitar, but wasn’t getting the sound I wanted. I upgraded to a beautiful fiesta red Fender Stratocaster with maple fretboard, and I still couldn’t play like Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton or Mark Knopfler. The lack of callouses on my fingers was a pretty good indication of where my real problem lay.

Sierra – Senior portraits collaborative test shoot.

10,000 hours of practice may not be realistic, or even necessary to achieve your goals. But without regularly picking up the camera, progress is always going to be slow or nonexistent. As a photographer there is so much to learn, so much to practice, and so much room for improvement. One tip would be to stop spending so much time browsing through the reviews of gear, and get out there and take photos.

Sierra – Senior portraits collaborative test shoot.

Thank you to Savannah, Sierra and their parents for coming up to Motobu for the shoot. Thanks to my assistant Keith for working as a voice activated light stand. A huge thanks to Jennifer for suggesting the idea it was great hanging out with you again.

A few things I learned on the shoot.

You can work wonders with a big reflector. Especially to create very soft light across the entire face.

Watch the shape of hands. Are they relaxed, posed, flat to the camera or side on.

Cosmos flowers bloom for around 2 weeks, but different parts of a field can bloom at different times. There may still be a section with beautiful flowers when other sections just have dead heads.

Gear used

Pentax 645Z, 90mm 2.8 Profoto B1 with OCF beauty dish white, large white reflector.

Test shoot with Profoto OCF softbox and umbrella

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Last weekend I was doing some test shots with new gear while mentoring my friend Keith about off camera flash techniques.

We headed back to the cosmos field but this time rather than using the Profoto B1 strobe with an aluminum softlight reflector I was using the new collapsible OCF beauty dish with a front diffuser. ( OCFビューティーディッシュ・ホワイト)

A crop of the top image shows the octagonal shape of the OCF softbox catchlight, and also the amazing resolution of the Pentax 645Z camera.

Back at the house M.U.A. Audra Pesicka switched the makeup and hair for a bohemian look with white henna on the hands. We shot in the garden but this time switched the softbox for a Profoto 41′ Umbrella Deep White ( Profoto 写真撮影用アンブレラアンブレラディープホワイト M)

Another great day of shooting! A huge thanks to Natalie for being a fantastic model, and to Audra Pesicka for hair and makeup. Thanks also to Yuki and Keith for assisting on the shoot.

Off Camera Flash Workshop

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A fun Off Camera Flash Workshop last Saturday. Pete Leong and I taught fellow photographers Ashley, Kali, Jessa, Ray, Corey, and Takashi a few new tips and tricks for using flash while on location.

Comparing the Profoto B1 with Deep White Umbrella and the Cactus 90x with umbrella.

A huge thank you to Cactus and Profoto for providing some extra gear for demonstrating to the group.

Demonstrating the Profoto B1 with the OCF gel holder system.

Thank you to Okinawan musician Nayuta for modeling and wearing the traditional ryuso kimono, and to Yuki for assisting and interpreting throughout the day.