Tatsuya Naka 中 達也 Shotokan Karate 7th Dan, Kumite Champion
Tatsuya Naka is a Japanese Shotokan Karate 7th Dan, Kumite Champion and actor. Although not a master of Okinawa karate, I was lucky enough to take a quick portrait last week.
Tatsuya Naka 中 達也 Shotokan Karate 7th Dan, Kumite Champion
Tatsuya Naka 中 達也 Shotokan Karate 7th Dan, Kumite Champion
Tatsuya Naka 中 達也 Shotokan Karate 7th Dan, Kumite Champion
Naka sensei one of the leading actors in the movie Kuro Obi ( Black Belt )
Minoru Higa Hanshi 10th Dan, Kaicho of Kyudokan
Minoru Higa is a Hanshi 10th dan master of Shorin-ryu karate and Kaicho of the Kyudokan Federation. He was teaching at The 2nd Okinawa Traditional Karate and Kobudo Worldwide Seminar last week so I was able to get a few portraits for the project.
Minoru Higa Hanshi 10th Dan, Kaicho of Kyudokan
Minoru Higa Hanshi 10th Dan, Kaicho of Kyudokan
Minoru Higa Hanshi 10th Dan, Kaicho of Kyudokan
A quick update on how I shoot the Karate Masters Portrait Project. Back in March 2012 we used the following gear:
Pentax 645D with 105mm or 150mm lens
Tripod
Profoto 7a generator with a ProHead
Generic silver beauty dish
PocketWizard Plus II radio transmitters
Light stand
3.6′ x 6.6′ Lastolite Black Velvet backdrop
Karate Masters Portrait Project (March 2012)
And the new 2014 setup.
Pentax 645Z with 90mm macro lens
Profoto 7a generator with Prohead
Profoto Softlight Reflector White
PocketWizard Plus II radio transmitters
6.6′ x 6.6′ Lastolite Black Velvet backdrop
Karate Masters Portrait Project (July 2014)
Why the changes?
645D to 645Z – More megapixels and greater dynamic range. (However 566 not 712 images on a 64GB card, and my computer runs like molasses.)
Tripod to No Tripod – Faster, more flexible. Ambient light is low so it has little effect on image quality. Action stopped by flash not shutter.
Generic silver beauty dish to Profoto Spoftlight Reflector in white – Larger light source, white interior means better control of specular highlights, image quality.
Light stand to voice activated light stand (James) – Faster, more flexible.
Medium to Large Backdrop – Masters using weapons or kicks are less likely to move beyond borders of background.
Profoto 7a generator, heads and PocketWizards are exactly the same. They still work and do an awesome job.
Minoru Higa Hanshi 10th Dan, Kaicho of Kyudokan
The result?
I can now work faster, allowing me to get a wider selection of images in a shorter amount of time. Yesterday I set up the gear at the Budokan in Naha during a karate seminar. James and I were able to meet numerous karate masters we had already photographed which was a real pleasure. We had a book of prints to show them how the project has progressed, and they then encouraged the other sensei to get involved.
Pics coming soon…
July 2014 Off Camera Flash Class
Great time last weekend at the July 2014 Off Camera Flash Workshop. Pete Leong and I had fun with nine photographers who wanted to add a splash of magical light to their images.
Thanks to Rouge Imaging for providing modifiers for the workshop and prizes for the students. Thanks also to Yuki Lynn for modeling, and to Summer Johnson for makeup. Information on future workshops can be found on the Photography Workshops tab above.
July 2014 Off Camera Flash Class
July 2014 Off Camera Flash Class
Okinawa Five-O
Coming soon to television screens this fall…
Okinawa Five-0
Yuki leads a special police task force bringing justice to Okinawa’s streets.
Genres: Action | Crime | Drama
Certificate: TV-14
Parents Guide: References to goya and shikawasa
Trivia: In the show Yuki drives a left-hand-drive Toyota 2000GT. From 1945 to 1978 Okinawans drove on the right side of the road, and many had “import” LHD versions of Japanese cars.
Lighting Engineer – Shawn Miller
Director of Photography – Chris Willson
A Lab Report Production
Cruising in the Toyota 2000GT
Cicada – Okinawa, Japan.
It’s a bug’s life.
Pentax 645Z with 90mm macro lens. Lit with Profoto B1.
Typhoon Neoguri – Traffic Lights Out
Drove around today to get a few shots of the aftermath of Typhoon Neoguri. I didn’t get down to the flooded sections of the 58 as traffic was backed up for many kilometers, but did see how well the Yomitan Peninsular had fared.
Typhoon Neoguri – Landsides damage roads
Driving along I saw an old lady walking slowly along the sidewalk. It wasn’t too windy, but it was raining a little. I stopped to see if she was okay and she told me she was just heading over to the village hall. She told me her name was Tokumura, she was 93-years-old, and that this wasn’t the biggest typhoon she’s ever seen. (I’m pretty sure she laughed at the suggestion.) I asked if she needed a ride, and she said not at all, the hall was just around the corner. As we talked a couple of young Okinawan guys also checked to see if she was okay. I left them chatting, and headed back out on the road.
Typhoon Neoguri – 93-year-old Tokumura-san has seen it all before!
Typhoon Neoguri – 93-year-old Tokumura-san has seen it all before!
Large waves were still hitting Cape Zanpa, but the strong winds had gone.
Typhoon Neoguri – Cape Zanpa
Typhoon Neoguri – Damaged Crops
Most of the farms in the area seemed to have weathered the storm without much damage, but a few had damaged crops.
Typhoon Neoguri – Flattened Banana Trees
Typhoon Neoguri – Downed Signs
Back on the main roads, several signs had been blown down and the cow outside Okinawa Ham has been tipped by the wind.
Typhoon Neoguri – Cow Tipping
I headed back north to Ishikawa, glad that I wasn’t in the massive line of traffic trying to go south. Hope everyone made it through safe, and that you took it in your stride just like Tokumura-san.
Typhoon Neoguri – Traffic jams for those heading South.
Typhoon Neoguri Approaches
PREPARE FOR A DIRECT HIT FROM CATEGORY 5 SUPER TYPHOON
Super Typhoon Neoguri is probably going to hit Okinawa with brutal strength on Tuesday morning. Right now at midday on Sunday it’s a beautiful sunny day, enjoy the lovely weather, but you also need to prepare for the arrival of a meteorological Godzilla.
Before it gets windy and rainy. Tidy up the garden / balcony. Bring in your trash cans. Your neighbors won’t be impressed if they find your parasol embedded in their car windscreen.
Have bottled water for drinking, and fill the bath so that you have water to refill the toilet cistern if water is cut off.
Have plenty of food that you can eat without using electricity or gas.
Have batteries and flashlights ready before you get a power outage. An LED lantern is also a good idea.
Have some towels ready as the strong winds can sometimes push rain under doors and around windows if they aren’t sealed perfectly.
Rent some DVDs / buy a new book / set up an indoor bicycle trainer.
If you’ve got dogs take them for a good walk before the typhoon hits. You may also need pee sheets if it’s too windy to take them outside.
When the typhoon hits don’t go outside. Fingers get crushed when doors slam shut, branches falling from trees become javelins. Downed power lines and wet roads….
Numerous typhoons hit Okinawa every summer. They are not something you should be overly worried about, but they are something you should be prepared for.
On a side note, typhoons are important in keeping Okinawa’s coral healthy. The rough seas stir up the ocean, breaking the thermoclines. This stops the surface waters from getting too warm in the summer months which can lead to bleaching of the corals.
Visitors to Okinawa, and those who haven’t experienced the power of typhoons before may be unaware just how strong these winds can be. Please watch the following video. There’s a lot of profanity so you might want to keep this on mute, but the images make the point more clearly than me just writing about the dangers of typhoons.
Cruising Route 58, Okinawa, Japan
A couple of days ago my friend Rob said he was going to sell his classic Toyota Landcruiser Prado 70. I wanted to get a pic before it finds a new home, so this morning at 7AM I met up with Rob and my friend Shawn for a quick photo shoot. Shawn drove my car, I sat in the back with the hatchback open, and Rob cruised along behind us. We drove up and down Route 58 for a few minutes and I quickly got the shot I wanted.
The 645Z can shoot 3 frames per second rather than 1 in the 645D. The autofocus also locks on faster. That said, for me, the most noticeable thing about this image is the dynamic range I’ve got to play with.
No photographers were harmed during the making of this photo.
Cape Manza 1/200 sec f5 ISO 800
The 645D is an amazing camera. I use the present tense, because the arrival of the 645Z does not diminish it all. The CCD sensor, however, does have a restricted ISO range from 200 to 1000. When I bought the 645D this was not an issue for me. I was used to using my Pentax 67II camera with Provia 100F or on rare occasions Provia 4ooX.
Souvenirs with honesty box 1/50 sec f5.6 ISO 3200
This inability to shoot at higher ISOs meant that there were times that the 645D was the wrong tool for the job. Several indoor events, including the yuta ceremony in the cave were shot with the more flexible K5 / K3 cameras. If I didn’t have a tripod with me, there were times that I’d simply miss the shot.
The new 645Z has an ISO range of 100 to 204800. Although the upper end of this range is not suitable for commercial work, the results at 3200 are very good. The above shot is an example of where 645Z enabled me to get a shot I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get.
While exploring the Fukugi Tree Road in Okinawa I came across shells for sale as souvenirs. The seller simply placed an honesty box under the shells to accept payment. This says a lot about life on Okinawa. The shade of the trees meant that it was dark, at a low ISO the shutter speed would have been too long to handhold. Being able to push the ISO to 3200 meant that I had a shutter speed of 1/50 second and could get a sharp image.
Shisa in dappled shade 1/200 sec f4 ISO 400
Along with higher ISO ability, the dynamic range of the sensor is greater than with the 645D. This means that when there are extremes of light and dark you are more able to maintain detail in the shadows and highlights.
Bise Fukugi Tree Road 1/200 sec f4 ISO 3200
The improvements mean that with the 645Z I can produce images that I would otherwise have been unable to get. You have the advantages of shooting with a large high definition sensor with fewer of the drawbacks.
A wider range of images, shot in a wider range of conditions, should make clients happier. Happy clients purchase more images, purchase larger images and commission more features.
Gorilla Chop, Motobu 1/400 sec f4 ISO 400
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 