Underwater Photographer Shawn Miller
While Martin Bailey was in Okinawa for the Pixels to Pigment workshop he interviewed my friend and dive buddy Shawn Miller for his very popular photography podcast. Shawn’s a talented photographer both in and out of the water, always learning new things, and pushing the limits of his gear. Check out Shawn’s scuba photos on Flickr and listen to the interview on Martin’s blog.
Fantastic historical dive sites on the BBC website
One of my photos from the Yonaguni Monuments was on the BBC website a couple of days ago. Groovy baby.
Adam reels in the big one.
No longer will The Old Man and the Sea be thought of as the quintessential story of a fisherman’s struggle. From this day forth, let it be said that Adam’s 17 day, 9 hour battle with this ferocious king crab is the pinnacle of human endeavor.
Studio Shoot – Desiree (outtake)
Here’s a happy outtake from a recent shoot that was done for a hair magazine. The model was Desiree, makeup by Summer Johnson and the hair styling was by Aiasha Orick-Fleurantin. Can’t post any of the finished images until they’ve been in print, but it’s always good to see someone with a big smile on their face.
Adam the 2006, 2007, 2009 Irish Boxing Champion and 2009, 2010 Beard of the Year.
Raiders of the Lost Archive
Having selected the images for my Matsuri exhibition, I am now in the process of making prints. Images from the 645D camera were relatively easy, find the files in Lightroom, make the necessary adjustments including sharpening, and then print. The older images from the Pentax 67 film camera are a little more tricky. This is because although I had already scanned all the film, some of the scans were only saved as 8bit jpegs rather than 16bit tiff files. This was done to save space on the hard disk, and clients usually only wanted to receive the smaller more manageable files.
For the best possible prints however, I need to use the much larger 16 bit tiff files. Several of the images therefore need to be rescanned from the original transparency. For each image I have to find the file name, then locate the transparency in it’s folder in the humidity controlled cabinet.
67Kamakura30 safely tucked away inside a sleeve, in a cardboard matt, in a matt holder sheet
The next job is to remove the transparency from the sleeve with tweezers and place on the scanner. For this I use an Epson Perfection V750-M
Eventually the image is cleaned, color corrected, sharpened and ready for printing. I managed to get through the first two in about 4 hours this evening. Only eight more to go…
After scanning, cleaning and final adjustments it’s time to print.
And before I complain too much about rescanning film and restoring the image, there are some people undergoing similar but much much larger projects.
Adam the Canadian Lumberjack
Meet Adam the Canadian lumberjack.
He cuts down trees. He skips and jumps.
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women’s clothing
And hangs around in bars.
Adam the Alaskan Crab Fisherman
Meet Adam the Alaskan crab fisherman. He was born on a boat and has never touched dry land. He is 87 years old, but the salty sea air and a diet consisting almost exclusively of crab brains has kept him looking young.
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
On Friday afternoon there was a small cos-play event in Mihama. I’ve shot much bigger gatherings in Tokyo and Kyoto, but anytime you get people dressing up as anime or manga characters there’s going to be some good photographic opportunities. It was bright and sunny at the time I was shooting so the main challenge was finding patches of open-shade that had a clean, uncluttered background.
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Cos-play participant at Mihama Manga Mega Expo
Camera and white balance calibration using the color checker passport
Had a great time last weekend hosting a Pixels to Pigment Workshop with Tokyo photographer Martin Bailey. The workshop taught photographers how to create a more effective workflow from image capture to print.
Monitor and projector calibration
This meant calibrating the camera to give the correct colors and white balance, both done using an X-Rite color checker passport.
Printer calibration using the X-Rite i1Publish Pro 2
Monitors, the projector, both printers and two kinds of paper were calibrated using the X-Rite color munki and the i1Publish Pro 2.
Laminating the print before creating a gallery wrap
Prints were made of both Martin’s and the participants images, and on the second day the prints were laminated and then made into gallery wraps.
Martin hands over the final print to workshop participant David Edenfield.
I’d like to thank Shawn, Michael, David, Justin and David, for coming on the workshop and making it such a fun and successful weekend. A huge thanks to Martin for flying down to Okinawa and sharing his knowledge with us. For details on future Pixels to Pigment workshops in other parts of the world please check out Martin’s website.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 