TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

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9th dan Gojuryu Karate Master Shigetoshi Senaha

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9th dan Gojuryu Karate Master Shigetoshi Senaha

A couple of weeks ago James Pankiewicz and I headed down to Tomigusku to the dojo of 9th dan gojuryu karate master Shigetoshi Senaha. I had been hoping to photograph this particular master for a while as he is the sensei of a good friend of mine James East.

9th dan Gojuryu Karate Master Shigetoshi Senaha

Senaha sensei posed for the portraits and then showed us his old photo albums. Through a series of small black and white photographs, we were taken on a journey through Senaha’s life, and through his karate career.

9th dan Gojuryu Karate Master Shigetoshi Senaha

There were images of him training as a young man in Okinawa and later performing at the opening of the Budokan in Tokyo. Many of the recent photographs were of him touring other countries, spreading karate around the world. Before I left, I took a photograph of Senaha-sensei performing a kata in his dojo. Perhaps he’ll add it to his album, to be shown to other lucky visitors at his dojo.

9th dan Gojuryu Karate Master Shigetoshi Senaha at his dojo in Tomigusku City, Okinawa.

Every Underwater Photographer a Diver

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Lizardfish – Creatures with teeth are not the only danger underwater

Perhaps the most famous of the United States Marine Corps’ mantras is “every Marine a rifleman”. It doesn’t matter what specialization you go into, each marine must still undertake regular training and assessment in their ability to fire a rifle. I mention this as there should be a similar mantra with regards to scuba: every underwater photographer a diver. The key issue is that if you’re an experienced diver and an inexperienced photographer, you may get mediocre shots, but you’ll dive safely and within your limits. If you’re an experienced photographer and an inexperienced diver, you can quite easily, and very quickly, find yourself in serious trouble.

Make sure you’re checking your dive computer as well as your viewfinder.

An SLR camera in a housing is large, heavy, bulky, expensive and demands your concentration. Add strobes and you’ve just magnified all these factors. If you are having any issues with your diving – buoyancy, navigation, exhaustion, air management, decompression etc then the camera is only going to make things worse. Spend too much time looking through your viewfinder and not enough time checking your gauges and you could easily find yourself being rushed to a hyperbaric chamber or worse.

Pair of gobies at 35 meters.

If you’re a photographer and would like to expand your artistic horizons, taking the plunge into underwater photography could be a lot trickier than you might expect. The above shot of the gobies is a good example. As a nature lover you study the way the little fish excavate the hole, as a photographer you adjust the aperture and the angle of the strobes to correctly expose the image, but most importantly as a diver you know your depth is 35 meters so that no matter how interesting the subject, and no matter how good the photograph might be, you have only a couple of minutes before you need to ascend.

Every underwater photographer a diver. Picture editors may be tough, but Mother Nature is even less forgiving.

Martin Bailey Pixels 2 Pigment Workshop in Okinawa August 4th & 5th

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Martin Bailey Tokyo Based Photographer

The dates are now confirmed! I’ll be hosting Martin Bailey’s Pixels 2 Pigment 2-day Workshop in Okinawa on August 4th & 5th.

Martin has put together a few details about the workshop on a Pixels 2 Pigment website, but also check out his main website and his podcast.

This is a great opportunity for photographers to expand their knowledge base. Color management is such a fundamental part of a photographers workflow, but it is often misunderstood, or simply ignored. Martin will guide you through the various steps that will make your life easier. You can take control of color, so you spend less time trying to correct mistakes in Photoshop, or wasting valuable ink and paper. A course outline should be available in the next few weeks.

Martin Bailey Making the Print e-book

The 2-day workshop will take place from 10AM to 5PM on both days. The course fee is US$250.

The Okinawa workshop will take place at my home in Uruma City.

To book a place on the course please email me chris (at) travel67.com and put WORKSHOP in the subject line (so I’ll spot it if it lands in the junk folder). I’ll send you a Paypal request for the course fee. Once payment is received your place on the workshop is secure.

Your booking on the course is non-refundable, but if you suddenly can’t make it, you may transfer your place to another student.

The course will take place indoors, so bad weather won’t be a problem. However, if there is a major typhoon causing the bases to go into lockdown, the course will be rescheduled to another weekend.

There is no required equipment for the course, we’ll have numerous ColorCheckers and ColorMunkis for students to use. (If you’re a photographer and not sure what these are, then sign up now!)

La-kun the Newfoundland

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La-kun the Newfoundland

La-kun is a large dog. When Japanese people see my labrador, they often say things like 大きい!! (Big!!) and Bear is only 27 kilos. La-kun is over 60 kilos, and could be mistaken for a tuskless mammoth.

La-kun the Newfoundland

Fortunately La-kun is also the most docile creature I’ve ever met. He lumbers around slowly and then lies down for a rest. What I didn’t know was that Newfoundlands are water dogs and, like labradors, very good swimmers. La-kun has been trained as a water rescue dog so hopefully in the future I’ll use the underwater housing and take some shots of him in action.

La-kun the Newfoundland

9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi

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9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi

9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi, photographed at the Budokan national martial arts center in Naha, Okinawa.

9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi

James Pankiewicz (L) training with 9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi (R)

Scooby-Doo Sid

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Sid the Great Dane

I bumped into Sid a couple of weeks ago as he was taking his two human minions for a walk along the seawall. I asked Sid if he’d done any modeling before, and he said that people were always describing him as a leggy blonde. A couple of days later he was chauffeured over to the studio and happily struck a few poses for the camera.

Sid the Great Dane

I was going to point out that Sid looked at little like Scooby-Doo, but this would have been a real insult to a Great Dane as it is common knowledge that Scooby-Doo was modeled on the exact opposite of what a champion Great Dane should look like.

Takamoto consulted a studio colleague who happened to be a breeder of Great Danes. After learning the characteristics of a prize-winning Great Dane from her, Takamoto proceeded to break most of the rules and designed Too Much with overly bowed legs, a double chin, and a sloped back, among other abnormalities. Wikipedia

Sid the Great Dane

Thanks very much to Sid and his two personal assistants. Hope you like the photos 🙂

Sid the Great Dane

Let there be underwater light (Part 3)

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Sea Urchin

It will shine still brighter when night is about you. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

Once the sun has dropped below the horizon, you can continue to dive, you just have to bring your own light with you. Night divers normally have a large, bright dive light and a smaller backup dive light. Some strobes have a modeling light which can act as the main dive light, but you still need at least one other dive light.

Hiding in the Shadows

In someways it is actually easier to take photographs at night, the fish are often dopily lounging around while crustacea like shrimps have come out of their crevices and scuttle about the reef.

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Diving at night, with or without a camera, is a strange if not surreal experience. It’s a bit like being in the middle of an Alien movie: labored breathing, flashlights peering in to the darkness, the ease at which disorientation sets in, and an awareness that something toothy might be lurking just outside your field of vision.

Photo-bombing plankton

Photo-jacking / photo-bombing is the phenomenon when a stranger decides to jump into background of your photograph to ruin (or possibly improve) your shot. It seems to be quite common during night dives when using strobes with bright modeling lights. If you spend too much time photographing a particular subject, dozens if not hundreds of other little creatures, like moths to a flame, will get in on your shot. This is annoying if you want a clean background, but amazing as you don’t clearly see the plankton until they’ve been illuminated by the bright strobe. There are some lovely iridescent copepods in the above shot of two nudibranchs.

Shorinryu Karate and Ryukyu Kobudo Master Hiroshi Akamine

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Shorinryu Karate and Ryukyu Kobudo Master Hiroshi Akamine

Hiroshi Akamine a master in both Shorinryu Karate (no weapons) and Ryukyu Kobudo (a whole range of weapons). Lovely man based out of a new dojo in Tomigusku.

Shorinryu Karate and Ryukyu Kobudo Master Hiroshi Akamine

On the wall of Akamine’s dojo there was an old black and white image of Akamine’s teacher posing for a photograph with a bo (staff). It isn’t part of the portrait series, but James and I thought it would be nice for Akamine to have a shot of him in the exact same pose many years later. The sepia tone was added in Photoshop to match the original image.

Shorinryu Karate and Ryukyu Kobudo Master Hiroshi Akamine

In the Studio – Michelle

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Michelle – Natural Portrait

A few images from a portfolio shoot with model Michelle Santos. Michelle heads back to Brazil having spent several years in Japan. She wanted some new images in her book so that’s what we did.

Michelle – 8mm

Michelle – Idol

Michelle in Pink

Michelle – Smooth Criminal

Michelle – Fishnets

I’d like to thank Summer Johnson and Aiasha Orick-Fleurantin for their work on makeup and hair, and Michelle for being able to pull off so many different looks in a short time.

“Matsuri” Photo Exhibition at Pentax Gallery Shinjuku Tokyo

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I got a call from Pentax yesterday saying that from September 19th to October 1st 2012 I will have a solo exhibition of my matsuri (Japanese festival) images at the Pentax Forum Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. There will be about 30 large prints, highlighting my favorite photographic subject.