Nishihama Beach on Hateruma Island. Fine white star sand, few people, clear water. Fantastic. (If we’re being pedantic, it’s arguably better to call it Nishi Beach or West Beach as hama means beach. This is why you should probably say Shuri-jo or Shuri Castle, and not Shuri-jo Castle. )
A few shots of the ladies at the Mushama Festival on Hateruma Island. Although the biggest festivals in Japan can sometimes be raucous male dominated events, the smaller local matsuri are a great opportunity for the whole family, young and old, to take part in celebrating traditions and give thanks. I wonder if, on the other side of the world, there’s a Japanese photographer wandering around a village fête in rural England photographing the local bake-off, morris dancing, and a gurning contest.
Masakazu Kinjo demonstrates that there’s more to nunchaku than just swirling them around the body. Use the end to jab and break your attacker’s ribs. Trap the attacker’s wrist between the two shafts of the nunchaku. Use your forearm to bend and twist the attacker’s arm. The step into the attacker to to take control. From here onwards it’s the simple and painful application of leverage. Twist locked arm and apply further pressure to elbow as required.
The 34 images to be displayed in my Matsuri exhibition have been selected and you can see the choices on Flickr. I then made prints of each of the 34 images myself using the same large format printer and Hahnemuhle papers I use to make prints for sale or clients. For the exhibition the images are printed borderless (for mounting on board), rather than with a white border (to be used with a matt and framed). Each print I made was around 17×24 inches or A2 in size. The prints were then sent to Tokyo and Pentax will have them mounted for the exhibition. Pentax also agreed to print five of my images B0 or a whopping 55.7 x 39.4 in. I sent them the original DNG files and today I got five A4 size test prints from Horiuchi Color Labs Test prints look great so we’re ready to go big. 11 days to go.
You know it’s going to be a big typhoon when the locals start stocking up on food and securing their boats. Fishermen over on Hamahiga Island were busy securing their boats and gear ready for Bolaven.
I just received my copy of Acumen magazine with my Fuji Rock Festival images. Great to see they made it the cover feature, and that so many of my photographs were used. The only pic that is not mine, is the top image on the last page which was taken by someone connected to the magazine. I used the Pentax 645D with a 150mm lens the majority of the time, and the Pentax K5 with a 10-17mm fisheye lens for the wide establishing shots. It is quite tricky to shoot using stage lighting as it can change multiple times a second. To get the best shots, use manual exposure and expose for the light on the artists face rather than the dark backgrounds or the bright flashing lights.
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.
Another very busy couple of weeks. Just got back from three days shooting Fuji Rock Festival for ACUMEN magazine. The feature is about the British bands playing at the festival, these included The Stone Roses, both Gallagher brothers, The Kooks, Ocean Color Scene, Ray Davies, The Specials, The Heartbreaks, Spiritualized, Elvis Costello, Radiohead, and my personal favorite of the festival, a new soul artist called Michael Kiwanuka. Don’t want to post images of the British acts before they go to print, but here are a couple of shots of non-UK performers Jack White (above) and Toots and Matayls (below). I had a fantastic time. This was partly because it was the first rain-free Fuji Rock Festival in several years, but mainly due to the fact that I met many great people on the trip. To all the photographers, security, organizers, VIPs, artists and festival goers, thanks for making it a memorable few days. My computer is currently wheezing away under the weight of so many cool images. Update: Magazine published you can see the …
9th Dan Kounanryu Karate and Kobudo Master Jyosei Yogi, photographed at the Budokan national martial arts center in Naha, Okinawa.
A month ago I worked with writer Julian Ryall on a piece about how the remains of the war dead found on Okinawa are identified and hopefully returned to their family graves. Photographing the skeleton of a dead Japanese soldier, and shards of bones in various trays was somber, but at that moment you are working and concentrating on getting images. Only later, when you’ve packed your gear away and returned to everyday life do you ponder the deeper meanings of what you’ve witnessed. On the cover of the Number 1 Shimbun is an image I shot of Gushiken-san a volunteer that has devoted his life to returning the remains of the fallen to their loved ones. Inside are a couple more images and the feature by Julian Ryall.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 