All posts filed under: Japan

Miss International Beauty Pageant in Okinawa 2012

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Miss International Beauty Pageant in Okinawa 2012 took place on October 21st. As the audience arrived they wandered between photographs of the girls in swimsuits and heels. The ceremony opened with some traditional Ryukyu dancing and drumming, a nice Okinawan touch. The first event was national costumes, followed by the swimsuits, and then the evening gowns. (Which was amusing titled as the Night Gown Competition) The announcement of the top 15 finalists was met with cheers as most of the favorites made the cut. Each of the finalists gave a short speech before hip hop dancers from the Tida Dance Studio in Chatan performed. The kids were fantastic and the highlight of the evening. After quite a wait, the winner was announced, Miss Japan. Huge cheers from the majority of the crowd, but quite a few raised eyebrows from the non Japanese members of the audience. After the audience had left, the press got to take some photographs of the top 5. I held a speed light at arm’s length in my left hand and …

Ginza 4-chome (part 1)

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Ginza 4-chome, the crossroads at the heart of Tokyo’s notoriously expensive shopping and entertainment district. I took a photograph here  several years ago when I was shooting with the Pentax 67II and Vodafone was still in Japan. I returned  on my latest trip to Tokyo,  and met up with model Marino to create some visions of nightlife in Ginza.

The iPhone 5 Release (and working security for Gaga)

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The iPhone 5 had its global release while I was up in Tokyo. I headed over to the Apple store in Ginza and shot a few images of the Mac-fans as they lined up and then purchased their new phones. There were numerous Japanese press photographers and camera crews, but I was able to get the shots I wanted and then head back to Shinjuku for my exhibition. A couple of weeks later, someone in Okinawa asked me if I’d been working security for Lady Gaga during the summer. They showed me the following photo published in the Nikkei Weekly.

Osprey Protests

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These are a few images from a local protest against the arrival of Osprey helicopters. US Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey helicopters are now based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in central Okinawa. Locals were protesting against the poor safety record of the Osprey and the close location of Futenma to residential areas. It was one of the hottest days of the summer and the protest took place just after noon. I was actually  surprised I didn’t hear of anyone suffering from heatstroke or worse.  Reports from the organizers put the crowd at 100,000 people. To me this was far too high ( the number of protesters seemed  smaller than the audience in front of the green stage at Fuji Rock which was about 25,000) but it was still an impressive turnout. The Okinawan people didn’t get their wish to keep the Osprey’s out of Okinawa. The helicopters will be based here so that the US military have the latest technology to train with, but it’s a bit of a gamble for the US and …

Mushama Festival, Hateruma Island (Part 2 -The Ladies)

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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.

Nunchaku by the Numbers

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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.

Matsuri Exhibition – Test Prints

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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.

Fuji Rock Festival – Acumen Magazine

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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.