All posts filed under: Okinawa

チャーン – Okinawan Chickens

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While taking Bear for a walk, I saw an Okinawan man feeding his chickens. I stopped and had a little chat with him. A couple of  hours later, I returned with my camera  to get a few pics. Iha-san is 60 and his hobby is looking after his chickens. Many of them are breeds that are only found in Okinawa and called Chan ( チャーン ) Some of his chickens have won awards at the local singing competitions. He showed me photos of him standing with a chicken under one arm, and a trophy in the other. I’ve never been to a singing competition for chickens, but I’ll add it to my list of things to do. Which reminds me, Japanese chickens say kokekoko rather than cock-a-doodle-doo.    

Okinawa – International Destination Weddings

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Okinawa is a popular wedding destination for mainland Japanese, and more recently couples from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. I teamed up with the Marine Bijou wedding chapel, and model Yuki to produce some stock imagery that I can use in future projects. I shot with the Pentax 645Z allowing me to provide clients with huge data files if needed. For the “pre-wedding” images I used only natural light then switched to Profoto strobes in the chapel and on the beach. Outdoors in the blazing sunshine, one assistant (Chris) held the Profoto B1 in a white softlight reflector, while another assistant (Cody) held a large Lastolite diffusion panel that put Yuki into soft shade. The strong tropical sunlight really brought out the colors in the ocean, while the diffuser and powerful strobe allowed us to avoid harsh shadows. I got a great series of images so a huge thanks to Marine Bijou, the make up artist, Yuki the model, and assistants Chris and Cody. If you’ve found this blog because you’re looking for a wedding photographer in …

Total Immersion – Action Asia Magazine September/October 2014

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The September/October issue of Action Asia magazine is now on sale (print and iPad) and has a four-page feature on scuba diving in Okinawa. It’s always good to see your writing and pics in print, especially when it will help boost tourism to Okinawa. I have several more features for other magazines coming out over the next few months, but until they’ve been published I can’t say when, where, or the subject. Stay tuned 🙂

Seiyu Nakamura – 10th Dan Okinawa Dentou Shidokan Karate and Kobujutsu

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Seiyu Nakamura is a master of traditional shidokan karate and kobudo. More than a decade ago, Nakamura-sensei was my briefly my karate instructor. It was great to meet each other again, although he did note that we’d both got a little grayer over the years. Once again after shooting the black background portraits indoors, I switched the plug-in 7a generator for the battery powered B1, and we went outside. A huge storm was quickly approaching, but we managed to get a few shots in the sugar cane fields before the heavens opened.