All posts filed under: Okinawa

Workshop Updates

Published by

There are a couple of places left on the Photography 101 Workshop with Chris Willson on July 14th & 15th 2012. There are several places left on the Pixels to Pigment Workshop with Martin Bailey August 4th & 5th. For more details on the courses check out the workshops page. To book either course send an email to chris@travel67.com This will be the only 101 workshop for the summer, and  probably the only time the Pixels to Pigment Workshop will be held in Okinawa. Please make the most of this opportunity to learn from Martin. Hope to see many members of the Okinawan photography community at one of the courses.

Pygmy Seahorse, Okinawa

Published by

The pygmy seahorse was one of the top species on my underwater Okinawa shot list. Very happy to have managed to photograph one this morning. The seahorses are tiny, about the size of my thumbnail. They are also fantastically well camouflaged, blending perfectly with the fan corals they live on. Wikipedia states that the species was only discovered when researches were studying the fan corals in the lab.

Shorin-ryu Karate 10th Dan Master Sokuichi Gibu

Published by

A great shoot yesterday with Shorin-ryu Karate 10th Dan Master Sokuichi Gibu. On friday afternoon, James Pankiewicz and I headed over to the dojo of karate master Sokuichi Gibu. Another great opportunity to photograph an Okinawan icon. Sokuichi Gibu may look fierce in his portraits, but he was exceptionally friendly and willing to run through a wide selection of poses, and a few fierce kicks.

Super Typhoon Guchol

Published by

Super Typhoon Guchol will be passing near Okinawa (or even hitting us directly) from mid Monday to early Tuesday. This has the potential to be dangerous so if you’re new to Okinawa here are a few things that you need to do (and probably should have done already). Tidy up the outside of your house or garden. If it can be picked up and carried by 150 mph winds, you don’t want it outside. A patio chair flying through the air is not a good idea. Buy supplies. Charge batteries and buy new ones. Typhoons have the potential to take out the power supply for hours or days. Not too bad during the day, but a real pain if you’ve not got working flashlights at night. Buy food and bottled water for a few days. Rent some DVDs but also have some books ready if the power goes out. Fill the bath or containers with water. Water supply can go out. A bath full of water, will allow you to flush and refill the toilet. …

Every Underwater Photographer a Diver

Published by

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. 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 …

A Close Call

Published by

Had an eventful day today. As I was leaving the Okinawa expressway at the Ishikawa exit, in my rearview mirror I glanced a white car hurtling up behind me. I guess it was doing about 120 KPH exiting the expressway and not slowing at all. The car swerved around me hit the railing, careened across the road hitting the road markers and grass, but didn’t stop. It seemed the driver kept his foot to the floor as he veered back across the road hit the railing again then ricocheted back across again up the grass and drove along the banking. I thought he was going to flip, but he dropped back to the road, and kept on going. He went through the little tunnel under the expressway and then amazingly through the automatic barrier of the toll gate. I continued following him, as he bounced off more sidings. He reached the major junction bounced over the kern, hit the median, and the car came to a halt. I stopped my car at the lights, took …

Let there be underwater light (Part 1)

Published by

A you descend beneath the ocean’s surface things become darker and bluer. Light is absorbed by the water and it does this to a greater extent at the red end of the color spectrum. When shooting in the shallows you can capture the vibrant colors of the reef, but sink a little further and your images will look a little green and possibly blurry from slow shutter speeds (or noisy from high ISOs). The solution is to shed a little light on your subject. Send in the strobes. I bought two used Ikelite strobes on Ebay (thank you Vadim in Australia). One is a powerful DS-161 strobe that has a 3W modeling light, and the other is a far less powerful (and much cheaper) DS-51 strobe that I use as fill. The above image is a pre-dive test in the bath, which showed that both strobes worked, and that the light from the modeling light allows the camera to autofocus on the subject. The strobes are positioned in this image for macro shooting. The lens …

Pixels 2 Pigment – Martin Bailey Okinawa Workshop

Published by

If you listen to photography podcasts or are interested in Japanese wildlife photography you’ve probably already come across Martin Bailey. Check out his website to learn more about him, but in summary he’s a talented guy from the UK who works as a photographer in Tokyo and shares his knowledge with others through his podcast, an e-book, photography tours, and workshops. A couple of the areas Martin is particularly knowledgable in are color management and printing. These are key parts of a professional photographer’s workflow, and without a firm understanding of them, you’re just hoping for the best rather than taking control. After the successful Photography 101, Off Camera Flash, Retro Portraits, and Light Painting workshops I contacted Martin to ask if he’d like to come to Okinawa to teach a weekend workshop on color management and printing. We discussed the idea and as Martin is already planning on teaching  Pixels 2 Pigment workshops in the UK, America and Australia later in the year, he said if there was enough interest he’d come down to Okinawa …

Wonderful Workshops

Published by

A great time was had by all at the two workshops held last week by Trevor Williams. Things were decidedly silly at the retro portraits evening, and smoking hot at the light painting weekend. Here are a few shots from the students. A huge thanks to Trevor for coming down to Okinawa again, you’re always welcome back to our little island.

Uechiryu Karate 9th dan Takehiro Gaja

Published by

Gaja-sensei, a lovely Okinawan man in his late 60’s, who after years of conditioning, has become both the unstoppable force and the immovable object. Uechiryu Karate is in my opinion the toughest of the karate styles. It is based around brutal conditioning of the body so that, if required, the person can endure heavy blows and then deal out a devastating response. Conditioning fists, forearms and shins is done through striking punch bags, wooden boards and even concrete pillars. Gaja-sensei demonstrated his technique for conditioning fingertips. Fill a bucket with stones (or sand if you’re taking it easy) and then punch with an open hand deep into the bucket of stones. So why condition the fingers to such an extent? The answer is simple and brutal. Poking someone in the ribs is more effective if you can literally reach in through the rib cage and remove some of them.