All posts filed under: Pentax 645D

Shisa Artist Sano Toshio ( Portraits with the 645 FA 150mm )

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Shisa artist Haru Toshi was at the sunflower festival in Kitanakagusku Village.  He said he had a face like the lion-dog talismans he creates. The 150mm lens for the Pentax 645 is a great portrait lens. It is the equivalent of a 118mm lens on a 35mm FF body so it gives nice proportions to the face, and at wide apertures gives a very limited depth of field. If we put the following information into a depth of field calculator: 645D sensor, f/stop 2.8, lens 150mm, focus 1m 20cm it gives the depth of field as 1.58cm. This means if you focus on the eye, the tip of the nose and ear will be fading into bokeh.  (Interestingly it’s about the same D.O.F. as you get with an 85mm at f/1.4  at 1m 20cm on a FF)

Kurama Fire Festival

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This year’s Kurama Fire Festival was a mix of rain, mud and flames. I liked the costumes, but the degree of pyromania  and the level of drunken chaos was pretty tame compared to other fire festivals I’ve been to in Japan. I think the close proximity to Kyoto, and therefore the entire Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe metropolis means you get too many people for what is in reality quite a small event in a very small town. The big plus however is that the Kurama Fire Festival takes place on October 22nd the same day as Kyoto’s Jidai Matsuri. Watch the Jidai Matsuri in the afternoon then head over to Kurama for a smokey evening. This year the Jidai Matsuri was postponed by a day, but I wasn’t leaving Kyoto until I’d shot a samurai.

Umeda Sky Building

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Flew up to mainland Japan on Friday night. Landed at KIX then got the bus to Umeda in Osaka. Before heading on to Kyoto, I stopped in at Yodobashi Camera to get a new lens case and then took another look at the Umeda Sky Building. Exposure was about 15 seconds which causes the blurry clouds. I set the white balance to tungsten to give it the blue futuristic feel.

In the Studio

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Here’s a couple of recent studio portraits of Alisa and Tory. Both are building up their modeling portfolios and I wish them both a great deal of future success. It was also my first opportunity to work with the talented makeup artist Summer Martinez. Summer and I will be working on several exciting projects over the next few months so keep this blog bookmarked 🙂