All posts filed under: Photography

Diving off Kume Island, Okinawa

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I went diving off Kume Island a couple of weeks ago. The water is still quite cold in February so I was wearing a hooded 5mm wetsuit, but the visibility was excellent and there were plenty of things to see. A small whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) hiding in a cave. This was shot at 17mm, so I was only a couple of feet away. It’s quite emboldening having all the underwater camera and strobe equipment between you and your subject. Hope it recovered its night vision after being dazzled by 4 or 5 very bright flashes.

Alexis – Woman in Black

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Model – Alexis Makeup & Hair – Summer Johnson Pentax 645D with HD PENTAX-D FA645 MACRO 90mmF2.8ED AW S Lighting – Charcoal background. Octabox powered by Profoto Pro-7a as the main light. Small softbox as low fill. A medium size strip softbox on both sides adding rimlight (powered by Profoto compacts). A fifth compact aimed at the background. Strobes triggered with PocketWizards.

64GB SDXC Card Comparison with Pentax 645D – a rudimentary test.

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Do different 64GB SDXC cards perform differently when used in my Pentax 645D camera? Why is this question important? SD cards of the same memory capacity vary in price. Some claim “faster shot-to-shot performance” but does it make any difference with my particular camera. The cards: Transcend 64GB SDXC Card Price 4,769 Yen (Amazon Japan) or $46.99 (Amazon.com) SanDisk Extreme 64GB SDXC Card Price 6390 Yen (Amazon Japan) or $73.69 (Amazon.com) SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB SDXC Card   12,819 (Amazon Japan)  or 128.95 (Amazon.com) Whether purchased in Japan or in the U.S. there is a clear difference in pricing between the three cards. Prices shown are the best available prices on the Amazon websites as of writing. (Please feel free to click on the links, and I’ll make a few cents from any purchases you make. This is a bonus, but not the purpose of the post.) The camera: I’m using my Pentax 645D camera. It has twin SD card slots. I have them set up so that the camera writes the RAW DNG file to both cards …

Kiyoshi Yogi – Uechiryu Karate & Ryukyu Kobudou

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Kiyoshi Yogi is a master of Uechiryu Karate & Ryukyu Kobudou. He was the sai world champion, the bou world champion, and the first Okinawa traditional karatedo world champion. Yogi sensei was the 17th master to be photographed as part of the Karate Masters Portrait Project. We stared on March 11th 2012 so we’ve being underway for a year. Over the past 12 months it has become clear just how important the project is. There has been praise and encouragement from all over the world, although the best feedback is usually the beaming smiles from the masters as we hand over the prints for their dojos. Hopefully over the next year we’ll photograph even more of these Okinawan icons. I’ll continue to take the portraits, James will continue to organize the shoots, and the karate masters will continue to share their knowledge with the world.

Business Portrait – Hisano Pankiewicz

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Hisano Pankiewicz makes traditional Okinawan sweets. It’s been the family business for over a century. They have a small store in Naha called Jahana Kippan, which can also be found online at OkinawaSweets.com Her husband James is the owner of The Dojo Bar in Naha. Hisano needed a new portrait that can be used when promoting the company and introducing herself as a young Japanese businesswoman. We decided to keep the look of the shot simple and natural. Hisano was delighted with the image, and a happy client means a happy photographer. Hisano also gave me some coconut covered tougatsuke, as a thank you. Very happy photographer.

Pentax K5 IIs Exhibition

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Starting February 13 in Tokyo, Pentax is having an exhibition of images shot with the new K5IIs camera. 15 photographers are involved and I was lucky enough to be asked to be one of them. Pentax selected a couple of my recent studio images, one of Alexis, and one of Sachi. I’ve spent a month working with both the 645D and the K5IIs side by side so I have similar images from both cameras. From February 13th to 25th the exhibition will be at Ring Cube in Ginza, Tokyo. This is the Ricoh / Pentax Gallery that overlooks one of Tokyo’s most famous intersections. From March 6th to 11th the exhibition will be shown at the Pentax Forum in West Shinjuku. Thanks to Pentax for selecting the images, to Alexis and Sachi for modeling, and Felicia Lee and Summer Johnson for hair and makeup.

Corporal Bermudez United States Marine Corps.

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It would have been much better timing if I’d posted these images a couple of days ago. The US government had just announced changes to military regulations  that would allow women to serve in frontline combat positions. (It has been pointed out that many have already been doing this for years.) These portraits are of Corporal Bermudez of the United States Marine Corps. It should be noted that while there have been numerous photographs of fictional fishermen, lumberjacks and brawlers, Corporal Bermudez is a very real Marine.