All posts filed under: Photography

UFC 144: Edgar vs. Henderson – Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo

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While in Tokyo, I saw an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the Saitama Super Arena. Ultimate Fighting is a mixed martial arts competition where fighters can win by knockout, tap out, or points. The fighters come from a range of disciplines including striking styles such as boxing, karate and kickboxing along with submission styles that include aikido, judo, and wrestling. Fighters compete within their own weight class, but fighters of one style can be paired against any other style. This means you get matches between boxers that want to keep their distance and use punching power against submission fighters that want to take the fight to the mat and bend limbs in the wrong direction until their opponent taps out. The bouts take place in a octagon with wire walls rather than ropes. You definitely get the feeling you’re watching something not far removed from gladiatorial combat. The stadium atmosphere, however, was more friendly and reverential than bloodthirsty. The Japanese audience clapped and cheered for fighters from all countries, the greatest cheers were for combatants …

April / May Photography Workshops

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Now that I’m back from Yonaguni and Tokyo I can start organizing the coming workshops. Please click on the links to see more details about each class. I’ve put in two Photography 101 workshops in April so that people who aren’t yet comfortable with their digital SLR can master the basics before taking part in the Light Painting Workshop. I’ve also had requests for another Off Camera Flash course, hopefully this will happen later in the summer. April 14/15 – Photography 101 Weekend Workshop with Chris Willson US$250 April 28/29 – Photography 101 Weekend Workshop with Chris Willson US$250 May 3 – Going Retro Mini Workshop with Trevor Williams and Chris Willson US$50 May 4/5 – Light Painting Workshop with Trevor Williams and Chris Willson US$150   To reserve a place send an email to chris@travel67.com (please write WORKSHOP on the subject line) Please state the name and date of the workshop you wish to book. I’ll send a paypal request for the course fee. Once payment is made your place on the course is confirmed.

Going Retro Mini Workshop

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Just a quick announcement so people can put the date in the diary. Trevor Williams will be holding a “Going Retro” mini workshop on May 3rd 2012. Trevor will take people through the process of creating the look, setting up lighting, image selection and then editing. Time is 6PM to 10PM. Location is my home / studio in Uruma City, Okinawa. Class fee is US$50. I will start taking bookings for places in March.

Ikelite K5 Housing – Open Water Test

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Tested out the underwater housing for the K5 at Cape Maeda this morning. Hiroshi and Shawn were my buddies for the dive. As more experienced underwater shooters, they could make sure that I’d sealed everything down properly. So what did I learn? The housing didn’t leak and you can operate all buttons while underwater. There also appears to be a button (labeled Fn Button in the manual) that allows you to press the lens release button. I may contact Ikelite to see if I’m just being dimwitted or if this is some design issue. (I didn’t try to use this while underwater.) Operating functions that require doing two things at the same time are tricky e.g. pressing the ISO button and turning the rear e-dial. This means using exposure compensation underwater will be more problematic than simply using manual mode and adjusting exposure with the e-dials. The controller for the “Green Button” can easily get stuck. Probably not an issue as I don’t use the Green Button normally, but strange nonetheless. Live View is useful …

Yongnuo YN560 Speedlite Review

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Is buying a cheap alternative brand hot-shoe flash a great way to save hundreds of dollars or are you just wasting your money? Let’s start with the key difference. Cost Nikon SB910 $538.81 Canon 580EX II $457.00 Pentax AF540FGZ $399.00 Yongnuo YN560 $67.40 So what are the similarities? Power: The Yongnuo Flash has a guide number of 58. This means the camera has a similar maximum power to the other top end flashes listed above. (Guide Number indicates the power of the flash.  GN = max distance to subject x f-stop at ISO 100 – e.g. if GN is 58,  max distance to subject is 29 meters when aperture is  f/2 and ISO is 100.) Manual Control: All four flashes allow you to manually control both the level of power and the zoom on the flash. Slave Modes: All four flashes allow you to slave the flash so it fires when it detects the light from another flash. Bounce: All four flashes allow you to both tilt and rotate the flash head to bounce the flash off the …

Triple Terabyte Time Machine

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As you shoot more photos, or buy more media from iTunes you are going to fill up both the hard disks on your computer, and if you’re a Mac user, your Time Machine. My 1.5TB Time Machine was so full it couldn’t update easily so I decided to get something bigger. The hard disk I was previously using as the Time Machine will then be used for off-site backups. Fortunately as the need for storage grows, the price per terabyte  has gone down. In Japan, you can now get a 3TB hard disk for less than ¥16,000  which is about the same amount I paid for the 1.5TB model a year or two ago. Not a particularly exciting piece of gear, but if you don’t back up your data… “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”

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)

Senior Shoot – On Location

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As well as shooting in the studio, Kevin and I went outdoors in search of some locations that would show he’d spent his formative years in Okinawa. By the end of the day we had a great selection of images that I think Kevin’s family will be very pleased with. As for Kevin I wish him all the best after he leaves Okinawa. He’s heading back to the States to study pre-med at Liberty University, but I’m sure he’ll always have great memories of island life.

Senior Shoot – In the Studio

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A few months ago, a friend asked me if I was available to do a senior shoot. My initial thoughts were that he wanted me to photograph his elderly relatives, but it soon became clear that one adage still holds true, England and America are two countries separated by a common language. The thing is that, in England, we don’t have proms, high school graduation ceremonies, homecoming balls, or senior photo shoots.  In many ways it’s strange that we don’t celebrate these glory days, and taking a series of portraits of someone who is about to leave home and make their way in the world is a great idea. I discussed with my friend and his son Kevin the kind of photographs they’d like, and we decided that we’d shoot a selection of images both in the studio and on location around Okinawa.  Here are a few of the shots we got in the studio.

New Year, New Camera

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For many years I’ve been putting off shooting underwater. My Optio W60 is a great waterproof compact camera, but it doesn’t have the depth rating for scuba diving or the image quality for professional use. I looked into an underwater housing for the 645D, but there were none available off the shelf and a custom built housing would be many thousands of dollars. (It would also be like scuba diving with a submarine.) Ikelite, perhaps the biggest manufacturer of underwater housings, has however just released a housing for the Pentax K5/K7 cameras. For many reasons (that I’ll explain in future posts) I decided to buy a K5, a 10-17mm fish-eye lens and the Ikelite housing. The housing is on its way from the States as we speak, while the K5 and lens arrived a couple of days ago. Bear’s friend Ref posed for a few shoots so I could test out the fish-eye lens. Underwater photography is going to be an exciting challenge. Already have plans to shoot a lost city, a few sharks, and …