Next Saturday, October 23rd I will be selling prints and answering photography questions at Kadena Gift Corner on Kadena Air Base. The Kadena Gift Corner will be open from 10am – 2pm so please stop by if you’re in the area. For those of you who don’t have access to the base, don’t worry. I will also be having an exhibition and print sales in December at Global Gallery in Plaza House. Hope to see some of you on Saturday!
Photographing People: Portraits, Fashion, Glamour by Roger Hicks is another good book by publishers RotoVision. Along with the expected mix of portraits, fashion and glamour shots there is a nice variation between commercial, editorial and personal work. As the book was published in 2001 nearly all of the cameras used are film, but digital photographers will still benefit from the lighting diagrams. A used hardback copy is less than 20 bucks on Amazon, and sure to provide some photographic inspiration.
Gyokusendo Cave is located at the southern end of Okinawa Honto. At 5km in length, it is the second longest limestone cave in Japan. 890 meters of the cave are open to visitors and it’s well worth a trip. Gyokusendo Cave is located in the theme park Okinawa World. Once you leave the cave you can see various traditional Okinawan crafts including pottery, glass blowing, weaving and pickling poisonous snakes in alcohol. This shot was taken with the camera on a tripod and a shutter speed of around 15 seconds. The slow shutter speed means that all the tourists wandering along the walkway have magically disappeared.
On Sunday I went to the annual Tug of war in Naha. This is one of the biggest events of the year in Okinawa, and the rope is humongous. Before the tug of war there is a procession down Kokusai-dori. I had my camera with me and got a few shots. I like these two shots, but my favorite of the three is the third. There is something really cool at the way such a young kid stares fearlessly straight back into the camera.
United Nations University chose one of my photographs for their Institute of Advanced Studies Traditional Knowledge Initiative 2010 bookmark. The image is of an Ainu elder I have met a couple of times on my travels. A lovely man dedicated to preserving and promoting the traditions of Hokkaido’s indigenous people.
Here are the final couple of images from last month’s studio shoot with Dani . For these shots I switched the beauty dish for a large octabox (an octagonal softbox) that creates a look similar to light from a large window. Once I had got the image above I was ready to pack up the gear. Luckily, Pete Leong had just dropped by and he suggested the hair flick. It’s the kind of idea that might or might not work, but as I was shooting digital, and Dani didn’t mind throwing her hair around, we could do it numerous times until we had the shot in the can. Pete also had his camera on hand to get some behind the scenes coverage. Here I am happily chimping away!
This is an almost impossible question to answer without knowing all the details. But here’s some general advice 1) A lens that fits your type of camera, both brand and sensor size. A Canon lens won’t fit on a Nikon / Pentax / Sony camera. A lens designed for a smaller sensor won’t work on a camera with a larger sensor. 2) A lens that fits the type of photography you want to do. If you’re a birdwatcher get a long telephoto lens. If you’re into bugs get a macro lens. 3) You get what you pay for. But like most things the relationship between cost and performance is not linear. My brother asked this question recently so I can share the answer I gave him. About a year ago he bought his first digital SLR camera, a Nikon that came with two kit lenses a 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. He wanted a new lens to broaden his horizons (Insert pun about buying wide angle lens here.) and help improve his photographic skills. I recommended …
