All posts filed under: Photography

Zakimi Castle – Film and Digital

This morning I got up early and drove over to Zakimi Castle.  I decided to get a shot from the same place I took one of my favorite photographs of Okinawa. Although it was 7.30AM the sky was a little hazy, and even with a polarizer it didn’t pop. When I came home I compared the image to the “original” taken with the Pentax 67II, a 45mm lens, a polarizer and Fuji Provia. The detail in the first shot is fantastic but I prefer the wider angle and the saturation of colors in the original. Unlike today, I had managed to catch the castle under glorious clear blue skies. However, I did get an interesting new image of the stonework. It’s a simple “detail” shot that says a lot about the construction of the castle.

Studio Shoot – Dani (Purple)

Another image from the shoot with Dani a month ago. This one’s quite interesting for the superhero (or heroine) pose, but also because the lighting isn’t what I had planned. There were two strobes: a beauty dish over my right shoulder and a hair light behind the model. Unexpectedly, by having the model at an angle to the camera some of the light from the hair light is also hitting her body. (Hair light should probably have been higher, closer and pointed more accurately.) I think the image still works, and I’ll treat this as a lucky mistake.

Kishiwada Danjiri – The Action

It’s the job of some men to drag the danjiri through the streets, while other men get to ride along. The above photo is clear evidence that I was standing where I shouldn’t be standing! The large group of men in the left of the image are just about to stampede past. The man on the roof of the danjiri jumps from side to side and performs something similar to YMCA as they hurtle through the streets.

Rapi:t Train, Osaka

The Rapi:t are  express trains running from Kansai International Airport to Namba Station in Osaka.   I’d describe their design  as retro-futuristic as they look like they were thought up in the 50’s as “trains of the future”. I wonder if the architect actually did aerodynamic testing or based his design on something else…. Depending on the number of stops, the train is the named either  rapi:t α  and rapi:t β. A quick tip for anyone naming products (or indeed children) – please stick with your basic letters A to Z. Otherwise hardly anyone can spell your product or find it on Google. (Even Pentax made this mistake naming its first digital SLR the unpronounceable *ist )