All posts filed under: Photography

Onbashira – Japan’s most dangerous festival

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Although I started scanning the images from my trip in order, I grew impatient and skipped to the grand finale. The Onbashira Festival took place on last few days of my travels, and was the big event the entire trip had been planned around. The festival takes place every 7 years. Huge tree trunks that will be used to rebuild the local shrine are dragged from the forest to the town. The route, however, includes a treacherous  steep slope. The locals rather than use the slope as a respite from dragging, have made it a test of bravery, machismo, and it would appear, sanity. This is an important traditional festival in Japan, but it does come at a cost. People are often injured and fatalities do occur. I photographed the event on the Friday and Saturday. On the Sunday, while I was flying back to Okinawa, one of the participants was killed. I hope the photographs give some idea of the spectacle. The following series comes from Saturday afternoon.

Equipment for Sale

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I’m selling a few Pentax 67 lenses and accessories  to create space in my dehumidifier cabinets (and improve my bank balance) before purchasing the 645D. I’ve included the list price, and then selling price (in bold).  If you’d like more information and photos of the items please email me at chris@travel67.com   Payment with Paypal.  I’ll put the items up for sale on Ebay (at the same price) later in week, but thought I’d give readers of the blog a first look. Pentax 67 35mm Fisheye F4.5 155,000 yen (inc. case) 60,000 Yen Pentax 67 75mm Shift F.5 221,000 yen 75,000 Yen Pentax 67 T6 2X teleconverter (black) 20,000 Yen Pentax 67 Angle Finder 35,000 yen (inc. case)  20,000 Yen Pentax 67 Magnifier 14,000 yen (inc. case) 8,000 Yen Pentax 67 Metal Hood with bayonet mount for 105mm 2.4 Lens. (inc. case) 5,000 Yen

Mount Takasaki National Park, Oita

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Twenty minutes west of Beppu is Mount Takasaki National Park. The park is famous for the group of wild monkeys that live on the mountain.  Throughout the day, park staff feed the monkeys barley so visitors are literally surrounded by wild monkeys. Unlike at a zoo, when the visitors leave and the feeding stops, the animals can retreat to the depths of the forest.

Island Icon: Wildlife Illustrator (and birdwatching guru) Ichiro Kikuta

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Having talked about Ichiro Kikuta in my last post I realized I hadn’t put up an Island Icon interview I did with Ichiro three years ago. Here it is. Wildlife Illustrator Ichiro Kikuta Wildlife Illustrator   Ichiro Kikuta is an artist trying to capture the spirit of Okinawa’s wildlife. When he was only an elementary school student, Ichiro Kikuta loved to sketch and paint the birds that nested near his home. During high school, he was inspired by the work of British wildlife artist Charles Tunnicliffe. At that point,he knew what he wanted to do with his life. After graduation, he spent 6 months traveling around Britain exploring the landscapes and animals that had inspired Tunnicliffe. Upon his return to Japan, Ichiro began to explore his own country with sketchbook in hand. For the past 25 years, he has journeyed from Hokkaido to the Ryukyu Islands capturing the beauty of animals ranging from snow-covered crested cranes to the Okinawan rail. He now lives in the northern part of Okinawa known as Yanbaru. There, he continues …

In search of the Noguchi-gera

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The Noguchi-gera or Pryer’s Woodpecker is a rare bird species, endemic to the forests of northern Okinawa. I’ve been hoping to photograph one for a while but in general you’ve probably got a better chance of spotting a Yeti. However as is often the case it’s not what you know, but who you know and my friend Ichiro Kikuta is a birdwatching guru living near the northernmost tip of the island. A couple of days ago Ichiro gave me a call saying he’d found a nest and I headed up north to get some shots. We set up  our cameras not far from the tree. Due to the size and weight of my 400mm lens and the addition of a 2X converter I brought along a 20 liter water container and hung it from the underside of the tripod to provide some stability. The Noguchi-gera did appear on several occasions over the course of the afternoon. Unfortunately we were shooting into the sun so although I may have some nice backlit images of the birds …

Mount Ogi Fire Festival, Beppu

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The image above is of Mount Ogi, Beppu during the fire festival. It was quite a challenge to take this shot. The fire is lit at the top of this triangle and flames slowly creep down the sides and then burn inwards over the course of around an hour. If you were to take a single photo for a few seconds you get an unimpressive thin line of fire on a large mountainside. The secret is to use a long shutter speed or shoot multiple exposures on the same roll of film. Both techniques are tricky but as I had forgotten to pack a shutter release I opted for the second method. I shot a 4 second exposure then without winding the film onto the next frame I cocked the shutter. (How to do this varies between cameras. With the Pentax 67II you hold the multi-exposure lever while turning the wind lever.) I repeated this 4 second exposure on the same piece of film every 4 minutes until the fire had finished. There were a …

F.A.Q.’s: Which printer do you use?

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Short Answer: Canon image PROGRAF 5100 Long answer: I use the Canon image PROGRAF 5100 for many reasons. The first is the Lucia 12-color pigment ink system that produces vivid colors and archival levels of longevity. The second is that it can handle rolls rather than just sheets of paper which enables me to use a thick cotton rag Hahnemühle paper for my prints. The third is that it has a special print plug-in for Photoshop that allows you to export 16-bit RGB files directly to the printer. Printing at 16-bit produces higher quality images particularly with regard to areas of color with smooth graduations e.g. an expansive blue sky. I love this printer and have recommended it to fellow photographers and artists. However… this is a big machine which will take up a large chunk of your room, not just your desk (It comes with it’s own forklift pallet). The printer is expensive and the ink cartridges, of which there are 12, are close to $80 each (a shocking £95 in the U.K.). This is …

A tale of two cameras

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Here’s a quick game of spot the difference between two images of the same lizard. The first is the one I put up a couple of months earlier. Taken with the Pentax W60 compact point and shoot. The second image was taken just a few minutes later in the same lighting conditions with my medium format Pentax 67II and Provia 100F slide film. Together these are a great example of how sensor / film size influences the depth of field. It is also interesting to see just how different the level of contrast is between the two shots.