It turns out that Britain had a series of secret bunkers for use in the event of a nuclear attack. (Just like in Terminator 3) But how do you find your nearest top secret bunker…. Photograph taken by my dad. I now suspect he is working for the KGB.
Pentax has launched a new top of the range camera, the K-7. The photography press calls it a flagship model, but it is a title that will be short lived, as the Pentax 645 digital is due to be released next year. It is an impressive camera, that will probably beat similar priced Nikon and Canon cameras in most respects. The K-7 is not however a full frame camera as some Pentaxians had hoped, but the Pentax 645 should fill the niche of Pentax photographers who want more than an APS sized sensor. The K-7 also joins the ranks of digital SLRs that can record high definition video. Like other SLRs I believe you will have to manual focus while shooting video, but it should allow you to film with a shallow depth of field much like you see in movies, something that is difficult to do with regular consumer video cameras. The price quoted in the British Journal of Photography was 1200 pounds. On the Yodobashi.com website the price is 129,000 yen (you can …
Here are a few photographs of my exhibition at Cotonoha for those of you who live on the other side of the world.
If you’ve seen the movie Apocalypto you will be well aware that a solar eclipse can be a life changing experience. On July 22nd 2009 there will be a total solar eclipse visible from a narrow band across Asia and the Pacific. From Wikipedia: “This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132. Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTC about 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The North Iwo Jima island is the landmass with totality time closest to maximum.” This map shows its progress across southern Japan. The main island of Okinawa is in the 90% eclipse zone. Most of the Japanese islands in the total eclipse area are tiny. The island of Yakushima however is a little larger and still in the zone of totality. There is access by plane and ferry from Kagoshima, but tickets are either gone or …
The Stripes Okinawa, is the free weekly supplement of the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Kluso (the musician in an earlier blog post) does some writing for the paper and came down to Cotonoha to chat about the exhibition. Kluso’s article along with some of my photographs appeared today in this week’s edition.
Yesterday I was a guest on Arisa Muto‘s chat show on FM Okinawa. We talked in Japanese about topics ranging from how blue the sky is to my favorite Okinawan food. It will be broadcast on May 23rd at 9.30pm, and if you’d like to hear me butchering the Japanese language it will definitely be worth tuning in to. I had never been into a recording studio before. I was most impressed by the doors.
I have friends from many different countries and I am often amazed at how passionately patriotic they are of their homeland. I have been told numerous times that America / Canada / Australia / New Zealand / China / South Africa is the greatest country in the world and that not only should I visit but I should move there because it is such a fantastic place. Brits don’t tend to enthuse quite so much about their own country. In fact, most, seem to delight in telling a fellow ex-pat how grey / rainy / bleak / miserable the UK was on their last trip. I am sometimes asked what exactly Britain produces now that the shipbuilding, textiles, coal, and steel industries have almost gone. It turns out that we are still very good at banking, insurance, and producing weapons. Not the most popular industries in the world right now. Britain does however have numerous small companies that I am proud of Bowers and Wilkins (speakers), Marshall (amps), Lotus – (fast cars), Mclaren – (very …
Just want to say thanks to everyone who made it out to the opening reception of my exhibition. I think the about 45 people came, and everything went really well. DJ Gilberto was great, the food was delicious, and Jose did a wonderful job of translating my talk. I wandered around nervously babbling to people, but managed to enjoy myself tremendously. Exhibition will be up for the whole of May so drop by Cotonoha to check it out.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been sorting out a slideshow for my exhibition that will be projected on to a wall where a single picture would normally hang. It allows me to show far more images than would otherwise fit in the gallery. The slideshow I have created for Cotonoha lasts 30 minutes and has images changing every 25 seconds. I also created a 7 minute version with images changing every 5 or 6 seconds that also has some wonderful background music. The piece is Sakura by Yokoh and is played by my friend Eduardo Terre on the classical guitar. The music came from a live recording of one of his concerts. It has been a bit of an exhausting experience learning how to create a slideshow, add music, convert formats etc, but finally both the long and short versions are now complete. The long version is ready to be shown at the gallery, and the short version is now up on YouTube. Enjoy. Eduardo, I am humbled by your talent.
A fantastic new video appeared on MTV yesterday. The group is Peter Bjorn and John (Yes they are from Sweden) and the song is Nothing to Worry About. What is brilliant is that the video follows a day in the life of a Tokyo Rockabilly. These guys can usually be found on Sunday afternoons beside Yoyogi Park, just around the corner from the teenagers dressed in cos-play costumes. Just as in the video, they are jiving, line dancing, combing their hair and hanging out. On Friday, I am going to give a little talk at my exhibition about taking photographs. One of the things I will mention is communication. By speaking a little of the local language, you can start conversations with interesting people. When I saw the Rockabillies, rather than just snapping a shot from a distance, I went over and had a chat with some of the guys. I was able to get them to pose for some shots, and then found out which of them was the owner of the American …
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 