I regularly meet this chondara (Okinawan clown) when teaching my photography workshops, yesterday he had a new face pattern. I had presumed that each chondara would have a unique pattern they would keep for life, but I guess Okinawan clowns take these things lightly.
I’m now offering some prints for sale through Fine Art America. This will allow friends to purchase a wider range of images, sizes, and media than I currently offer. It also means that prints will be available to purchase even when I’m overseas. A few reasons why I chose Fine Art America. 1) Great reviews on the quality of their prints. 2) A large range of products, that I couldn’t offer myself such as canvas prints, frames etc. 3) They produce the items in either the United States or the UK (Glasgow) depending where you’re shipping to. This is the big game changer. The majority of people who have bought my prints are based in either the US or UK. Shipping is therefore affordable, and there are no import taxes for either group. What can’t they offer. 1) Signed prints. For a few more months I will continue to offer signed limited edition prints through the TRAVEL67.com website, but after then these will only be available at exhibitions, bazaars, and in person. Meanwhile I’ll continue …
Dr. Makoto Suzuki is a cardiologist and geriatrician. In 1976, he moved from Tokyo to Okinawa and began work at the Ryukyu University Hospital. While working in the field of community medicine, he discovered that there were an unusually high number of very healthy old people living on Okinawa. He began the Okinawa Centenarian Study, which has documented the phenomenon for more than 30 years. The findings of his research became the basis of several books that became bestsellers in Japan and around the world. How did you discover the phenomenon of Okinawan longevity? “I had heard that there was a very healthy old lady living in Yomitan Village, so I, and two others from the hospital, went out to meet her. She was over 100 years old, but when we arrived she was outside cutting the grass with a sickle. I was amazed at how fit and strong she was. When we talked to her, she didn’t think she was unusual at all. In fact, she pointed out that another healthy centenarian lived directly …
The Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1 is now available from Blurb.com You can buy your copy here!! After receiving your order Blurb will print your copy and can mail it worldwide. We do not plan to have a stock of books on sale in Okinawa. If a karate organization would like to gift a copy of the book to a particular master this is possible. We can order the copy, have it sent to Okinawa, sign it, and present it in person to the karate master from you. If you’d like to include a message with the book, then I can print out a message and place it inside the book. Please contact me at chris@travel67.com if this is something we can help you with. You can read more about the project, and see the list of all the karate masters in the Karate section of the blog.
There have been fewer than usual blog posts over the last 3 months. In fact the amount of shooting I’ve done has been somewhat limited. The reason is that I’ve been focused on producing the Karate Masters Portrait Project Volume 1. Images from the Karate Masters Portrait Project can be seen on the web at either Facebook or Flickr. However, Karate masters and their students around the world began to ask if we could produce a print book of the project. I decided to make the kind of book that I’d like to own myself. A large, high quality, coffee-table book with images of all 58 sensei that we’d photographed. It quickly became clear that traditional publishers would want orders of several thousand books. Book production would simply be too expensive to undertake, and too risky if I couldn’t sell all of the books. It might have even compromised the future of project as I would have had to concentrate on being a bookseller rather than a photographer. The solution was to use the U.S. …
This morning was the USO Color Blast 5km Fun Run on Okinawa. The Color Blast is very similar to the Indian festival of Holi. Participants throw powdered paint at each other and everyone comes away from the event a lot more colorful than when they arrived. The Color Blast combines throwing paint with a 5km run, and the paints used are waterbased and non-toxic. (This is not always the case in India. I had to throw away most of my clothes and scrub off a couple of layers of skin to remove the paint after shooting Holi in Jaipur.)
My friend Chris said his son was playing football on Friday night and invited me to come along and take a few pics. Jonathan is a Tiny Mite football player. This is tackle football for kids aged 5 to 8. They put on their pads, helmets, and mouthguards then attempt to decimate the competition. We had a few minutes before the game so I took the Pentax 645Z, a 25mm wide angle, and the B1 strobe onto the edge of the field. A few quick shots while there was a little color still in the sky and we were done. I don’t know anything about American Football (I believe one team used a refrigerator as a player in the ’80’s). However, when I wanted Jonathan to give me his game face I simply said show me Hulk and got exactly what I wanted.
Yotsudake is one of the traditional Ryukyu dances. The dancers wear a flower shaped hat, and a bingata kimono. They hold a pair of instruments similar to castanets which are made from four (yotsu) pieces of bamboo (take). They clap the yotsudake in time to the music. These images were all shot with the Pentax 645Z and the 90mm lens. The 90mm lens is an excellent portrait lens, allowing a shallow depth of field when needed and also has image stabilization to reduce motion blur due to camera shake.
Next Sunday, November 16th, I’ll be selling prints at the Kadena USO Holiday Bazaar. Please stop by if you are in the area and say hello, or even better buy some Christmas presents 🙂
Before my more linguistically minded friends point it out, I realize that as jo means castle saying Shurijo Castle is a tautology, and may cause annoyance. However as the official title of the festival on posters and leaflets was Shurjo Castle Festival, I shall use their version. On November 3rd the ceremony begins in the courtyard of Shurijo. The procession of courtiers, envoys, guards, regents, and of course the king and queen then parade out of the castle. They descend through the various gateways and along the main road almost to the monorail station. Monday was a gorgeously sunny November day, but it did mean I was looking for patches of shade when shooting portraits. There were many excellent fake beards on show. There were also several priestesses (yuta) who were once the religious counsel to the royal family. They still play a role in modern Okinawa as mediums and advisers.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 