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Light Painting Workshop

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Last weekend Trevor Williams came down from Okayama to teach a 2-day intro to light painting workshop and a 1-day advanced course. Everyone had great fun learning to create images with light. Here are just a few of the pics from those who came on the intro workshop. I’ll put up more images from the advanced class over the next few days. We’ve already set the dates for the 2014 Light Painting Workshop. October 10th and 11th for the intro to light painting, and October 12th for the advanced class!

The Goroka Show, Papua New Guinea (Part 1)

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Goroka is a town in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It has less than twenty thousand residents and is accessible from Port Moresby by plane. Coffee is the main cash-crop, and the town is most famous for the 3-day Goroka Show in mid-September. The Goroka Show is a gathering of tribes from all over Papua New Guinea. In 2013 there were around 120 different Sing-sing groups participating. I’d seen some photos online of the festival and so made the journey from Okinawa to Goroka specifically to take some portraits of the various tribes. I took the Pentax 645D camera, the 645 35mm wide-angle and the new 645D 90mm macro. I mainly used the 90mm for portraits. Because it’s a macro lens, I was able to get up close and personal.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

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A few images from around Port Moresby. Ela Beach, a nice stretch of white sand with groups of local kids swimming. I was told don’t visit after dusk. Just east of Ela Beach is Koki village where the houses are built on stilts over the ocean. This is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. All waste drops straight down into the ocean, and the lighter plastic detritus  forms a layer on the surface that washes up on the shore. The National Museum, a good introduction to the various tribes which gave me some background information before heading to Goroka. The Bomana War Cememetry where around 4000 PNG and Australian soldiers who died during WWII were buried. In some ways PNG bears similarities to Okinawa with many local civilians killed as a war between foreign powers raged on their land. Parliament Haus is built in the shape of a traditional haus tambaran. The front facade has a large mural, while the handles to the main doors are shaped like traditional kundu drums.

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

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From Cairns I flew to Port Moresby the capital of Papua New Guinea. Port Moresby has the dubious honor of often ranking as one of the most dangerous cities in the world and surprisingly one of the most expensive expensive cities in the world. I spent a couple of days taking photographs of very friendly people. They locals did however warn me to be wary of every other man, woman or child. Most buildings were behind walls topped with razor wire, and my “budget” family hotel the Ponderosa sent a security guard around with me when I hired a taxi driver for the day. I guess you should always be prepared, but like I said I was pretty much always met with smiles.  

Skydive Cairns

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On my final day in Australia I decided to go whitewater rafting. They were fully booked. I then tried to go horse riding. Fully booked. It turned out that one company did have space available, and would pick me up from the hotel right away. And so, on a whim, I ended up being strapped to Ben the friendly Australian and jumping out of a plane at about 14,000 feet. It was a great experience, the 55 seconds of  free fall were literally breath taking. Of course living on Okinawa, I can hardly brag about having done a skydive. Unless you’ve done a high altitude, low opening jump behind enemy lines no one’s going to be that impressed! On a technical note, video and the stills taken above were all recorded on a GoPro Hero3 camera strapped to Ben’s hand. He said they’d had a a few technical issues with version 3 compared to version 2, but that it was amazing the quality you could get from such a compact and affordable system.

On location – Shannon

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On a free day in Cairns I met up with local model Shannon for a quick shoot by the ocean. With strong midday sun, it was key to find some nice open shade that would allow me to prevent harsh shadows on the face. Luckily, sun hats, shade and sunblock are keywords for a new generation of beachgoing Australians.  A big thanks to Shannon for meeting up, and hope you love the pics.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

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The idyllic railway from Cairns to Kuranda winds it way up through the mountains,  clinging precariously to cliff faces. An amazing feat of 19th Century engineering, but it was sobering that many of the men that worked on the project didn’t survive to see it open.

Marine Stingers

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Crocodiles aren’t the only danger bathers in Cairns have to deal with. A far more common threat are poisonous jellyfish. There were warning signs up and down the beach. Swimming was restricted to a section that had lifeguards, and I presume the clear bottles beside their surfboards are filled with vinegar.