The first rule of fight club, don’t get blood on the camera. The second rule of fight club, don’t get blood on the camera. The third rule of fight club, don’t mess with Elmo. A huge thanks to Darryl for taking a beating and to makeup artist Summer Johnson for supplying it.
Back in the studio playing around with light. I like the look of these images, they could be promo photographs for a new discovery channel series titled “The world’s deadliest jobs” or quite possibly “The world’s deadliest jobs with Shawn Miller.” I used some artistic license with the gas mask, deciding to place the air filters on the outside rather than the inside of the mask. I thought it looked a little more interesting, but due to the reversal of the one way valves, made breathing a little tricky.
These two Okinawan locals have a lot in common with the karate masters. They’ll stay out of your way minding their own business, but if you mess with them, they’ll inflict serious injury. Lionfish have venomous fin rays which if touched will cause extreme pain in the healthy, and possible death to the young, elderly or sick. Lionfish can be found at many of the dive sites on Okinawa, but seem to be most common in calmer areas such as Malibu Beach. Lionfish are however easy to spot, and unless you’re completely unaware of your surroundings, relatively simple to stay clear of. Stonefish are extremely well camouflaged and have a powerful neurotoxin that is more deadly than the sting of the lionfish. They usually sit quietly on the coral reef and want nothing to do with humans. If threatened they raise their dorsal fin spines and will inject their poison. Stand on a stonefish with bare feet and you’re going to experience severe pain and possible death. Last Saturday at Maeda, a half dead, but …
Nudibranchs are commonly known as sea slugs, and scientifically fit in the order of soft-bodied marine gastropod mollusks. There are several great things about nudibranchs. The first is that many are highly photogenic, the second is that they have interesting features such as feathery rhinophores, and the third is that they don’t move very quickly so you can document the first two attributes. It’s a huge help having friends who have been photographing and identifying nudibranchs for years. They can spot them far more easily while diving, then after we’ve surfaced let you know what you’ve seen. Who knew slugs soft-bodied marine gastropod mollusks could be so much fun.
I’ve been getting a few emails asking questions about the karate masters portrait project. So I thought I’d answer them here. Do you have a specific list of karate masters you are going to photograph? The goal is to photograph all the high ranking karate masters, of all styles, on Okinawa. If and when this happens will depend on the availability and willingness of the karate masters. Fortunately since the project has got underway, word of mouth within the Okinawan karate community has been very positive and we are finding masters happy to give up a little of their time to be photographed. Will you photograph karate masters in other countries? Sounds like a great idea, but first we’re concentrating on those masters based in Okinawa. Can I submit some photographs of my sensei? I decided at the start of the project that I wanted all the portraits to be shot in the exact same style. By not varying the type of camera, the lighting equipment, or the photographer, I can give the series of …
Doggles, they’re goggles for your dog. Unfortunately Bear is not a fan, she believes if Dog wanted her to wear googles she would have been born with them.
A couple of weeks ago James Pankiewicz and I headed down to Tomigusku to the dojo of 9th dan gojuryu karate master Shigetoshi Senaha. I had been hoping to photograph this particular master for a while as he is the sensei of a good friend of mine James East. Senaha sensei posed for the portraits and then showed us his old photo albums. Through a series of small black and white photographs, we were taken on a journey through Senaha’s life, and through his karate career. There were images of him training as a young man in Okinawa and later performing at the opening of the Budokan in Tokyo. Many of the recent photographs were of him touring other countries, spreading karate around the world. Before I left, I took a photograph of Senaha-sensei performing a kata in his dojo. Perhaps he’ll add it to his album, to be shown to other lucky visitors at his dojo.
Perhaps the most famous of the United States Marine Corps’ mantras is “every Marine a rifleman”. It doesn’t matter what specialization you go into, each marine must still undertake regular training and assessment in their ability to fire a rifle. I mention this as there should be a similar mantra with regards to scuba: every underwater photographer a diver. The key issue is that if you’re an experienced diver and an inexperienced photographer, you may get mediocre shots, but you’ll dive safely and within your limits. If you’re an experienced photographer and an inexperienced diver, you can quite easily, and very quickly, find yourself in serious trouble. An SLR camera in a housing is large, heavy, bulky, expensive and demands your concentration. Add strobes and you’ve just magnified all these factors. If you are having any issues with your diving – buoyancy, navigation, exhaustion, air management, decompression etc then the camera is only going to make things worse. Spend too much time looking through your viewfinder and not enough time checking your gauges and you …
The dates are now confirmed! I’ll be hosting Martin Bailey’s Pixels 2 Pigment 2-day Workshop in Okinawa on August 4th & 5th. Martin has put together a few details about the workshop on a Pixels 2 Pigment website, but also check out his main website and his podcast. This is a great opportunity for photographers to expand their knowledge base. Color management is such a fundamental part of a photographers workflow, but it is often misunderstood, or simply ignored. Martin will guide you through the various steps that will make your life easier. You can take control of color, so you spend less time trying to correct mistakes in Photoshop, or wasting valuable ink and paper. A course outline should be available in the next few weeks. The 2-day workshop will take place from 10AM to 5PM on both days. The course fee is US$250. The Okinawa workshop will take place at my home in Uruma City. To book a place on the course please email me chris (at) travel67.com and put WORKSHOP in the subject …
La-kun is a large dog. When Japanese people see my labrador, they often say things like 大きい!! (Big!!) and Bear is only 27 kilos. La-kun is over 60 kilos, and could be mistaken for a tuskless mammoth. Fortunately La-kun is also the most docile creature I’ve ever met. He lumbers around slowly and then lies down for a rest. What I didn’t know was that Newfoundlands are water dogs and, like labradors, very good swimmers. La-kun has been trained as a water rescue dog so hopefully in the future I’ll use the underwater housing and take some shots of him in action.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 