This is the lady who always makes my workshop students and me delicious satandagi donuts. As I was captioning images I realized I don’t know her real name as she is always referred to as Oba-san (auntie) or Oba-chan (granny) by everyone. Will have to remember to ask her real name next time I see her!
Teruya Masao an Okinawan gentleman who at 84 still trains in Uechi-ryu karate and Ryukyu Kobudo. He was recently awarded his 10th-dan in both styles.
We were introduced to Maeshiro Shusei through his student Tsueno Shimabukuro. Maeshiro sensei may be 83 but he is full of energy, something he attributes to his healthy diet. He is one of the elder statesmen of Okinawan karate.
January has arrived. Okinawa is in the feeble grip of a subtropical winter. Cool temperatures, clouds and rain, but spring is not far away.
2015 began with a quick trip to photograph the snow monkeys of Jigokudani Onsen, Nagano. Back in Okinawa I continued to document the karate masters and the people of the Ryukyu Islands. A few weeks in spring were spent in the UK where I hung out with family and took pics of some local icons. Back in Okinawa I had to update the Okinawa and Kyushu chapters of the Fodors Japan travel guide. I popped down to Iriomote to check out the options for visitors. And up to Kumamoto for a bit of history. Around the same time I was working as a location manager for the Okinawa episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. A cool experience introducing Okinawa to a huge new audience. On March 25th, I bought a house in the morning, then in the afternoon Yuki and I got married at the town office. A good chunk of the summer was then spent renovating the house and making it weatherproof. Yuki and I got some wedding pics done by being models for …
A few pics from a recent shoot with some beautiful Italian craftsmanship. The first couple of shots show the difference created by lens selection. Both were shot with the 645Z camera but for the image above I used the 35mm wide angle lens and the image below is the 90mm. For these final shots I have to thank Patrick for driving so that I could get images of the car in motion. A really fun shoot!
Hiroshi Takamiyagi is the founder of Goshukan Ryu Karatedo which combines Okinawa Shuri-Te Karate with Wu Zhu Quan (Five Ancestor Kenpo). The origins of karate came from Chinese emissaries so this combination is in many way taking the art form back to its most traditional techniques.
Nobuko Oshiro, Kyoshi, 8th dan Okinawa Karate-do Shorinryu, Taishinkan Association in the sugar cane fields of Sashiki Town, Okinawa, These shots were possible because of a high speed flash system that I was able to purchase with the money that came from supporters of the project purchasing a book, print or digital file. It allows me to sync a powerful flash at shutter speeds faster than 1/125 sec. I can now freeze movement without the ambient light blur normally associated with these images. 1/2000 sec at f / 4.0 ISO400 The crew: Yuki, James, Oshiro-sensei, Chris, Bekka.
Shooting a client and the 2015 Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale. This was shot with the Pentax 645Z and 90mm lens. I used the Priolite M-PACK1000 HotSync flash along with a white beauty dish for light. The HotSync system is designed for shooting flash while using fast shutter speeds, but it also works at standard or slower sync speeds. In this image it was 1/20 f16 ISO100.
Last Friday we photographed Yonamine Kousuke at his dojo in Sashiki Town, Okinawa. Lovely man. Yonamine san has developed techniques and even a kata that use a walking stick as a weapon. Once he demonstrated how easily it could be used to hook a limb or bludgeon an opponent, it was clear it would be very effective.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 