One of the great things about the new 90mm lens for the 645D is that it can focus very close to the subject. Although not a 1:1 macro, it does allow you to get some great detail shots with what has become my standard walk-around lens.
Took a 30 minute ferry ride from Motobu across to Ie Island. I’d never been to the island previously, which is amazing considering I’ve lived on Okinawa for over a decade. It also looks to have some great shore diving. Ie is famous for beef, togan, and brown sugar, but surprisingly the main crop on the island was tobacco. Ie island was heavily bombed during the Battle of Okinawa. The local population hid in caves to try and survive the typhoon of steel. In one cave called Niya-Thiya, around a 1000 locals waited out the battle. US war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed on Ie Island on April 18th 1945. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and covered the war in Europe, Africa and the Pacific. The main event on Ie Island is the Lily Festival that takes place from the end of April to the beginning of May. There are fields of white lilies, and also several rows of the more colorful varieties of Lily.
Another No Osprey protest took place last week outside of Torii Army Base. It was much smaller than the event I’d previously photographed near the Ginowan Convention Center. On Friday, there were around 100 protestors (and a couple of bulls), and it only lasted for around 30 minutes. There were several short speeches by leaders of the group about not wanting Osprey helicopters and military bases on Okinawa. Then as a group they faced the gate and shouted their demands. They chanted in Japanese that they didn’t want the helicopters, they didn’t want bases, and they didn’t want military on Okinawa. Then after a brief pause, the chant became “Yankee go home, Yankee go home, Yankee go home.” This was the last thing shouted, and then the protest ended and the gathering broke up. The presence of military bases in Okinawa is a contentious and complicated issue. The Okinawans have every right to voice their opinions and try to effect change on the political situation. However, to end a demonstration repeatedly chanting “Yankee go home,” …
Here are a few snorkeling and scuba diving images that I shot both for Leia’s modeling portfolio, and for potential use in travel magazines. You could argue that scuba divers wouldn’t be wearing as much makeup, or that a wetsuit might be more sensible when diving in April. This is true, but as I’m not shooting this as a news story, a photographer can use a little artistic license.
Shawn Miller and I went out to Yanbaru very early this morning for a birdwatching tour with birder and wildlife artist Ichiro Kikuta. Ichiro has just started offering guided birding tours, either 2-hour dawn tours from 6AM to 8AM, or all-day tours. He can speak some English, is very personable, and has a huge wealth of knowledge about Okinawan wildlife. Shawn and I specifically wanted to see the Noguchi-gera, the rare woodpecker that is endemic to the subtropical forests of northern Okinawa. Ichiro knew where a pair of the woodpeckers were feeding their chicks, and guided us to the nest. We spent a couple of hours photographing this particular bird, while Ichiro identified other species of birds we spotted or heard. Ichiro can be contacted by phone at 090 6867 3160 or email at kikuta-ichiro@mbp.nifty.com 2-hour dawn tours are ¥6,000 per person. All-day tours for one to four people are ¥¥18,000 (1p) ¥24,000 (2p) ¥30,000 (3p) ¥36,000 (4p).
On April 30th, I took portraits of Kiyohide Shinjo. He is a 9th-dan Uechi Ryu karate master and a nine-time all-Okinawa kata and kumite champion. He dominated karate to such an extent he was known as the Okinawan Superman. Shinjo-sensei has conditioned his body to be able to withstand huge blows without sustaining damage. He can smack his knuckles, fingertips and toes into pretty much anyone or anything. Shinjo sensei put on his serious face for the portraits, his whole body tense and ready to strike. I’m pretty sure opponents who witnessed this face were just about to lose their fight and quite possibly consciousness. This was the second time I have photographed Shinjo-sensei, the first time was in 2006. Read my Island Icons interview with Kiyohide Shinjo for Okinawa Living Magazine.
While out shooting Rie in the flower field I bumped into Ryukyu Mike for the first time. He’s a long term resident of Okinawa, and he loves to document the local flora and fauna. Check out Mike’s blog over at Ryukyulife.com . Hopefully Mike and I will meet up more often, and go out shooting. He’s a friendly guy, who clearly has good taste in cameras 😉 Any similarity to Albus Dumbledore or Gandalf is purely coincidental.
I went diving off Kume Island a couple of weeks ago. The water is still quite cold in February so I was wearing a hooded 5mm wetsuit, but the visibility was excellent and there were plenty of things to see. A small whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus) hiding in a cave. This was shot at 17mm, so I was only a couple of feet away. It’s quite emboldening having all the underwater camera and strobe equipment between you and your subject. Hope it recovered its night vision after being dazzled by 4 or 5 very bright flashes.
The ocean, shot from beside the road on a cloudy morning. Turns out to be one of my favorite shots of the year.
Kiyoshi Yogi is a master of Uechiryu Karate & Ryukyu Kobudou. He was the sai world champion, the bou world champion, and the first Okinawa traditional karatedo world champion. Yogi sensei was the 17th master to be photographed as part of the Karate Masters Portrait Project. We stared on March 11th 2012 so we’ve being underway for a year. Over the past 12 months it has become clear just how important the project is. There has been praise and encouragement from all over the world, although the best feedback is usually the beaming smiles from the masters as we hand over the prints for their dojos. Hopefully over the next year we’ll photograph even more of these Okinawan icons. I’ll continue to take the portraits, James will continue to organize the shoots, and the karate masters will continue to share their knowledge with the world.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 