Deer, deer, deer
Wet day in Nara Park. The local deer were too busy munching on fallen cherry petals to notice the rain. The less patient, and more ingenious deer, had a novel approach. Four legs good, two legs awesome.
All posts tagged: pentax
Roller Derby
The Japan Open Roller Derby Tournament 2016 took place at Okinawa Comprehensive Park on March 25th and 26th. Here are a few pics from Saturday’s Pirate City v Misawa Killa Geishas. This was the first time I’ve ever watched Roller Derby, so it took a little time before I could work out what was happening. Basically, the two teams of women on skates travel around a small flat oval track in the same direction. The teams get point by having their appointed “jammer” (wearing the star helmet cover) lap the oval. The rest of the team blocks the opponents jammer and assists their own jammer. Player can’t use their hands, elbows or feet to block. So the teams often create a defensive wall , checking the jammer with their hips. Contact, however, is fierce and the hits were hard. There are going to be a lot of sore and bruised players today. Overall it was a great experience to watch and photograph. All the teams were great, but the Danish team Copenhagen dominated the matches …
Humpback Whale Watching
Out today with the Churashima Research Center taking pics from their research boat. A much happier occasion than photographing the carcass of a whale that had died and then washed up on the beach. We were in the waters of the coast of Motobu not far from Sesoko Island. We saw around 20 whales in total, but it was the first mother and calf pair that were the star performers. The whales slapped the surface with their long pectoral fins, and perform breaches before crashing back down onto the surface of the water. Pics shot with the Pentax 645Z and a 300m lens. Used a monopod to take the strain off my arms. Shot at ISO 400 so that I could use shutter speeds between 1/2000 and 1/4000 of a second.
Nakijin Shoot – Reflector Fill
Another shot from the Nakijin shoot this time using a simple reflector to bounce some light back onto Yuki. You still have clear shadows caused by the early afternoon sun, but the reflector is enough to keep them in check on the subject’s face. You don’t however get the clear catchlights that you would have got with the flash. Pentax 645Z, 90mm lens, reflector.
Maeshiro Shusei 10th-dan Uechi-ryu Karate 10th-dan Ryukyu Kobudo
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.
2015 Year in Review
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 …
Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale
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!
On location – Karate master Nobuko Oshiro
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.
On location – Maserati shoot
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.
Eye of the Lizard
The less well known track by Survivor. Interesting to see just how shallow the depth of field is when shooting with the 645Z and a 90mm macro lens at f2.8 and the minimum focusing distance of 0.413m.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 