The Traveling Photographer (3)

The November edition of Okinawa Living is now available.  This month my “The Traveling Photographer” page is all about the rule of thirds.

The Traveling Photographer (2)

In October’s Okinawa Living magazine.

The Traveling Photographer Part 2 Okinawa Living Magazine

Last few Awa Odori shots.

Second day started with lovely clear weather so before the dancing began I took the cable car up the mountain to get some shots of the city.

Tokushima City

Overall I think I got a good selection of images from the event. Hopefully enough for a photo essay on the festival, but that’s the decision of photo editors not humble photographers.

Awa Odori, Tokushima

Kimono at Awa Odori

Young Awa Odori dancer

Couch Surfing

One of the problems with photographing Japanese festivals is that the hordes of spectators mean accommodation is often booked out weeks if not months in advance. After being unable to find anywhere or anyone in Tokushima that had a bed or patch of floor I could sleep on, I remembered a friend had recommended I try Couch Surfing on my next trip.

Couch Surfing is based around a website  www.couchsurfing.org and is “a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit.” People host or surf on couches around the world. To the pessimists out there this must seem like a nightmare – invite complete strangers into your home and hope they don’t kill you in your sleep. Optimists see it as a fantastic way to meet people from different cultures and have a much richer (and yet cheaper) experience of travel.

I found a couch surfer (Sarah) who was happy to let myself and two more couch surfers crash on her floor during the festival. Everything worked out great and it was far more interesting than staying at a generic business hotel. Interestingly, Sarah’s apartment was in a building designed by Tadao Ando – most impressive!

Here’s a photo of us all couch surfing

Couch Surfing - a fantastic way to travel

The Traveling Photographer #1

I am pleased to announce that starting in the September issue of Okinawa Living Magazine there will be a monthly photo tips page titled The Traveling Photographer. I’ll be giving some advice on how to take better photographs and illustrating the various points with a few of my pictures.  The September issue just hit the stands today so for those of you on Okinawa please check it out. I will eventually put the text and images up on my website for those of you who aren’t living on the island.

The Traveling Photographer by Chris Willson, Okinawa Living Magazine

Back in Okinawa…

Flew back into Okinawa last night.

Trip went as planned except that I spent 3 nights near Nachi Katsuura to get the shots I wanted of the waterfall so didn’t make it to Mt Hiei or Wakayama City.

In Osaka I got film processed at Yodobashi Camera.

5 rolls of Provia 400F 120

16 rolls of Provia 100F 220

I still have 7 exposed rolls of 220 that I will drop off at Kitamura Camera later today.

Big pile of transparencies means I will spend the next week with a loupe, light box and scanner. Hopefully will have some images ready for the web in the next few days.

On the road again (Tokushima, Kyoto, Osaka…)

Fly from Okinawa up to Kansai Airport later today for a two week photo trip. Schedule is not set in stone but if any of you are in the same area and want to meet up just drop me a line.

13 & 14 – Tokushima City (Awa Odori Festival)

15, 16, 17 – Kyoto (Daimonji Festival)

18, 19 – Osaka

20, 21, 22 - Mt Hiei  / Wakayama City /  Katsuura

23 – Mt Koya

The Best of Nagasaki

My feature “The Best of Nagasaki” is in the August edition of Okinawa Living magazine.

You can read the entire text from the article and check out more photographs of Nagasaki here: The Best of Nagasaki.

Open-Air Photography in July’s Okinawa Living Magazine

In the July issue of Okinawa Living,  I have a 6 page feature on photographing Okinawa’s outdoors.

Scans from the magazine below, and I’ll put up the text next month for people who’d like to read the feature but  aren’t on Okinawa. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multitasking for Photographers

The job of a photographer is getting more and more complicated. In the past photographers have had to be their own promoter, accountant, travel agent, porter and therapist.

More recently  many photographers have added the role of writer and blogger, but perhaps the biggest change is going to be the increasing importance of both video and sound. 

Take a look inside the camera bag of travel photographer Tewfic El-Sawy:

* Canon EOS 5D Mark II
* Canon G10 (ideal for unobtrusive street photography)
* Canon 17-40mm f4.0
* Canon 28-70mm f 2.8
* Canon 24mm f1.4
* Marantz PMD 620 Audio Recorder
* Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Mini Laptop (w/LR2 and SoundSlides)
* A 250gb G-Tech Mini G-Drive External Hard Drive 
* Blackberry & an iTouch

 Along with all the camera gear there is a Marantz PMD 620 Audio Recorder.

Marantz PMD620 Handheld SD MP3 WAV Recorder

When I met Guardian photographer David Levene a few months ago I noticed that along with  two Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs and a wide selection of lenses he also carried an Edirol Audio Recorder. He recorded sound at Okinawa’s Churaumi Aquarium which would later be combined with photographs to create the slideshow that can be seen on the Guardian website here.

Edirol R-09HR High-Resolution WAVE MP3 Recorder

The Marantz PMD620 Audio Recorder and the Edirol R-09HR Audio Recorder are both able to record high quality stereo sound in either MP3 or WAV format to the same type of SD cards you use in a digital camera. At around 300 dollars each they are also a significant investment.

Both photographers use Soundslides (you can see Tewfic has it loaded onto his laptop). Soundslides is a “rapid production tool for still image and audio web presentations.” Basically, it’s a computer program that allows you to upload a series of photographs and a soundtrack to produce a slideshow that can then be easily uploaded to the web.

I used Soundslides to create the slideshow for my latest exhibition using guitar music a friend had recorded (If you haven’t seen it you can still check it out here on You Tube.).

The next challenge for me is to produce a slideshow with both my photographs and sound I’ve recorded. I am planning on documenting the Awa Odori Festival in August, so hopefully this will be the perfect opportunity for me to get some great shots and interesting audio. 

Of course the big challenge after that is finding a market for the work, but I’ll cross that bridge (or at least attempt to ford the river) when I come to it.