The Life of a Photograph

As Sam Abell says it: "I didn't want a career, I wanted a life."

Those Unexpected Moments

Yesterday, March 11, marked the two year anniversary of the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear crisis, causing a wide spread of panic and uncertainty for Japan. Hard to believe two years have past even though it seemed just like yesterday as not much progress has been made up until today.

Life is full of interesting surprises. We have all the things we want at one point but then it can all be taken away from you the next day.

Looking through my Facebook news feed, I saw lots of people commenting about the whole "remembering March 11" type of thing. I chose keep quiet and not post anything because I needed a break. A break from the cameras and all that good stuff I love to do out of respect because we all know what happened. No need to keep promoting it.

Coming from a photographer's stand point on the March 11 tragedy where I saw Japan in a state of panic, people fleeing the country and trying to get back to their loved ones, all I did was click, click, click the shutter on my camera making images that will become an important part of history. Up in the affected areas I remember seeing one man collecting photographs buried in the rumble. He saw me from a distance with my camera, smiled, and continued his search. Having to document such kind of disaster out in the field and to cover stories related to March 11 until today, has changed my point of view on life compared to as if you were just watching it on TV at the comfort at your own home. Reminds me how important photographs are even when you loose everything else. You can't bring those moments back but you can photograph them, look back at it some years later and remember what that feeling was like at the time.

I guess going in the opposite direction where most don't usually want to go, whether a disaster or a conflict zone, changed me in a good way on dealing with those close ones who have passed. And to have those pictures is worth every time spent making a photograph or two up until this day even if they are intended or unexpected.

Real Beauty isn't Retouched

The title says it all!

UNIQLO in 2007

Been shooting the Japan fashion week runway collections since 2006 and witnessed how much has changed not only with the fashion event itself, but with the actual details of the designs and colors of the participating fashion brands. As a photographer, the bulk of the work involved is documenting what will soon become history and then being able to come back on them at a later time like this to show all of you what it was like to be at the UNIQLO Autmn/Winter Collection in 2007. Since most people tend to post what's recent, I figured it be nice for a change to do just the opposite from time to time.

Late Riser Crew

The Late Riser Crew down in Osaka with writer Tatsu Tsuchida. Good times with cool Honda's and fasting moving on the streets...

A Cuddle with Japanese Cuties

The phone rings on the mobile and at the other end of the line it's Richard from The Times. I'm shortly out the door and off to what Japan claims to be as it's first "cuddle cafe." A place where both men and women of any age, young and old, can walk into this so-called cuddling cafe, pay a bit of money, and have access to spend a quality timed sleep session in private with a young cute Japanese female.

Gotta love these types of assignments; to be put in a situation to photograph an experience where it'll be printed in a paper read by over 1.3 million people on a daily basis. But it's not always easy at times, especially when you're brought into an environment that you have no control of with important stuff like light, time and what subjects you have to work with. Questions like what if my shutter breaks, did I remember to bring that second body? How can I make a picture that's different? Shoot high or low? 16-35, 24-70, or 50? Wide or tight? Light it or not? M, Av, or Tv? Who are my subjects? Are they going to be difficult to work with or not? Do I even have any subjects to work with? What if the desk thinks my photos are just absolute garbage? If garbage is the result then this is the last time I'm going to get hired...maybe I should think about becoming strictly a studio fashion photographer!

The thing I realized is that photographers are usually anxiety-written people where some are better than others in controlling it. This explains the reason why I keep getting hired. Hired to walk into any situation whether in the studio or on location and bring back usable pictures. I must admit thought that I've taken way more bad pictures than good ones which is a fact for all photographers out there.

This was used as the opener to the story in The Times and I think speaks very well on its own. As I was standing in this narrow hallway by myself thinking about how I'm going make an interesting picture, I knew it wasn't going to magically just come and I would most definitely miss the shot if my camera was still on the shoulder. My best intentions at the time were just to react to anything without thinking too much so when one of the young girls that worked at the cafe suddenly came walking up from behind me and into one of the private rooms where a customer was waiting, I snapped the photo just to see if I could get a little bit of her before she disappeared into the room. Turned out alright for me and I'm happy with the result.

Here's a more closer look at what one of the private rooms look like. Filled with your usual bedding essentials in addition to some cute Japanese decorations to give it a more comfortable at home feel to the place.

The rooms are like office cubicles just that the walls are half cut so if your standing up, you could kinda see and definitely hear if there's any hanky panky going on in the other room next door.

As a paying customer, your money is their command so you can have them suit up into whatever they have available on the rack.

Plenty other fun stuff I've been working on so until next time!

Light Metered

Bringing you a small collection of what I have piled up over the years of the few guys and girls holding my trusty little Sekonic Flashmate L-308S light meter. I thought this would make a little fun series to look at. Enjoy.

Inkspiration

So here we are, back on location shooting with Melissa, a tattoo artist from Okinawa who flew up to Tokyo for this editorial shoot. Initially the plan was to work in the studio but I had enough of boring white backs, blacks, blues and the likes. I figured it'll be too catalogue-like, plain and just boring especially if you have a unique subject with some really cool ink like Melissa to work with. The location was set at a traditional sushi restaurant off the beaten path away from the typical crowded areas of Tokyo. This isn't no ordinary sushi joint though, this is a place with long history where Hollywood celebs like Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and several others have dined at. For the most part, this place is open by reservation only and comes with a "you get what you pay for" type of price tag that's really worth every yen spent. Anyways, straight to the tamale...

Here's the crew during our location shoot getting prepped...

Hidenori on the makeup and hair. My always go-to guy first for shoots whenever there are any people involved in the shooting. We've been working together for a little over six years straight now.

As Melissa has some amazing ink all over her body this was out of the several hundred frames I shot; the money shot for me. This one was made with a 50mm at F4.0, 1/10 of second. ISO 1600 to give it that rough grainy look to it.

An improvised shot at 16mm, F3.5, 1/8 of a second. ISO 1600.

Melissa laying flat on the wooden table that she was sitting on in the previous picture above as I stood right over her trying not to get my feet in the shot. This was done with a straight on the hot shoe 580EX II flash with a diffuser at 24mm, F2.8, 1/200 of a second, exposure dialed down to -0.3. ISO1600.

You saw mostly the front shots here so stay tuned for the back ones later...

The Walk on Water

Just one of those days where some guys feel like walking on water...

Photographer's Outlook on 2013

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The Photographer's Outlook on 2013