Cool guy

( Camp Sequoya, Alabama)





My wife says I am an abominable snow guy.

Well, snow guy reminds me of yeti. Yes, it is a creature with long white fur, running around in woods covered by snow. He even screams with strange voice. I. therefore, dislike what my wife says. I only have several white hairs on my body, although I don’t wish to have. They are only 6inches at most. In addition, I hate coldness. I have no eager or what so ever to run around in woods with snow. One thing, however, I have to admit is that I scream, probably once or twice a year.

Her belief that I am a snow guy started back when we moved in Cleveland Ohio. Cleveland is famous for heavy snow due to the lake effect. They have snow from November to April! The year we moved to Cleveland, it was a record breaking snow and low temperature. It was the worst in twenty something years.

Some years later, we moved to Alabama. Alabama is just like my home town Tokyo. The climate is relatively mild, and they have very little snow maybe once or twice a year. For some reason, the very first day of my work in Alabama was record breaking snow. I was stuck on the interstate for freaking four hours because they closed it.

Well, similar thing happened even in Japan. I used to live in Obihiro city in Hokkaido, Japan only for 6 months. In winter, their temperature could be very low but not much snow. When I was there, we had another record breaking snow.

The recent example was Chicago where I went a couple of weeks ago. It was unseasonably cold, and eventually became below freezing point. The weather forecast said the possibility of snow, although we did not actually have it.

Last weekend, my son and I went cub scout camping. Up until one day before, The lowest temperature had been around 60. At the night when we went camping, however, it was 37. We did not have snow, though.

OK, my wife won. I have to admit that wherever I go, it gets cold. But I still don’t like to be called a snow guy. Please call me a “cool guy”.

Chicago Night Walk

( Chicago, IL)
( Popart filter )





I am wrighting this in Chicago, IL. This is a two-night business trip.

Local people say it is unusually cold. Yesterday, it was 20 degree blow average. The lowest temp was 41, and it will be 31 tonight! What a difference from Alabama.

I brought my cameras with me this time, since I know I would be able to have spare time during this trip that I can use it for shooting out. I found on Flickr that there was going to be "night Walk" last night. Great!

Checking their gathering time.......Yes, I will make it! I don't see why I should not join them.

It was a big turn out. We were a group of 20 photographers, including me from Alabama and another lady from Utah. Walking around Chicago down town at night to shoot. It was a great fun.We went to Kodak points where I would not have known.

How long did we walk? Well, we started at 6pm and dispersed at 10pm. Well, I tell you, it was freezing cold.

Anime Weekend Atlanta 15 ( 2009 )

There are no days when you do'nt see caractors of Anime (Japanese animation). They are everywhere, on TV and magazines, in bookstores and toy shops, and more than likely you have at least one in your house.

Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) is an annual event for anime lovers. This year, the celebbated 15th convention. They had a wide variety of events including video room showings of Japanese cartoons, a dealer's room with retailers, workshops, panel discussions, a costume contest where attendees dress up as their favorite anime or manga character, and scores of guests who have worked or currently are working in the industry.


PHOTO ALBUM
( You can also go to slideshow from this link )

Pain affects my decision making

( Mobile, AL )





After more than 25 years of procrastination, I had to have may wisdom tooth taken out . My pain after this minor surgery made myself slow down. It was actually much worse than I had expected.

It has been a week and a half since then. Pain is still there, but has become manageable.

Pain, I found, not only slowed me down, but also impaired my decision making. My suggestion is no to go shopping when your decision making ability is affected.

The lease of my car will be up in Dec. I have started looking for my next car, despite the fact that I will not need the next car for another 6 months. This, however, is very important issue for me. I kept visiting car dealers even though I was with pain.

When I visited one of dealers, my decision making ability became maximally impaired. I decided to buy a car without waiting for another 6 months. We, therefore, have three cars for the next 6 months. Time-limited luxury.

My best guess is that the real fact that my pain on my tooth made me buy the new car would not be convincing to my wife. My B’day is just around the corner. Why not use this as an excuse. Yes, this is my B’day present in advance.

The car I bought is MINI Cooper S convertible. Contrary to my saying that my car has to be yellow, I chose red one this time. I put 2 white bonnet stripes as well. Pain on my tooth must have affected my visual center in my brain. I must have recognized red as yellow.

This really is a big change. My Hummer needs a ladder to get on and off. My new MINI is, on the other hand, just like scraping road surfaces as you drive.

My new car arrived yesterday. I am sure it is going to be a fun drive!

(Cozumel, Mexico)



My album Summer Vacation 2009 is now uploaded.

New Equipment

I obtained new equipment. It came from mainland China.

As you can see on movies such as “Gremlins” or “Little Shop of Horrors”, strange things always come from China town. In the end, they cause big disaster that owners can’t handle. I ordered new equipment to real China, not China town in the States. You can imagine how much I was worried.

In the States or Japan, I feel pretty comfortable when I order things over the internet . But once it comes to China, it all of sudden stats sounding a little bit fishy. I know the fact that this is my stupid prejudice. It is, therefore, very difficult fix my idea.

Well, enough roundabout. I bought IR converted compact digital camera(Canon PowerShot S400).

At this time of the last year, I was shooting around with IR film in my Rolleicord Vb. This year, I wanted to convert a compact digital camera to IR dedicated camera.

I did a lot of researches. I found out Nikon Coolpix 995 is a very good material to convert. They are sold around $150.00 on eBay. You also need IR filter, which is about $100. Total of $250.00., if I did not ruin it. Of course some degree of dexterity is required.

During my research, I found IR converted PowerShot was on eBay. It is only $80.00. It was a very good deal, if it was not a scam. It was actually cheaper than the cost of materials.

$80.00. What ‘s the heck! Even if this was a scam, I would not have to commit suicide for only $80.00.I ordered it. To my big surprise, it came to me in 4 days from Beijing, China. Hey, good job, China!

The box contained only camera, battery, and battery charger. It did not come with operation manual. This really sounds Chinese.
I test shot around my house, at the entrance, and in my back yard.

Simple algebra. $250.00 - $80.00 = $170.00. What should I do with rest of $170.00?

Anyway, this is a great toy for this summer.

My new year's resolution. How far have I come?

( Farmer's Market, San Francisco, CA )





It has been both fast and slow. A half of the year 2009 has over.

I think it might be a very good time to look back my new year’s resolution to see how much I have accomplished so far.

Here are my new year’s resolution.
1) Organize my old films.
2) Master Photoshop.
3) Get rid of cameras that I don’t use very often.
4) Obtain DSR.
5) Decide some themes to shoot.

Well, let’s see how I have been doing.


1.Organize my old films.
Not done. To be precise, I haven’t even started yet. I deeply regret that I chose this as a part of my new year’s resolution. I am not going to do it next year and forever.

2.Master Photoshop.
In progress. I have not mastered it yet, however. Still long way to go.

3.Get rid of cameras that I don’t use very often.
Done! When I visited Japan in May, I sold some camera that I don’t use very much. These included Olympus PEN FT with two lenses, Bessa-R with two lenses, Nikon u with two lenses, Rolleicord Vb and accessories, A24 film back for Hasselblad.

4.Obtain DSR.
Done! Now I am a proud owner of Canon 30D.

5.Decide some themes to shoot.
Not done. It was very good of me to have thought this way. But I have not done anything like this. Shame on me.　


I got some money, obviously, by selling my old cameras. It was “not too much, but not too bad”. The money did not go to my saving account. As soon as I got money, it changed to new lenses for my 30D. In my religion, camera money has to go to cameras.

For my 30D, all I had was Tamron AF 18-270mm F3.5-6.3 Di-II VC. Of course it is not good enough for me. I bought Canon EF-S 17-55mm F2.8 ISUSM and CanonのEF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5 USM.

The other lenses in my wish list are good telephoto and macro lenses. It would be nice to have extender with telephoto lens.

Well, I have achieved two and a half of my new year’s resolution out of five. Not too bad, ah? I am kind of proud of myself.