Life is Soooooo Good!

Christmas present

2011-12-18T13:59:00.000-08:00

(Army cemetary)
(Fort McClellan, Alabama)
(Canon 7D,Tamron 18-270mm F3.5-6.3)

Santa Claus came to us a little bit early this year.

It was not because Santa was suffered from jet lag, or Santa developed senile dementia. It is just because my wife and children will be visiting our family in Tokyo, Japan during this holiday season. School finished last Friday. They will be departing early next week.

When I send presents, or wish some presents, all I think bout is “something you don’t actually need but you want it.”

For example, toilet plunger is a something you need but you don’t particularly want it. Therefore, toilet plunger doesn’t meet my criteria for present.

My son got an electric guitar, Epiphone Les Paul model. It is very nicely made and sounds good. He has been playing it every day ever since he got one.

My daughter got portable 3-D game player. It was a top of her wishing list this year. The game soft she wants is only available in Japan. She, therefore, is looking forward to trip to Japan even more than usual.

My wife hasn’t got anything yet. But I know what she is going to get. You can’t go wrong with jewelries with ladies. I know she will like it.

Well, let’s talk about me. I put iPad on my wish list this year.

Santa Claus left me a little box. I opened the box slowly, wondering what is was. What I found was a back scratcher! Wish list doesn’t simply means it will come true, just like a anything else in your life.

This back scratcher is neither made by Tiffany, nor of pure gold, nor has diamonds around it. The only thing stands out is this is extendable, just like some ball point pens.

It is pretty rare for me to have itch somewhere on my body. It may happen once in every leap year. In addition, I never asked my family member to scratch my back to intensify skinship.

Well, then. Why the heck Santa gave me a back scratcher? This is something “I don’t need and I don’t want.”

Thanks, Steve

2011-10-07T11:48:00.001-07:00

(From http://imgur.com/gallery/SCoJ0)

August 15th

2011-08-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

(Berman Museum, Anniston, Alabama)
(Olympus PEN E-P2, M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6)

August 15th was the day the WWW II ended. Every year, August 15th reminds me of the following story.

It happened about 15 years ago when we moved into Cleveland, OH.

As you may know, Cleveland is the biggest city in Ohio. There are always many people moving in and out. We were one of those people.

When we moved in Cleveland, we came to know about “New Clevelanders’ Club”. It was an organization to help new Clevelanders to start smooth and easy start of their lives in Cleveland. You can get to know people and obtain a lot of useful information. They were very helpful.

After a while, my wife made some friends in the club. In my mind, I secretly call them “delinquent wives’ group” in jest. But they did not know about it. They gather from time to time and had a good time.

The members of what I secretly called “delinquent wives’ group” included my wife (Japanese), a German who married to an U.S citizen, a New York Jew, a Yankee from Pennsylvania, and a Southerner from North Carolina.

One day, (then young) 5 wives got together as usual. Had a chat (or complaining of their husbands, I guess). And for some reason, they took a photo of themselves, with biggest smiles they can do in front of a camera, like a Hollywood stars.

A couple of days later, one of the members (New York Jew) showed the photo to her father to show the friends she had made in Cleveland.

Her father looked at the picture for a very long while. Then he eventually said “what a beautiful picture!”

When I heard this story, I was awakened.

The world used to be divided into two and killing each other until only several decades ago. And before that, even U.S was divided into Northern states and Southern states, and battling.

I had taken peace of the world as granted, and I did not realize what that photo of five “delinquent wives” meant.

National Geographic TV

2011-06-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

(Hase Temple, Kanagawa, Japan)

Although I don’t read it regularly, “National Graphic” is one of my favorite magazines. I also love “National Graphic TV”.

They really have grate photos and movies. I always wonder how they shoot those beautiful pictures.

What I heard was that getting assignment from National Graphic is a dream for many photographers and videographers. There is no dead line. They can keep shooting until they are completely satisfied, which could take many months and years. In addition, they are paid well. No wonder that is the dream job. Needless to say, however, you have to show them you are the cream of the crop.

Despite my admiration, Nat Geo TV broadcasted a really poor quality video the other day. That video could ruin the reputation of Nat Geo TV.

「The show was titles “witness”. It is the program about tornados that brought devastating damage to many southern states. One of the video clips in that program was very cheap and cheesy. Why the heck they needed that kind of video?
The video goes like this ….. There is a boy hiding in the closet with is cat, being afraid of tornado nearby. He is shooting himself with a video camera in his lap top computer, and mumbling about how scary it is. That’s really it. As simple as that.

I actually know how this video came to TV. This boy uploaded this video to YouTube. That is where Nat Geo found the video. They got release form signed from his parent and the video was on the nation-wide TV show.

It was me who signed the form, and the boy means my 12 year-old son.

It wasn’t a dream job since he did not get paid. His name, however, was credited at the end of the show. Well done, my son! I am proud of you!

It has been a while since internet became part of our lives. You can never assume what will happen in your life.

What a great surprise!!!

2011-05-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

It was on March 11 when we had earthquake and tsunami. This means it has been already two months since then.

We felt some urge that we wanted to do something for that devastating disaster of the country in where I was born and grew up.

After some discussion with my family, we decided to raise money for the recovery fund through Red Cross. We passed bracelets to people who made donation to us.

As well as I do this campaign in the hospital where I work, my children said they wanted to do it in their schools. This is how our activity started.

So far, we collected astonishing $5000! This is a pleasant surprise that we never even imagined. People are so caring and generous. I can’t thank them enough for this generosity.

Now we have our own disaster from tornados in Alabama. We have work for that issue as well.

What I learned this time is that people do help each other globally. By doing that, I strongly believe that recovery from any damage on anybody in anywhere could be easily possible.

Sleep tight

2011-04-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

( TtV )
( Kodak Duaflex II, Olympus PEN E-P2, Zuiko Digital 35mm Macro F3.5 )

It was a simply awful night.

For some reason, I just couldn’t sleep very well. There was almost none if I had a little.

I had a lot of nightmares one after another. If I would have kept sleeping despite my nightmares, I would have been a problem. No matter how much I am insensitive, I was not able to ignore those nightmares. Every time I was just about to go sleep, I woke up.

It lasted whole night.

In the morning, I dragged out my body from my bed. I told my wife that I could not sleep at all because of never ending nightmares.

Well, she didn’t pay attention to what I said. She said “It was an awful thunderstorm last night”.

I kind of had an impression that she was trying to change the subject all together.

Thunderstorm? Which thunderstorm? I had no idea what she was talking about. According to what she said, we had a severe thunderstorm at night.

Now I understood. When I was having nightmares one after another, my wife was having a dream of thunderstorm. I sort of felt sorry for her and looked outside through the kitchen windows. There were a lot of fallen twigs and leaves. Our drive way was wet.

The thunderstorm she was talking about was real! I, however, had no recall of it.

I realized how deep my sleep was.

Come and go

2011-02-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

On looking back to my life, there were many women came and went.

Well, I wanted to say this once. The fact is that my life has nothing to do with that sort of life style. My comment above is the biggest lie of the century.

If I changed the word “women” to “ cameras”, it all of sudden would becomes real truth.

Cameras that came to me without me seeking it intensively. Cameras that I fell in love at the first sight. Cameras which somebody else beat the hell and abandoned. Cameras that I imagined they are my dream cameras, but later only to have found out they are not my type. Cameras which has the most gorgeous looking, but are not really good as they look.

Well, writing in this way, cameras and women have something in common. (Sorry, this is another lie again.)

It is only February, but many cameras have left me already. In addition, there are some more cameras that I can foresee they will leave me soon.

My favorite camera of this year so far was made in 1930. Yes, she is 80 years young! Still looks wonderful and works fine. It even has a very nice feel to touch. You put ubiquitous 35mm roll in the camera, and voila, you are ready to shoot.

It is a real beauty of mechanical cameras that you can still use it after 80 years.

If you have old mechanical cameras, have a fun with them.

I am home!

2010-12-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

(Ollivander's Wand Shop, Universal Studio, FL)
(Olympus PEN EP-2, Zuiko Digital 14-150mm F4-5.6)

We got back from our Christmas vacation, a week in Orland, FL.

Our main interest was to go to “ The Wizzarding World of Harry Potter” in the Universal Studio. It is an attraction which opened only in Spring of this year.
Needless to say there were many many, I mean many people. But it was awesome! It immediately makes you feel as if you were acting in the movie.

We also enjoyed Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Hollywood Studio, The Blue Man Group, and Cirque de soleil.

During this trip, my main camera was a toy camera. I have never done this before. My film choices were, Lomography X process, and Lomography red scale. I will ship them today for processing. I am looking forward to seeing how they will come out.

We had planned to fly back home on Christmas day (Saturday). The flight, however, got cancelled because of snow at Atlanta airport. We were rebooked on the Sunday evening flight. Then, they kept delaying this flight that we were rebooked. We eventually got home at 1 AM on Monday!

If it were my business trip, I would have been very exhausted. But it was a family vacation. That was a part of our fun memory.

(Hogwarts Express, Universal Studio, FL)
(Olympus PEN EP-2, Zuiko Digital 14-150mm F4-5.6)

Upload

2010-12-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

( Canon 30
d, Tamron 18-270mm F3.5-6.3)

I went to Chicago in October last year. Now some photos are updated on my web gallery. Wow, it took me more than a year to do it! I have been too lazy : )

Enter here

Oh, my god!

2010-10-16T08:06:00.001-07:00

(Polaroid Sun660, impossible PX600 UV+)

Every time I clean my house, I find some screws.

Very often, screws are used with washers and nuts. I, therefore, should find them as well as screws. But, you know what? I seldom see them. All I find is just screws, for some reason.

It is extremely rare for me to able to spot what crew they are. I have to ask my family what these screws are, since I can’t figure out by myself. They are my family, they can’t figure out either. All they can say is “they should be for something”. The very fact that I already knew.

The other possibility is that my loving wife will one day say “Oh, the screw you found last week must be for (whatever she can think of). You shouldn’t have tossed them away.” This is another reason why I keep these stray screws.

If you keep those stray screws for years, you would end up with pretty impressive collection of screws. My tool box was full of these screws and weighs a lot.
Well, let me think twice.

By the time you find a screw, it obviously is not functioning as a screw. But I didn’t find any malfunction with any of my stuffs.

OK. Here is what I will do from now on. Every time I find screws, I will throw them away into a trash can.

Well, I eventually decided to be a brave man. I threw them away last weekend. I felt so good. I slept better than any other night in my life.

Several days has passed. OMG! I have just found a screw is missing from my sofa today!

Atlanta Anime Weekend 2010

2010-09-21T11:25:00.001-07:00

(Lupin III)
(Canon 7D, EF-S 17-55mm F2.8)

Don’t say “again!”.

I must admit that it has become my annual event to attend Atlanta Anime Weekend. This year it was held from Sep 17 through Sep 19. I got a media pass as usual.

It is kind of interesting to see what kinds of anime are popular each year. It changes every year.

It is a fun event to shoot people in costumes. They are more than willing to pose for you.

I did not shoot as many photos as I did last year, but here are some photos.

Grand Teton / Jackson

2010-08-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

(Colter Bay on Jackson Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming)
(Canon 7D, EF-S 10-22mm F3.5-4.5)

The second half of our summer trip was to Grand Teton and Jackson city, Wyoming. We drove down to south from Yellowstone.

Although Grand Teton is not so far away from Yellowstone, their sceneris were tottally different.

Here are some photos.

Enjoy!

Yellowstone National Park

2010-08-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

(Sunrise in a forest in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming)
(Canon 7D, Tamron 18-270mm F3.5-6.3)

I have just come back from our summer family vacation. This year, we went to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming. It was the first time for us to be there. It was a great trip.

I uploaded some photos. Please enter from here.

Irony of history and the fungus

2010-06-19T14:28:00.001-07:00

(Olympus PEN E-P1, Zuiko Digital 17mm F2.8)

I have to admit that I have been too lazy to update my blog. It has been almost two months now!

I am going to talk about the smell of old cameras. Yes, the smell.

From my experience, all old cameras have very distinct smell.If you have an experience of buying old camera even once, you would know what I am taking about.

If you bought old cameras from shops who maintain old cameras extremely well like a museum, there might not be any smell at all. But almost all of my purchases of old cameras were from eBay. The all came to me with exactly the same distinct smell. This smell was not only on cameras but also on leather camera cases.

It is not difficult to spot this smell is from some sort of fungus/mold.
I happen to be in a medical field when I am not enjoying shooting photos. I know each microorganisms have their own characteristic smell.

The fungus on the old cameras is obviously different from what I deal with at work. I, therefore, am not able to tell what kind of species exactly it is.

But I know the real fact. This camera fungus doesn’t care the kind of cameras. Regardless of being SLR, TLR, rangefinder camera, they all grow the same kind of fungus, therefore the same smell. The fungus doesn’t care what era the cameras were made. 50's, 60's, 70's. They all smell the same. In addition, countries where the cameras were made don’t matter. Made in Japan, Germany, USA, Soviet, or wherever, they all smell the same.

Deductively saying, there seems to be the special fungus which likes to grow on old cameras. That must be the ones that are floating in the air as a spore until they find attractive old cameras. Then they start to grow, only to give us that particular smell of old cameras.

Suppose we have two cameras here. They were made during cold war era, one in the U.S.A, and the other in U.S.S.R. After several decades and cold war is over, both cameras are radiating exactly the same smell in harmony. History and the fungus work in an ironical way.

I must say it is far from nice smell. However, it is certainly a kind of smell that makes me motivated to go and shoot another film.

F*** !

2010-04-22T13:08:00.001-07:00

(Handmade Pinhole Camera "Pistachio" )
(Fuji Velvia 50)
(Double exposure by accident)

It has become much more embarrassing to say a four letter word starting at F in public – FILM!

I got my first DSLR exactly one year ago. My film consumption has become way down ever since.

I, however, noticed recently that my skill of photography has deteriorated. Just before I got DSLR, I was shooting color positive films without bracketing. Because I had a “feel” to get perfect exposure, I did not need bracketing.

I think I am loosing this “ feel”. This is probably because I have been relying on DSLR’s fantastic feature ; auto-everything.

It is kind of interesting that I started using films more often recently just for fun, after one year of honeymoon period with my DSLR.

I don’t care what other people say, but I tell you – shooting film is still fun even in this digital era.

Needless to say, digital is much more versatile and I can’t come back to film completely any more.

After all, it is my hobby. If you are pro, I guess it is totally a different story, though.

:D

Pistachio Mark II

2010-04-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

(Oxford Lake, AL)
(Pistachio Mark II, 50mm F169)
(Fuji Velvia 50)

I wrote about my handmade pinhole camera “Pistachio” on Jan 10, 2010. There were some problems with this camera.

First of all, it had very strong vignetting. It was because the image circle from my pinhole did not match the picture size. I actually knew it was going to happen as I planned “Pistachio” from calculation. It, however, came out more than I wanted. It was just like putting APS-C lens to you full size SLR.

The other problem was light leak. Well, I have seen people saying light leak is a “taste”. It may be, but I did not like it. It had to be fixed.

From reasons above, my “Pistachio” went into trash can. RIP. Instead, I made “Pistachio Mark II”.

The followings were what I fixed / changed.

1. The focal length of previous model was 20mm. This is changed to 50mm in “Pistachio Mark II”. The image circle should match the film size with this focal length.

2. The inner side of the camera is lined with black felt to seal all light leaks.

3. Mark II has a film counter window that you can open and close. This, of course, is to eliminate light leaks from the window.

4. Previous model had only one film winding knob. Mark II has two knobs, one for the film loading side and the other one for the film winding side. This is meant to help making film surface flat by pulling two knobs into different directions at the same time.

You can’t tell the differences at a glance except film counter window on the back (not shown here).

I grabbed Fuji Velvia 50 into “Pistachio Mark II” and went to nearby Oxford Lake. This film had an expiration date of May 1997. Well, what’s the heck!

The result is shown above. I am very happy with the result.See a guy in red T-shirts walking. This give you some idea how long was the exposure time.

I uploaded this photo to Flickr. To my big surprise, it was featured in Flickr blog. One of the greatest moments of my photography life!

Addendum : April 24, 2010 is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Let’s grab our pinhole camera and shoot out!

The pain and fear that you can't share

2010-04-11T12:24:00.001-07:00

( TtV )
( Kodak Duaflex II, Olympus PEN E-P1, Zuiko Digital 35mm Macro F3.5 )

After long winter, spring has come.

Unfortunately, I can cerebrate the arrival of spring only with some reluctance. To tell the truth, I have severe spring allergy. My nose started to itch a couple of weeks ago. It is quite uncomfortable.

Last night, I was standing in front of a mirror to wash my face. I realized on the spot that itching in my nose this time is not from notorious spring allergy.

It is because the hair in my nostril has grown too long.

I reached my drawer which contains my secret weapon – electric shaver for the hair in the nostril. As soon as I turned on the switch, it makes comfortable clipping sound with subtle vibration. Itchiness started to disappear.

Then all of sudden, I started worry something. It is good as far as my electric shaver for the hair in the nostril is working well. But there is no blade which works forever. One day, for sure, it will come to the end. If the blade came to the end of its life, it would roll and pull my hair in my nostril, rather than cutting them. That must be awfully painful. Just thinking about it already gives me a pain and tears.

Last night, it didn’t happen.

I was so scared about the possibility of this horrible accident. I had to confess my fear to my loving wife. She, however, looked like she couldn’t understand what I was talking about.

It is your duty to explain with easy example, if one couldn’t understand what you say. I started out by saying “suppose your hair in your nostril has grown too long”. But my wife said “it never grows too long” on the spot.

I am so sorry that I forgot the fact that women never go to toilet, never fart, and their hairs in the nostril never grow.

I can tell you. From now on, I will have a big fear every time I shave my hair in my nostril. My wife will never understand my fear. As a married couple, we should share pain and fear as well as happiness. As far as this matter is concerned, things are little different.

Hawaii trip

2010-03-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

( Polynesian Cultral Center, Hawaii)
(IR converted Canon PowerShot S400)

I was in Hawaii last week. Although it has been a week since I came back home, I am still dreaming of Hawaii.

I joined a school trip as a chaperon. Inevitably, I was like a school photographer. I took so many snap photos of students.

What I have done this week was……10% of work, 80% of organizing photos, and 10% of nodding to what my wife is talking. You might wonder when I sleep. I slept, of course, when I am nodding to my wife. All married med should be able to understand this.

As I kept going with organizing photos, I came up with the idea of making a web site so that they can see their photos by themselves. This brilliant idea put me into more work. From that stand point, it was a stupid idea at the same time.

I was not a family man this week. I was sitting in front of my computer all the time. Then, Voila! The web site has been completed (sorry, only school members can see the site). I thought I had to complete the site while memories the students are still vivid.

In addition to photos of students, I organized the photos that I can post on Flickr. You can see them from here.

Well, I tell you. It was quite a work to complete it in a short period of time.

Magic wallet

2010-01-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

(Toy dog)
(TtV : Kodak Duaflex, Olypmus PEN E-P1)

I kind of know that I should not tell anybody about this kind of things. I know it, but I can’t keep it in myself.

This is just between you and me. I have a magic wallet.

The degree of the magical power that my wallet has is not that strong. The wallet, unfortunately, doesn’t increase the amount of money I have in it.

The magic I am talking about is – This wallet shows up without being stolen anything , no matter how many times you lose it.

It was the last year when I came to realize the magic my wallet has. I was staying a hotel in Tokyo, Japan. I was checking email on a coin operated computer in a hotel. How stupid I was! I left my wallet at the computer. I realized I lost my wallet when I tried to buy a train ticket. All of my body started becoming clammy, my spine started shivering. I sweat like a pig crossing the river.

Abracadabra, here comes the magic. Somebody turned it in to the front desk of the hotel without losing even a cent (yen, to be precise). This is very common story in Japan, though. They are generally very honest. (And I am one of those. LOL)

The second time happened here in Alabama. I had run some errands in a city where was about one hour drive from my home. After I got home, I couldn’t find my wallet. Shoot! I lost it again. I made a bunch of phone calls to every single place that I could think of. No luck. After three thousand five hundred twenty six phone calls, I found out that it was found in a parking lot of a supermarket.

Abracadabra, here comes the magic. My wallet was returned to me without losing a cent. HERE IN AMERICA!

The salesperson didn’t mention anything about the magical power to me when I bought this wallet. There was a little instruction card in the wallet. That card didn’t mention anything either. I would imagine if they told you before you buy, the magic would disappear.

It was a kind of expensive wallet. Five dollars wallet shout be more than enough for me. But it was a lot more. By the time I got out of the shop with new wallet, I didn’t have any money to put in it. On thinking back, that price is the additive value for the magic.

Once I got this magic wallet, I can now go anywhere without paying particular attention not to lose the wallet. When I lose it, it will come back to me without fail. I triumphantly told my wife about the magic that my wallet has.

Her response? Well, I let you guess.

A subtle relationship between an exposed film and beautiful women.

2010-01-17T12:21:00.000-08:00

(Photographer unkown, Place unkown, Date unkown, Camera unkown)

I wrote about my TtV on December 24, 2009 on my blog. I found an exposed old B&W 620 film in my Kodak Duaflex.

I have no idea whose it is, and from when. If you have a reasonable way of thinking, it must have belonged to the person who owned this Duaflex. He or she must have forgotten about the film after shooting.

Well, here goes my curiosity.

This might be a camera which was used in French movie studio back then. Beautiful Catherine Deneuve might be smiling in this film.

Or, this might be a camera that the boss of Italian mafia in Bronx, NY owned. This film might have a firm evidence of the crime which has gone unsolved. And the last shot might have a beautiful mistress of the mafia boss, looking at you through the cigarette smoke.

Or, This might have belonged to CIA at that time. CIA used Duaflex on purpose because Minox camera looked so spyish. This film might have some top secret of the U.S. And the last shot has a beautiful Russian female spy smiling at you with a glass of wine in her hand, just like 007 movie.

Once I started imagining, it went on and on. One imagination created next imagination one after another.

I decided to order this film developed. I had to pay $5 for just processing without prints. If nothing shows up, well, what the heck!

It turned out that there is only one photo in the film. The one I show you above.

It seems that this is a house in new development. I can see two cars on their drive way. On your right hand side, there is another car, seems to be passing by, but could be parking on the street. Judging from the design of the cars, I would imagine this is from 1960s. Unfortunately, I can’t identify these cars exactly.

Even if you look at this photo with magnifying scope, there is no Catherine Deneuve. There aren’t even her posters. Shoooooooooot!

I guess this is a house of the camera owner. It makes me smile, though. There might be his beautiful wife, or daughters in the house.

One strange thing. As you can see, this is 6x9 format. Duaflex, on the other hand, is 6x6 format. Yes, this photo was taken by another camera. Who put the roll of film that was used in 6x9 camera into 6x6 Duaflex, and why?

By the way, I guess popular 6x9 format camera using 620 film at that time would be , perhaps Kodak Tourist.

Well, then, this may really be a mafia’s camera. They put 6x9 film into the ubiquitous camera to tried to hide an evidence of their crime, and gave it to a beautiful mistress of the boss.

I have to admit that all of my imaginations eventually end up with beautiful woman one way or another.

Seriously, I feel like I dag up a time machine and found treasure. Just one photo takes me all over the world in 1950 – 1960s. This is great.

Processing just one shot for $5? I have no doubt that It was really worth it.

Pistachio

2010-01-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

I started making another pinhole camera in October last year. The last one I made was a little bit too big, and not so handsome (the right on the photo). The one I am aiming for is a pinhole camera that I can carry with my business trip. Don’t you think it is kind of cool if you pick up a pinhole camera from your bag on your business trip?

So I made another effort to make a camera that is closer to my ideal pinhole camera. The green one in the middle is the one. I named it “Pistachio”. You can tell why I named it. It holds 120 medium format film and take 6x6 photo.

I have learned basic know-how from the last time. I managed to make it smaller than the last one.

The previous model was made of two boxes putting together. This structure was the reason why it became so bulky.

This time, therefore, I redesigned the whole thing. You set a film in the body, slide the rear panel, and close the top panel. This helped to make it smaller than previous one.

Well, how does it shoot? Here it is!

I am very satisfied with the sharpness of the photo. I, however, am not very happy with vignette. You can say that it is OK. But I think it is a little too much. I should be able to fix this by making the focal length longer (Pistachio is 20mm). In addition, there is a small light leak at the bottom right.

It is still not perfect. I am going to embark on making “Pistachio Mark II” to overcome these problems.

I will let you know how "Pistachio Mark II" will come out!

Through the Viewfinder

2009-12-25T09:03:00.001-08:00

I am addicted to TtV, which stands for "Through the Viewfinder Photography".

Do you want to know more about it? Read here!

Merry Christmas!

You too!

2009-12-17T18:12:00.000-08:00

( Chicago, Illinois )

I have been a science minded person since childhood. I was more interested in how clocks work rather than how our society was made.

As a science kid, my score in languages in school were just horrible. It was almost miracle that I managed to graduate schools.

When I read questions in language tests, I had no idea what those questions were asking me. For example, a question went like “What did Mary think at that time?” Hey, I wasn’t Mary. Why should I know what she thought? The answer could be……”What is the dinner tonight?”……”Wish rain will stop tomorrow”……… I try to come up with all possible answers I could think of. But I could never get it right.

Teachers and honor students of languages said “ If you read it carefully, the answers are already written there”.

I was very bad at history as well. I was thinking it was a boring subject that forced me to memorize a lot of irrelevant events. “Agriculture of potato in Japan started in 1772”. For me, so what!

Here came teachers and honor students of history. They always said “If you get the flow of era, all historical events occurred from necessity”. For me, they were full of BS!

I want tell those people. “If you understand the flow, all chemical reactions in mitochondria occur naturally”.

Looking at my family, my son and I are science minded, and my wife and daughter are more like literature minded people. They tell my son who is struggling with his literature homework “If you read it carefully, the answers are already written there”.

Oh, my son. You too!

I am pretending......

2009-11-21T15:03:00.000-08:00

( Chicago, IL )

Perhaps from summer this year, there always have been an article or two on photo magazine about micro four thirds cameras. It does not matter whether it is Japanese magazines or American ones.

I wonder reason why. Is that because editors are interested in micro four thirds? Or, is that a slick advertisement in the shape of magazine articles? Whatever it is, it is kind of difficult to ignore them.

I have seen many sunrises and sunsets since micro four thirds camera came out to the market. Now the truth is that the camera I use most often is Olympus E-P1. I never dreamed of it.

I got my E-P1 as double lens kit. I, however, rarely use zoom with it. More than 9 out of 10, I use 17mm. In my opinion, this camera and wide fixed focal length get along very well. This combination is very fun to shoot, and very functional.

My wife doesn’t know when the heck I got E-P1. I, of course, did not mention anything about it. I am just pretending I have been having it for a long time, so that she doesn’t realize the fact that I bought it without her permission.

Well, let me think twice. She is actually more than who I think she is. She might have realized already but she doesn’t say anything. She may be thinking to use it as a spade of ace for serious matter that may arise in the future, saying “ Oh, by the way, you have been spending a lot of money on you camera………”.

Well folks. My wisdom is telling me that I should try not upset her for a while with my best effort. That is a key to enjoy my E-p1.

Cool guy

2009-10-23T16:14:00.001-07:00

( 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

2009-10-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

( 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 )

2009-09-23T18:05:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-15T13:25:00.001-07:00

( 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!

2009-08-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

(Cozumel, Mexico)

My album Summer Vacation 2009 is now uploaded.

New Equipment

2009-07-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-07-18T07:32:00.001-07:00

( 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.

Notice of uploading

2009-07-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

My album "Alcatraz" has been uploaded.

I'm home!

2009-06-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

I’m home!

I came back from family summer vacation. We were on 7 nights Disney Cruise in Caribbean.

The weather was very good whole week. All of us got nice tan on our faces.

Our children have already started requesting that they want to go again next year. Well, kids. Don’t you remember this is the second time on Disney Cruise. We just did it last year. We will go somewhere different nest year, kids.

Our first port of call was Key West, FL. When the time came for all guests to come back on board, there was a guy who was missing. They over-head paged him in the ship, but he did not answer.

If there was a kid missing, it would have been a big deal. But this missing guy was an adult. He should be able to take his own responsibility. The ship set sai on time, leaving this guy behind on Key West.

I imagined if this was in Japan. The ship would never set sail until this guy comes back. Well, first of all, everybody would come back on board from the first place.

He practically had three choices. 1) go home by himself. 2) take a plane to go to the second port of call to rejoin the cruise. 3). Become a resident in Key West.

I am very curious, but I do not know what he did.

Anniversary

2009-05-30T20:52:00.001-07:00

Well, May 28th is our anniversary.

We got married in 1993. This means 16 wonderful years have passed already.

My marriage this time is going very well. I have been breaking my record every day. Very good indeed.

I met my wife in Britain. On thinking back, when I proposed, I was married. Not only that, she was married too.

Every time I say this, people, especially young ladies, start showing interest in our story. Yes, they are interested in our “immoral relationship”.

Actually, it was not as interesting as you might think. It is rather quite boring story.

At that time, I was getting divorced anyway from the reason that was not related to my wife. My wife was in a similar situation. It is not as romantic as some movies.

Thereafter, I stayed in Britain and my wife went back to Japan. In those days, having an internet at home was beyond imagination. International telephone call was still expensive. And to add insult to injury, my salary was very poor. There was no way I can afford frequent international phone call. During these years, we wrote letters almost every day. Just like uploading blog every day. I have and will never write letters that often.

The only good thing of our previous marriages was we did not have any creatures who carry our DNA.

After more than 10 years after we got married, our memories are fading. We actually forgot our anniversary. We successfully noticed about one month later. We laughed off. Thanks God, I was not the only one who forgot it!

I learned in a hard way. I gave a bunch of flowers and a present to her this year. On the exact day of anniversary, not one month after that.

Thank you very much for being with me for the last 16 years. How much longer we can be together? 10 years? 20 years? Or 30 years?
You make me happy. You make me a better man. You are my wonderful better half.

San Francisco

2009-05-03T08:37:00.001-07:00

I made a small business trip to San Francisco. I love San Francisco. I is a great city to go out shooting.

I have visited San Francisco twice in the past. The first time was before we had kids. At that time, photography was not my hobby. The second time was last year. I shot some photos but they unfortunatelly all came out bad! I wasted many rolls of films last year.

Here are some shots. Please enjoy. As always, any constructive suggestion would be appreciated.

Goin' digital

2009-04-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

My new year’s resolution is to get dSLR. I have been researching which model to buy. There are too many nice ones to choose. In addition, during my research, new models come out one after another. I was pretty much convinced that my research will never end.

My decision was Canon 50D. Yes, this is my firm decision.

The next research I had to do was to figure out from which shop I should buy. Again, my thorough research went on and on. I aim is, of course, to buy as cheap as I could. But I found out that there are many shops rum by scam artists. There no such thing as free lunch.

One night, I was researching as usual after my supper. I must have clicked something by mistake that I did not even pay attention to.

The page that I opened accidentally carried Canon 30D, which was a dead stock from 2006. Of course dead stock means something that nobody bought and was left over at a corner of a warehouse. Workers in a warehouse must have been kicking the box to kill their time when they had nothing to do.

It was a real bargain. The web site was well known. I thought I could trust them. The price was about a quarter of Canon 50D. It was actually cheaper than used 30D in other web sites.

The moment I found this 30D, I started thinking about a lot of things. “It would be nice to have a family trip during summer. We will go to a restaurant. I would like to order a jog of beer in a restaurant rather than ice tea”. All in all, I thought I should not spend a lot of money to by a camera. For me, 50D is a lot of money. After all, I am not Donald Trump.

My firm decision to buy 50D has gone quickly. My firm decision is, as always, as firm as this.

Now I have a body of Canon 30D in my hand.

What is sad about is the fact that I do not have lens! This is just like I bought a car without steering wheel. I can run an engine but I still can’t go anywhere. With my 30D, only way I can enjoy at the moment is to show the menu. That’s it. That's pretty much it!

I have never thought that camera without lens is only worth paper weight.

Obviously, lens that goes with my 30D will be the next project. But this project will be after my next pay check. Now I have something more to research about.

Grandma's Corvette

2009-04-06T13:39:00.001-07:00

In Japan where I come from, their public transport system is lust like human body. There are nerves, veins, and arteries everywhere. You do not need to drive in Japan, especially when you get old.

On the other hand, there aren’t many cities where have good public transport systems. You have to keep driving as far as your eyes are seeing shadows and lights.

This is a story of a grandma of my friend.

She is eighty-something year old. She has been living alone for many years, since her husband passed. As you can imagine, her best days were in 1940’s to 1960’s. The golden era of the U.S. Her dream car was, and has been red Chevy Corvette. She, however, was no way able to afford driving Corvette.

Now she is an octogenarian with bad knees. She needs to have a walker when she walks. Even with her walker, she walks at a snail’s pace. The car she drove was 15-years-old Lincoln Continental. A conservative old American sedan, as we all know.

She came to realize that there won’t be many years before she will leave us and take an eternal residence in the better place. She made a big decision. One day, she drove up to a car dealer in her old Lincoln, of course, to buy a red Corvette. I am pretty sure that a sales person was shocked.

A grandma waking in the parking lot of a supermarket with her walker at a snail’s pace. She folds her walker and slides it on the passenger seat. She drives home in her red Corvette.

One time my friend asked her if she could give him a ride. Her answer was “ it is for may walker. Not for guys”.

How cool this grand ma is!

Here goes her red Corvette through our town in rural Alabama. Nobody has heard about a lucky guy who sat on her passenger seat.

IndyCar Open Test

2009-03-27T15:05:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I am lucky.

I obtained a press pass for IndyCar open test at Barber Motorsports Park(Leeds, AL). I need to mention just in case you might wonder, I did not obtain the pass by stealing or extortion. I got it legally.

I arrived at the Park at 7:30 AM. No need to pay an admission fee. Great! Parking in the press parking was without hustle. Great!

Press meeting started at 8:30 AM. They told us what not to do, where not to trespass, etc. I wore a yellow vest that they provided for our safety.

The weather was fabulous.

Now I was ready to shoot. I was allowed to go into pit area with this press pass. It was like a photographer’s dream!

Since I was lucky enough to have a press pass, I wanted to make a most of it. Shots of the cars from distance using ultra telephoto lens would be good, of course. But this time, I spent most of my time in pit with my ultrawide zoom (19-35mm). I was rubbing the tip of mu nose to Indy cars to shoot.

It was an all day event. However, I used up my 8 rolls of films just in the morning. I wished I could have had a digital camera. It is not always good to be a worshiper of reversed technology.

I actually have never watched motor sports on the circuit. I was so excited about the fact that my first experience of Indy Car was with my cameras and press pass.

Here is my photo site.

Upload

2009-03-11T20:07:00.001-07:00

Photo album " New Orleans, LA " is now uploaded on my main site.

Dilemma

2009-02-21T10:06:00.001-08:00

( Klasse W, Velvia 100 )

In February, I am forced to make a big decision. It is regarding the conflict between domestic economy and my expression of love.

As we all know, February 14th is Valentine’s Day. I, of course, have no hesitation to give a present to my loving wife.

As a matter of fact, her birthday is a week before Valentine’s Day. Generally speaking, ladies’ minds are too complicated for me to understand. I have no idea until what age they are willing to celebrate their birthdays. I, however, do not have to worry about this. My loving wife stopped getting old after the age of 29. We have been celebrating her 29th birthday every year for the last a decade or so. Again, I have no hesitation to give a present to my loving wife.

The problem is the fact that my wife’s birthday and Valentine’s Day are only one week apart. What about putting her birthday and Valentine’s Day together and giving her only one present?

This is indeed a great plan for me who gives her present. I can save some money by doing that. I did not mind as much money as I could before I married her. That was what I call investment. After we got married, however, what I get by giving her some presents is totally different from before we got married. Don’t we want to save some money?

I know she does not like my idea. If I did it, that would mean I will run some risks. To tell the truth, I have already given her the present twice, one for each occasion. Last year, to believe it or not, I forgot Valentine’s Day. I learned in a hard way. You learn more from mistake rather than success.

I think I am so lucky that I have opportunities to express my love to my wife in two consecutive weeks!

Japanese translation

Gene technology

2008-11-30T07:40:00.000-08:00

( Rolleiflex 2.8F, Planar 80mm F2.8, Portra 400VC )

It has been my great effort to make myself look like a good husband. For example, I call my wife just before I leave my work.

Since it requires only seven minutes drive from my work to home, you may say that I do not have to call her. Those who say that do not understand. This is indeed my great effort.

When I cal her, she asks me every now and then to make a quick stop at the local supermarket to buy something. Something means milk on one day, and spice on the other day. Or it may a toilet cleaning liquid, depends on what she has been doing during the day.

The other day, something she meant was chicken wings. I did not say that I was too tired from work, of course. I smiled on the other side of the telephone, and rushed to the supermarket.

As soon as I made it to the supermarket, I went straight to poultry aisle. I picked some chicken wings in to my cart. I should have, then, gone to the casher to go home. But my biological curiosity made me staring at the poultry aisle and thinking for a while

As far as I learned in school so far, usually chicken has two thighs and two wings. This obviously means that you can get two pieces of thigh meat and two pieces of wing, as well as two pieces of breast. What I observed in the supermarket was that they seemed to have disproportionately more wings than thighs or breasts. It was simply impossible from biology stand point. It looked only possible if you can get six or eight pieces of wing form one chicken.

Here comes my theory. Gene technology nowadays made it possible to make a chicken with six or eight wings. They keep these new type of bio-chickens secretly. Consumers are the only one who do not know this.

Isn’t this scary enough to give you a nightmare tonight?

Japanese translation

Jet lag?

2008-11-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

( Klasse W, Velvia 100 )

I am not sure what happened on me.

Recently, I go to bed a little earlier than usual. It is very clear to me that this is not because of me being physically tired. I say this because in the morning, I get up one hour earlier than I usually do.

I am not a morning person. I have no hesitation to say that. I just have to get up early because of my work. The patient who is going to have a surgery comes to the operating room at 6:30 am.

Despite the fact that I am not an early bird, I recently get up one hour before my alarm clock starts to ring. This is certainly not normal for me.

Well, everything has a reason. The fact is, I am suffering from “jet lag” from DST being finished.

I seldom get jet lag, even if I go to Japan, where the time difference is about a half of a day. But this time, I suffered “jet lag” from only one hour of time change. Unfortunately, this does not mean that I eventually get jet lag like other people. My colleagues and everybody else are doing fine without the symptom I have now.

I am writing this in my spare time that is caused by waking up one hour early in the morning. Yes, this is a byproduct of my “jet lag”.

It seems that the bigger the time difference, the better for me. Subtle time difference of one hour screwed my internal clock. Is this a sign of aging? I do not know.

Cup holders.

2008-10-18T20:06:00.001-07:00

( Klasse W, Velvia 100 )

A male nurse who works with me was asked to come to a car dealer with his girl friend. She asked because she does not have much knowledge about car.

As soon as they got to a car dealer, a sales person came up to them with friendly smile on his face. The sales person asked what kind of car they were looking for. As a matter of fact, a male nurse who joined her wasn’t notified what kind of car she wanted.

What she said was actually astonishing. She said “I want a car with cup holders”. Yes, a car she wanted was not a SUV, sedan, or even minivan. She wanted a car with cup holders!

You are not talking about Ford T type that was made 100 years ago. I can’t imagine there are cars without cup holders. However, I found out I was wrong when I visited Japan last month.

A car my sister drives did not have cup holders. If you stopped by at the nearest gas stand to buy a bottle of water, you would end up with holding a bottle until you finish it up. Well, you can exercise your muscle on your arm while you are driving. The car manufacturer is really concerned about you health, I guess.

The fact that there are cars without cup holders in this 21st century is more than just a surprise to me. It makes me even laugh. I can easily foresee that my sister will be looking for a car with cup holders next time she will change her car.

For your information, her car was made in somewhere in Europe. They withdrew from Japanese market since they did not sell very well. I wonder why.

(Japanese translation)

Anime Weekend in Atlanta 2008

2008-10-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

( hasselblad 503CX, Planar 80mm F2.8, Flash-D 40, Portra 160 VC )

Now Japanese “Anime” is all over. Not only you can watch them on cable TV. You can find “Anime” and “Manga” in most of the book shops in the U.S.

Once you like something, people with mutual interest start gathering. It must to a human nature. Just like bikers drive together on weekends. “Anime” is not an exception. There are many conventions and gatherings for those “anime” lovers. Anime Weekend Atlanta is one of the biggest conventions in the U.S. It is held annually in every September. This year was the 14th convention.

They had a lot of sessions, such as workshops and panel discussions. You name it, they had everything about “anime”. It was a great fun to shoot “cosplayers” in the hotel lobby.

I, however, have no knowledge or interest in “anime”. Despite the fact that I simply can not tell who was wearing what, I decided to go there with my great curiosity.

The camera I brought was Hasselblad 503CX with PME 3 prism finder. In addition, I used D-flash 40. This was really a heavy armament. I felt as if my neck and shoulders were being pulled out by their weight. My guess is that they weighed about 4.5lb or even more! It was almost hanging tank from my neck.

As soon as I got the convention, I noticed a lot of “cosplayers” everywhere. They were the people who wanted to be photographed. I was the one who wanted to photograph them. We had mutual benefits. Once I pointed my camera, they immediately posed and acted for me. I must be honest. There were people who I strongly recommend to lose their weight to halves before they cosplayed. I dare not to waste my films by shooting those people. I carefully chose models by my own criteria.

Well, here are some shots (slide show provides pictures in better quality).

You can spot these photos are not great. The axis of my flashlight must have shifted too low without realizing it. In addition, I am still not sure I should have used slow sync to expose the background more or I should keep it this way to black out the background.

To make a confession, I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. My sister in law who is very interested in this kind of things (“otaku” culture) is now saying that she wants to come next year. By all means. And I will go there again too, with my tank hanging from my neck.

(Japanese translation)

Back again!

2008-10-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

( Canon F-1, FD 50mm F1.4, Kodak E100VS )

I have just come back from my one week vacation in Japan. It is kind of difficult to say. I mean it was too long and too short at the same time.

As some of you might know, Tokyo is where I was born and grew up. I visited my mother, sister and her family, and other relatives. In addition, I visited graves of my ancestors.

Since I was unexpectedly busy, I could not spare my time to shoot photos with my range finder camera that I brought. That was actually my biggest regret of this visit.

I need to mention, however, that I managed to see my old friend and spent unexpectedly valuable time. Yes, it was an unforgettable memory for the rest of my life.

I visit Japan only once a year, a week at a time. I now realize that I should schedule my visit in a different way. I should take at least one day that is totally free from any family duties. I, for sure, will do that next year.

As I wrote, I decided to take only one camera with me this time. I chose Zeiss Ikon (ZM) with Biogon 35mm F2.0. This is my most recent acquisition and I was really looking forward to using it. It was a great shame that my busy schedule did not allow me to use it as much as I would like to.

The only places I managed to shot this time were “ Yushima Tenjin” and “ Kanda Myojinn “. Both are Shinto shrines. The former is God for learning and wisdom. People come to Yushima Tenjin to pray to pass their exams. The latter is famous for their religious festival in every May.

It was the first time in 30 years for me to visit Yushima Tenjin. 30 years ago, I was a 12th grade student who was going to take an entrance exam for med school. I went to pray in Yushima Tenjin with at-that-time girl friend. She donated 100yen to pray. I donated 50yen since I did not have 100 yen coin. You know what happened? She passed the exam and went to art school. I miserably failed the exam.

Well, my life is now back to normal. Another a year of hard working is waiting for me before I will visit Japan again.

( Japanese translation )

Pinhole camera

2008-09-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

After a few weeks of blood and sweat and tears, I completed building pinhole camera. It uses 120 film, and shoot 6x6 photos. The result of test shots was simply horrible. It was quite a shock to me. Because of this shock, I kept eating for three days until my body weight became 600lb. Well, just kidding.

Looking at the photos, you can tell on the spot that light was leaking from somewhere. You could say “this light leaks give real taste to the photos”, like HOLGA users. But my craftsmanship does not allow me to say that.

The second problem was related to the shutter mechanism. The edge of the wood that makes shutter clearly showed on the photos. This has no excuse to say “this gives real taste to the photos”. This kind of problem does not happen even with HOLGA.

By the way, I do not have any hostility against HOLGA. I want to make things clear, in case somebody got offended.

In order to get rid of light leaks, I had to redo black painting in the camera. I also scraped some wood around the shutter mechanism to make the hole bigger. At this point, I must say I completely ruined the nice cosmetic feature of my pinhole camera. It now looks like a face of failed face lifting surgery. In addition, I had to give up my initial idea of the shutter mechanism with release cable. Now it is just like a toilet door. Shame on me!

Using 120 films means you have to ship out to pro lab. It takes about 2weeks for processed films to come back. I built a camera, test shot, sent films, and waited for 2 weeks. Then I checked the results, revised the camera, test shot, then waited for another 2 weeks. It was a long painstaking process.

After many weeks of struggling, my camera has become reasonable shape.

These are just test shots to see if the camera works or not. I do not accept any artistic criticism this time, even from my loving wife.

I am not totally sure but my guess is this camera is F256. During the test shot, I bracketed for F256, F 360, and F512, just in case. To my surprise, there weren’t much differences between these photos. This must be reciprocity law failure. It is just like experimenting in science. This is fun.

This means you do not have to be so precise with exposure. This is even better, since I am not a guy with type A personality.

My next project will be to make another pinhole camera with better appearances. I have not decided, though, that next one will be beautiful or cute, or sexy one.

( Japanese translation )

Improvement

2008-08-23T22:33:00.001-07:00

Hasselbla 503CX, Planar 80mm F2.8, Portra 160 VC )

I am going to write about a very serious subject.

I have nothing to do with mechanics. I have never studies, or even tried to learn. In my opinion, there are two aspects in terms of the advancement in machinery. First of all, the function of the machine gets better and better. Secondly, the energy source of the machine keeps improving.

I bought a little device to cut hair in my nostrils 25 years ago. If I had told my sister who likes “brand” about this cutter, she might have been drooling although she would not have interested in the cutter itself, because it was made by famous Henkel.

The way how it works is very simple. It is a triangle in shape. The tip of the triangle is the part that actually cut hair in your nostrils. The tip is made of an outer tube and an inner tube. Both tubes have slits, just like your comb. When you insert the tip of the cutter, these slits tease hair in your nostril. Then you squeeze the body of the triangle. The outer tube is fixed. However, the inner tube rotates as you squeeze the body of the triangle. This is how you cut your hair in your nostrils. It is just like you cut bushes in your yard.

It was early this year when I started having a problem with this cutter. It just doesn’t cut very well. Nose hair is caught between the outer and the inner tubes. It pulls the hair! It is not a cutter. It is rather a puller, so to speak. It is quite easy to imagine how painful when it happens, even though you have no experience. I burst into tear with pain. At the same time, I feel like I want to sneeze.

I made a big decision to renew my cutter the first time in 25 years, since this is my birth day.

I have to admit that the cutter have made great improvement in the last 25 years. The improvement in machinery is very quick. Twenty five years for nostril hair cutter is equivalent to the progress in 2000 years in chinaware.

First of all, it cuts very well. You can’t feel it is cutting but it is. It reminds me of ancient samurai sword. Second of all, now it works with AA battery. You do not need squeeze triangle any longer. It satisfies two aspects of the improvement of machinery that I can think of.

This is great. I don’t have to deal with pain when I use it. I do not need to tear any more.

If it progress further, we will have nuclear nose hair cutter that you can use generation after generation. When you think your ancestors were using nose hair cutter that you are using now, it is kind of romantic.

( Japanese translation )

Sentimental journey

2008-08-16T22:39:00.000-07:00

I had been trying to recall the very first camera I had had. I was in the third grade in the elementary school.

Unfortunately, I do not have that camera any longer. I don’t remember when I lost it. It is not even in my memory. I remember neither the name of the camera nor the company who made it. All I remember is the shape of the camera, weight of the camera (I should say lightness of the camera, rather), and cheapness when press its shutter. They, however, can’t be a clue to find what it was.

It is as if I am trying to find a girl who I fell in love the first time in my life. I want to see her, but I don’t at the same time. Several months had passed without any success to find my very first camera.

My first lover should live only in my sweet memory. The very first camera might be the same.

One day when I was in the bathroom, very important clue to find my first camera came to my mind all of sudden. I would like to mention that bathrobe is not just a place for excretion. It is at the same time the sacred meditation field for me.

My first camera was using the film called “Bolta film”. It was a 35mm film without perforation, was fixed onto a backing paper. Only B&W was available. The name was “Lightpan SS”

After the extensive search, I eventually manage to find the camera. It was Anny 10 which was made by Hoei Industrial Company in Japan. This is it! This is the camera that I had the very first time in my life.

I did a bit of net surfing. I found photos of this camera. I obtained permission from the people who are running these web sites.

(http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~akanyan/camera001.html )

(http://aya-2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/anny-10_ca.)

(http://aya-2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/anny-10_ca.)

Nowadays, we call this kind of things "Toy camera". In those days, however, there weren't such a word like toy camera.

Focal length was 50mm. It was made of single lens, fixed focus. Therefore, there was no need for focusing. You can switch the aperture between F8 and F11. To believe it or not, it had a connector for strobe. Yes, we had to change strobe bulb each time after we fired.

I must say that this toy camera did a tremendous job for me. I still remember that I shot a picture of my father in underwear under summer shine. He, by the way, owned Olympus Pen F at that time. He has taken eternal residence in the better place.

Well, forks! What was your very first camera in your life?

Run as fast as you can

2008-08-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

( Canon F-1, FD 50mm F1.4, RXP )

Running is the nature of children. They run in summer or winter. Under the sunshine or rain, here they run. You can say they are energetic. At the same time, they can be annoyingly restless.

Restless children are not only the fact of human being. When you watch some programs on Discovery channel, you realize even infant animals run around beside their sedentary adult counterparts.

Even though I used to be a kid, I can’t recall why we were running all the time. There must have been a very good reason why we were running around. The reason, however, has been buried into the deepest part of my memory that I can’t dig up.

I remember there were many banners on the hall way in my elementary school. Most of them were seasonal, such as “take care of the first graders” in spring, or “ware your caps” in summer, and so on. In addition to those seasonal banners, there were some that stayed the same all year. They said “do not run the hall way”.

In our class room meeting, we used to decide the motto of the week. From educational stand point, I would imagine that must have meant a lot of things: e.g. to find out the problems, to make it as the motto of the week, to choose one motto from the candidates by democratic way, etc. For pupils, it did not matter to us. All we wanted was to finish the meeting ASAP. The problem that was the easiest to sort out was nominated, and we decided it as the motto without through discussion. We did have a skill to wrap up the boring meeting quickly despite the educational theory teachers had.

There was no rules that the same motto could not be chosen. I remember that the motto that was most frequently chosen was “do not run the hall way”. There were two reasons I can think of. One was that a lot of pupils were running around the hall way, which must be the fact since prehistoric era. The other reason was that it seemed that it was such an easy motto to achieve. I can tell one thing, though. The fact that “do not run the hall way” was the one that was most frequently chosen exactly meant how difficult it was to achieve.

It is strange in a sense that I can’t tell when we stopped running around like those days. There is one thing, however, that I can vividly remember.

There were no banners on the hall way said “do not run the hall way” in my medical school.

( Japanese translation )

Japanese man in Alabama

2008-08-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

( Hasselblad 503CX, Planar 80mm F2.8, RXP )

I have been away from Japan on and off for about 20 years. I am pretty confident that I can adjust myself more or less to most of the circumstances. I used to live in U.K. for three and a half years. Toward the end of my stay in Britain, I was able to eat British dishes cheerfully. As you all know British foods have notorious reputation. I think this is worth being proud of. My taste buds must have degenerated. This is my theory of retrogression.

I, as a human being, have things that I can’t enjoy in abroad. Olympic game is what it is. The opening or closing ceremonies are OK. But I just can’t fully enjoy watching games.

No doubt broadcasting is a business. More the people watch, the better off. Inevitably, Games that you can watch on TV will be skewed. It is very reasonable that they put spotlight on athletes from your country. It is, however, a little bit boring for foreigner like me to be able to watch only a few selected kinds of games on TV. As a Japanese, I would like to watch marathon that we regard the finale of Olympic. I would like to watch Judo, gymnastics, etc.

In the U.S., Most of broadcasting is swimming and track. The U.S. indeed has many distinguished athletes in these fields. During Olympic period, however, it makes me feel that Olympic has only swimming and track, nothing else.

Well, U.S. is better, as a matter of fact. In Britain, the degree of skewed broadcasting becomes even worse. To add insult to injury, it looks kind of peculiar at least to me. The ones you see very often on TV is equitation and rowing. Every now and then, you can also watch archery or fencing.

Where’s marathon? Where has judo gone? I feel like I want to raise my fist in the air and shout. But I have to be very careful. If somebody who doesn’t understand Japanese saw me shouting with my fist up in the air every night, he would misunderstood I am a member of Japanese sector of Al-Queda. I should just shut up.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I have to make myself enjoying watching swimming and track for the next a couple of weeks. Then again, it is much better than in Britain.

Everything is relative. Olympic is not an exception.

(Japanese translation )

The result show.

2008-08-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

( Rolleicord Vb, Xenar 75mm F3.5, Infrarot filter, Efke IR820 )

For those who expected too much from the word “result show”, I have to apologize. It is not like “Mr. John Doe who kindly wrote a comment in this log won the prize”.

The infrared I tried the other day under scorching Alabama summer has come back from processing. I would like to show you here how it came out.

The film was Efke IR 820. I put this film in my good old Rolleicord Vb with infrarot filter on. The ISO setting of my lightmeter was 3. Even with this extremely low ISO setting, I ended up with lot of underexposed shots. It seems to be better off with 2more steps over exposed. My slow style of photographing is becoming even slower. It sounds against the trend. But I am very happy to be an odd guy.

The biggest problem, I think, of this film is that its grain is not suitable for flathead scanner. I don’t meant to make an excuse, but the actual result is much better than you can see on the computer screen.

Obviously, infrared light is not visible to our eyes. In addition, photo lightmeters don’t sense infrared, either. What you read on your lightmeter is actually just a guide. You are guessing the exposure from the lightmeter readings. No wonder it is not easy. I need a lot practice and need to find out from the hard way.

No doubt infrared photography will be another strong armamentarium for my photography.

(Japanese translation)

Those days.........

2008-08-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

( Rollei 35SE, Sonnar 40mm F2.8, Neopan SS )

Summer means sunflowers in my mind. I was still an elementary school pupil. No need for fancy penmanship. Just a sound of the word “sunflower” is good enough.

I am not even sure why summer is equal to sunflower for me. I do not have any sweet memories about those days that sunflower reminds me. I have no real reason that I can explain.

When I was a child, blooming sunflowers automatically meant they have kids in their houses. Those sunflowers were way taller than me and brick walls. Huge flowers were smiling at me with the background of deep blue summer sky.

I had a brainwave this spring that I decided to plant sunflower seeds. I planned to bring myself back to those old days. Once I went into the shop, however, I was kind of petrified because of the fact that there are millions of kinds of sunflower seed on the shelves. It was totally out of my expectation. When I was a kid, sunflowers simply meant sunflowers. Yes, I mean, those big tall sunflowers! I did not have to choose. After many decades have passed, now we have so many kinds of sunflowers, thanks for hybridization technology or whatever you call it. This reminded me of the first time when I walked into the American supermarket. I was totally lost which peanut butter to choose.

Again, my sunflowers have to be those big tall ones. It does not matter how old I am now. I carefully avoided small kinds with very fancy names that you can even grow on the tables. My choice was, as you can imagine, “GIANT”. This must be it!

I planted the seeds, waited, waited, and waited patiently. When I saw their seed leaves, I was very excited. They were already big. That’s it! That is my sunflowers!

Well, I can’t proceed any further without mentioning one important fact. My wife was the one who took care of these sunflowers. I did not.

In any case, my sunflowers. They have bloomed. I noticed something was not right. My sunflowers should have more massive stalks, their height should be much taller, and the flowers should be much bigger. Since I expected so much, that was a complete shock to me. I almost had to lie down in bed for three days to recover.

It was only today when I found the reason. I am now much taller than those days. Sunflowers should not be blamed. Those days when I, with straw hat, was looking up the huge sunflowers against blue summer sky can’t come back. I am missing those old days. They are gone forever.

( Japanese translation )

Summer guest

2008-07-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

It would be one of my greatest pleasures to have seasonal guests. Since they come every year, I have enough knowledge how I can please them.

Summer has come again with bright sunshine. I have been waiting for them for the last a month or so with food they love.

I was wondering, however, what happened with them this year. I did not see them this year, even a sign. My wife found out that our neighbors were also concerned.

Well, one of them finally showed up today! Our long awaited guest. Although she seemed to be in a great hurry and did not stay long with us, she did eat food we served. I would imagine at least one of them will come again sooner or later, since they usually stay in our area during August.

She looked more florid than the last year, somehow. She wore glistening green/blue feather. Very fashionable indeed. To my regret, I could not have a chance to take a photo of her since she was in a big rush.

Hummingbirds are our summer guests.

(Here is Japanese translation )

( Canon F-1, FD 70-210mm F4, Velvia 100 )

My secret pleasure at night.

2008-07-30T18:12:00.001-07:00

( Rolleicord Vb, Xanar 75mm F3.5, Kodak Portra 160VC )

After they had spent wonderful one month in Japan, my wife and children came back yesterday.

During that time, myself and our cat, Tabby, were the only residents in our house. Needless to say, the relationship between me and Tabby has deepened significantly. It was quite expected to happen, because I was the only one who fed her and took care of her litter box.

After I came back home from work, I was talking to Tabby in Japanese. I was talking to her, I really mean it. There was a popular Japanese novelist who wrote the book titled “The reason why I can speak cat language”. The conversation between me and tabby has to be in Japanese. I have to reassure who is the owner and who is a pet. It has to be in owner’s language when we talk. This is the rule number one. The second reason is, well, I cannot speak cat language.

To make a confession, my wife has been the one who takes care of Tabby’s litter box most of the time. Sometimes, children do as well. My contribution for this particular matter was about 0.5% or even less up until they left for Japan. All of sudden, my role jumped up to 100%!

We have two litter boxes in our house. One is on the first floor, and the other is on the second floor. This means I have two boxes to take care of. To my surprise, I found myself enjoying cleaning her litter boxes!

There is a scoop which has many wide slits to work as sieve. I put a scoop into litter sand. God, this feels so good. Those who watched French movie “Amelie” may recall the scene that Amelie says she likes the feeling when she put her hand in a bean bag.
Once you scoop up some sands, they started falling back into the litter box through the sieve of the scoop. The sound of falling sand brought me to a Caribbean beach.
The stuff which was left on the scoop was the one that I was looking for. I put them into a plastic bag. It was almost gold mining, I must say.

Now my wife and kids are back. My life is back to normal, as peaceful as ever.

This inevitably means my contribution to cleaning Tabby’s litter box comes back down to 0.5% or less again. Well, I do not mind at all. I know very well that any kind of pleasure can’t be last forever. If you continue it, the pleasure will soon turn into what you may call duty. I do not like this. Maybe one month in a year is good enough. In order for me to enjoy cleaning litter box, I dare to stop doing it now. I want to keep it as my secret pleasure at night.

Oh, I can’t wait doing it again in next summer!

( Here is Japanese translation )