April 27th, Yabusame Archery Competition in Towada

The next day, I was able to witness "Yabusame" live and in action and wow...I was super stoked to see such coolness all in one weekend. This was an all women's event that had about 30 riders. The tournament was ran in tradition style with the best riders moving to the next round with quarter, semi, and finals. Each round consisted of 3 riders with 2 passes each attempting to nail 4 targets. If the riders had the same number of targets scored, then the deciding factor was the time and average speed. YES THE SPEED WAS RECORDED!! I guess it makes sense because it would be super unfair if some riders rode really slow hitting all targets huh?

Here, let me break it down for you a bit. If you have ever tried archery, just standing still and hitting the mark is pretty hard...now mount yourself on a horse...get bucked up and down.... pull an arrow out...careful, don't drop it now... load the bow (I mean get that arrow onto the string)....then try to hit your target while blazing by. WTF!! It must take an insane amount of practice and concentration huh? I was surely impressed.

I've come to find that Towada city is a great place. Theres a lot of traditional events that promote culture and uniqueness. I was glad I stumbled upon the website that had all the good info about it...sometimes you just get lucky. Also, Towada has a lot of yakiniku restaurants! Gotta love that!

April 26th, Yosakoi festival in Towada

Dance dance dance the night away! What a cool way to end an evening and watch the magnificent tradition jazz'd up dancing of Towada's Yosakoi Yume festival. This was held on the main strip in Towada City after the towns people all gathered to witness this live dance off. I was stoked to observe and take pictures. Awesome!

There was a cool vibe in the air that night and I think it was mostly because of the timing. Let's see.....Sakura in full bloom, people out in the cold (6C) celebrating spring, festival of dreams...c'mon what a win win combination. The dance off consisted of about 30 teams from all ages wearing unique traditional festival style clothing to techno stylish poppin' like MJ's thriller....it was sweet. Did I mention this was also at night? Ooooh, what a stage.... Professional photographers, news people, amateurs, hobbyists, were all there snapping away. It was extremely hard to freeze movement but I did manage to grab a couple of banger pics that I enjoyed. To my surprise, Tohoku was also there representing true Tohoku Town pride. And they rock'd the show. In my opinion, best dance of the night!
Anyways, it was a good time had by all and I was really happy that I went and watched the show. Next time all I need is a friend to drive so I can have a few beers at the food stands. Yummmmmy!

hirosaki night trip

I wasn't really content with my photos in Hirosaki. I felt like I needed to add a little more or find something better to shoot.... just didn't feel satisfied with the pictures I came home with. Yah some were okay and others were not bad, but nothing stood out like, "Damn, that's a nice photo." So what other choice did I have? Settle for mediocre or try my luck again. The weather was forcasted to be cloudy and rainy so that completely blew out my chances....but wait!! What if I go and shoot at night? In the rain?!?!

Night photography is so much different than day photography because everything is intensified. Sometimes night shots look like day shots, but you have to remember that the camera doesn't see things like the human eye does so of course it will produce a different. I called my friend Mayumi up since she lives quite close to Hirosaki and asked her how the rain was holding up. "Hmm, it looks like it has stopped raining," she said. (Cha-ching!!) After I finished work, I packed my gear and cruised back to Hirosaki...which is just over 2 hours from Tohoku Town. Mayumi was free that evening and she decided to join me. Awesome! That means I have someone to model in my photos to give them a little more spice...rather than just a tree with white leaves I guess.

As I got there, the showers of rain had turned into a very light sprinkle. "I can handle this," I thought to myself as I flung my camera bag strap over my shoulder and made my way out into the field. I was really excited because I've always like night photography AND the fact that it had just rained made it even better. Puddles, rain drops, all add a different twist with a bit of water reflection. Whooohaa! I was in business. After my first few photos, I knew going back to Hirosaki for my last Sakura viewing was well worth it. I had a few stunners that I'm really stoked on. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. This will probably be my best set of "flower" type photography that I'll ever do. Who knows.....

Also, check my flickr for more sakura pictures. I just didn't want to make this all long!

hirosaki: sakura day trip

One of the biggest events in Japan is the blooming of sakura. Japanese people love sakura! And they should be cause it really is beautiful and only lasts for about a two weeks. Two weeks isn't bad, but maximum bloomage is probably for 2 days! Traditionally, it symbolizes cyclic nature of well..........you guessed it, Nature! As the flowers bloom, it marks the essence of spring and symbolically... life. When the petals fall it isn't really considered death, but the natural state the sakura must undergo until its' rebirth. During WWII, it was said that painting sakura on warplanes or carrying a sakura branch while flying a kamikaze mission wasn't uncommon (wiki).

Sure, every plant/flower/tree in nature will go through the same cycle, but it is especially short lived in the beautiful sakura that makes it so special. I mean, it gets the entire nation off their booties to go outside to do a little flower watchin'! Sakura viewing has become so popluar that it's kind of a national festival. People picnic in parks, evening filled with booze, amusement rides and food stands are set up to enhance the celebration and viewing pleasure. It's a big ordeal and something that I'm going to miss when I leave Japan.

So I tried my very best to go out and get the best sakura pictures I could. I didn't want to shoot normal sakura pictures because I wanted to improve my photography beyond normal. In Aomori, the best place to take sakura pictures is........(drum roll)..... Hirosaki! Of course it isn't the only place, but Hirosaki has a castle and is considered top 3 in all of Japan for sakura. I tried to do it justice but wow....shooting sakura isn't really my thing. I found it quite boring and there are so many people there that it's really hard to shoot because everyone is shooting! Crazy. Also flowers isn't my favorite subject. Done well its beautiful, but I've haven't found the interest yet (I don't own a macro lens and probably won't..oh well).

Anyways here are my day pictures in Hirosaki. If I remember correctly, the day was cloudy but warm...wish I had blue sky to take advantage of my polarizer. But I can't complain since the sun did poke out every so often and of course I tried to pimp the sun whenever I could.

Light it up!

Lately, I've been fixated on learning everything I can about lighting and how it affects the camera. There is so much you can do with available light that it's so confusing. This isn't an easy task because no one around me is able to teach me any of this. Everything that I have learned is from what I have read off the internet. I look at people's photos and try and dissect them and figure out how they created their images. I imagine myself in their shoes and pretend that it's me taking the picture. What settings would I use? Where should the light be reflected and how much of it should I use? Too much light will cause blown highlights. Too little will cause the photo to blur and look overly dark.

Anyways, here is my first basic attempt at available light. It's not that interesting, but gave me something to do on a quiet night in Tohoku.

Tomari: Wall Paintings

The surf was huge and out of control and so Brian and I decided to go shoot pictures in a small fishing town called Tomari. It's really really small, but there is something special about this town and you know what? I'm really not sure what it is. I've always been attracted to the simple beauty of the town's layout....on a hill over looking the ocean with one major road that stitches the town together. It's simple. Everyday you wake up, the red sun rises over the crystal ocean and when the night comes, the sun sets behind the mountain of forest. It's nature that surrounds you and you can witness a glimpse of her beauty right here in this town called Tomari.

Down at the fishing port, the waves are blocked off from crashing into the resting boats. The smell of salty ocean and fish remind me of when I used to go fishing on the Oregon coast with my dad. How the times have changed, but because we are able to remember so much... things feel like they remain the same. Trapped in our memory. There is this cement wall that stretches about 40 meters long and on it are pictures drawn in by Japanese fishermen and their children. Enduring the pleasant and harsh sides of nature, these pictures will also stand the test of time. Here are some of the memories of Tomari.

Nikon FA'ntastic!

Background:
Okay, so for a while now I've been wanting to get a 35mm film camera to learn film. I really was against this idea because it would mean a whole new thing to learn. I had my hands full with just learning digital photography. You know....the gear, the settings, the WB, the ISO, the aperature, AE bracketing, Av mode, Tv mode, Full M mode and so on and so on. I mean it doesn't stop. On top of that you have to know your digital software like picasa, lightroom, photoshop, elements, etc. so you can make your digital pictures even more pimpy. It's a lot to take in and sometimes it gets really confusing.

Soooo....as you can see, learning film is a real pain in the butt! I'm sure it would be fun, but a pain indeed because I would have to learn everything all over, but with film. This is like learning how to write left handed or snowboard switch. It's no longer a digital file but film negatives. I have to know what film is going to produce what kind of result. How's the noise? Is the sharpness there? The colors look good? This is just some of the worries with film and I'm going to have to figure it all out by trial and error. The final image will be based on the film I choose, the settings I use, and my development procedure (someday will develop my own film). Oh and of course my photographic eye....thats probably the most important thing.

So there are trade-offs to shooting film and digital. I expect I will be shooting mostly with digital and fine tuning my skills with film. Who knows though. Large format rules the roost when it comes to image quality even in today's digital world. Heh, maybe someday large format?! Who knows.....Anyways, here is my Nikon FA. It such a sweet camera and has top notch manual controls to let me do just about anything in the manual world. It even has titanium honeycomb shutter curtains! Haha, I love saying that. Right now I only have the AI 50mm 1.4 lens and I suspect thats all I'm gonna have.

Winter is over...

Yesterday was pleasantly warm. The sun blessed its rays on the Aomori surfers as the spring breeze touched the land of the blue forest for yet another day. "Takeshi, today's so warm huh?"
He looked over to me with a wrinkle above his left eye and said, "Yes, but the ocean is freezing and I'm getting cold!". He was right. The ocean was icey but the temperature was indeed pleasant. As I sat in the ocean waiting for a wave to come, it dawned on me that the winter was near its end in Aomori.

The mountains still have snow, but the snow is no where near the same. The trees are no longer dressed in its' beautiful white coat. The air is once again invisible upon every exhale. I've packed away my fleece driving gloves that saved my hands from freezing as I drove my car from place to place. It's not easy living in winter wonderland. There are many things you must do to overcome the blizzard cold temperatures. But by enduring and overcoming the extreme cold, you are rewarded with the silent pleasantries of winter. No other season makes you prepare for it like winter.

"Whooo Tom, Tom its coming!!" I looked ahead and saw a wave that entered just off the tetrapods and paddled my way towards it. The wave was quite small and didn't have a lot of power so every stoke matters. I dug deep to move myself in position to catch the waist high wave and once I felt my board locked in, I pressed down firmly with my hands and popped up and took the mini drop. I worked the wave the best I could and eventually fell off my board doing a backside top turn.

"Damn, that sucked. I need to 'ganbaru' more," I thought to myself. "I'm not gonna get any better if I don't 'ganbaru'". This thought quickly shifted my mind back to my winter thoughts. My body was on autopilot while my mind was drifting. Since it was my last winter, I made a goal to go out and capture the best winter photos I could so that when I leave, I wouldn't have regrets like..."I shoulda, I wish I woulda....." I wanted to try and capture Aomori's winter beauty in all its glory. I was challenging myself to produce images that I could be proud of for the rest of my life and be able to show people where I lived for what would be 5 years. This journey wasn't easy. I carried my camera gear everywhere I went and constantly had 'ideas' running around in my head. I discovered that the most potential, 'fantastic photos', really depends on timing. Timing is so important to photography. Being there at the right time really is what makes photos stand out. It's that extra effort you put in that end up rewarding you like no normal photo can.

If you are unaware, I'm quite hard on myself and I always believe that I could do better. I wonder if there will be a day where I'm content with my own performance. I don't think I will ever be. I hope you enjoy my 07-08 winter photos because these are the best I can produce at this stage in my life. I hope to get a lot better.

Hello: I'm hung!

"Sir, if you're free I would like to have a word with you."
Mumbles from across the room, "ffmmm baahmm, yes."
I approached the Education Superintendent with my hands holding 3 picture frames.
"Bahahhum taahee this?"
I replied with, "This?? Well these are pictures I took and I wanted to give the Community Center and the Town of Tohoku a present."
"Bummzihe de really?"

I opened the first picture and the Super intendent was shocked. He asked if I really took them. He didn't seem to want to believe that this was my photography. I didn't understand much of what the Superintendent said, but I could sense he really liked the photos. After showing him the 2nd and 3rd photo, he had smile from ear to ear. This really made my day because I wasn't sure how people would respond to me hanging my photos at the Center.

When I did hang them up the Superintendent came out and said that I should have name plaques made to state where I took it and by who. Hahaha, I laughed and agreed with him that it would be a cool idea. Maybe thats the next step....Anyways, I have four A4 photos now at my workplace to showcase the beauty of Aomori.

Aji park revisited.

Before I spent 2 full seasons at Hakkoda, I cruised around Aomori and Iwate prefecture hitting up the parks and groomers and that was fun for me. It was challenging to hit boxes, rails, hand rails, kickers, rainbows, halfpipes.....anything that had to do with freestyle snowboarding. This season, I haven't had the drive to practice this anymore and I just thought it was because riding Hakkoda every weekend was wearing me out. I didn't have enough energy to hit nighters and on top of that photography was started to eat away my free time.

I found myself again at Ajigasawa on Sunday, the 6th of April....but I was really in the mood for all out park riding. I took it easy and played spectator for the most part. Everyone had their own style and looked really happy doing whatever they were practicing, but for me something was lacking. Drive, motivation, interest....call it what you will but I was basically a zombie with a board stuck to my feet. Maybe I was having an off day...maybe I've grown out of it? Hah! Brian would say that I'm just getting old.

What it really comes down to is that freestyle snowboarding is risky and potentially dangerous. You could hurt yourself far more easily doing a simple freestyle trick then freeriding. Being injured before, I learned my lesson and I want to protect what I hold most dear to me at this time of the season. Surfing!! Right now, the snow is crap, the snow season is about over and surfing is on the horizon. If I got hurt now, that would scrap my last surf season in Japan. I wasn't about to take that kind of risk just for spring park riding...which doesn't really mean that much to me.

So instead of practicing hard in the park, I was looking forward to the drive home. It's not often I'm over in Hirosaki to capture the beautiful mountain sunset. Beautiful Iwaki San!

Playing around with cameras.

A while ago, after I got my 40D I sold Brian my Rebel XT (Digital Kiss N, 350D) for cheap and really happy he decided to buy it. I've been a fan of Brian's photos from way back and this was when he knew little about photography. He just has a natural eye for cool things and now that he's got a dslr, I can't wait to see the photos he takes with it. It's gonna be awesome.

Here we are playing with our cameras after a wicked day of "chill" surfing. I say chill because the sets were spaced out and we didn't have to do a lot of duck diving. The paddle back out was so easy and relaxed. Sometimes we'll be surfing in what some may call, " A witches cauldron". Hell! I was testing out flash settings and he was trying to figure out his camera in lowsituations. Fun stuff light ....just being dorky.