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.

Poppin' the cherry...

Haha, the title is not what it seems.....Today I celebrated my 1st framed photo. Yah that's it. Nothing exciting. It was a picture I took over by Rokkasho and it's a picture I'm really stoked on. I was lucky. It was just one of those pictures where everything worked out perfectly and I just happen to be at the right place at the right time...with my camera of course. Since I have my own printer, I do my own prints and I printed it on my printer's largest size, A4 and it looked amazing. The next step was to find a frame at Kitamura Camera. Once I inserted the picture in the frame...I was so happy and stoked on how it turned out.

It is hanging in my office building where I work also known as the Tohoku Town Community Center. I'm debating on whether or not I want to hang more up....I think I just might and see what happens.

March 19th: Kogawara Elem. Graduation

I've been blessed with the opportunity to teach English in Japan for almost 5 years now and over the years the number of students that have had my English class(es) is probably over 10,000. While I was in Hachinohe, I circulated to 48 elementary schools and 4 jr. high schools for 3 wonderful years. Now in Tohoku Town, my rounds consists of only 7 elementary schools for a tour of 2 years.

Over the years, it has been extremely hard to build student/teacher relationships because I would only visit a school once a month. In Tohoku Town, my school visit ratio has increased by 4 times. So now I attend the same school about 4 times a month and that has given me the opportunity to actually get to know some of the student's personality, humor, study habits etc. With that, you grow attached to them and when they graduate, sadly that attachment has to end.

One of my favorite schools is Kogawara Elem. The students there are excellent. They're not shy and reserved like some other schools, but very outgoing and friendly. One of the best classes were the 6th graders. I once had a class with them were I spent the entire period telling them about my trip to Thailand. They were all interested and had lots of questions. Then after the discussion was over, we went into the next room where I had laid my Thai photos out on tables. They walked around saying, "What is this? Whoa look at that! That looks delicious!" It was such a fun day because it wasn't just about teaching English, but about internationalism and sharing a new part of the world to them. Gotta thank Mr. Tsukekawa Sensei for that one.

Anyways, congratulation and 頑張れー！！I won't forget you!

better choices, better life....

I returned home from work around 4:30pm on Thursday, October 26th. I kicked off my shoes, set my backpack in it's familiar corner and proceeded to open the door to my living room. I remember thinking to myself, "Damn, I need to tidy up the place a bit." My futon floor bed wasn't put away and yesterday's clothes had yet to find the hamper. I walked over to my computer, sat in my computer stool, and turned on the silver box. I got up and poured myself some 'mixed fruit' juice from the kitchen and returned to my chair. Suddenly, before I could sit down and get comfortable, my doorbell rang.
"Who in the.......could this be?" I rarely have visitors so I was thinking it was either a solicitor or the post man. When I opened my front door I was burdened by surprise. There were 3 children and 1 short lady about late 30's all bundled up in proper winter jumpers.
"Uhm, can I help you?" sounding a bit confused.
She had a warm smile that was very sincere.
"Yes, are you Thomas?"
"Yah, I'm Thomas," I replied. Though, shortly after I said that I felt like I might have just confessed to an unknown crime.
Her smile got bigger, "I'm Mariko Sensei and I teach at the ECC in Tenmabayashi. We are having a children's Halloween party and was wondering if you would like to come." She held out her hand that gripped a piece of paper with a bright orange pumpkin on it.
"Oh wow? Really?" I was a bit more shocked than enthusiastic. I received the invitation and quickly glanced at it....Saturday......11:30am to 1:30pm......Tenmabayashii ECC building. On the backside was a map that had instructions on how to get to the place from my house. FROM MY HOUSE?! The tidbit of info I had gathered all accumulated into a bad recipe of.... "Saturday? Damn I wanna surf." My second reaction was, "Wait, how did she know where I lived?" Adding fuel to the flame, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable because the kids she brought were my 1st grade students. They were so excited to see me as I gave them a number of hi-5's. They were yelling out, "Please come, please come!!" What was I to do? How could I say no? In spite of their cute faces I didn't want to commit on such short notice and so I responded with, "Well I'm not sure if I will be free. I will call you tomorrow evening if I can attend." Given the situation I thought that was an acceptable reply. I mean who invites someone to a Halloween party with 2 days notice? Halloween just doesn't pop up like a random household cold. Although, I have to hand it to her, bringing the kids along really was an effective strategy...dirty but effective. This lady was clearly thinking because she knew I wouldn't be able to decline in front of the kids. I thanked her and said goodbye to children and slid my door shut. I returned to my computer stool, sat down and sipped my juice feeling a bit like I was man-handled....toyed to be exact.
I returned to my juice and screen to check the weather report for the following Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather report showed strong onshores that day. Honestly, I wasn't stoked to surf in junk and therefore I decided to accept the invitation to the Halloween party. Also, I was looking forward to the party because I did know a lot of the ECC students that were going to attend the function. And of course it would be a great photo op as well. I called Mariko Sensei to tell her I would attend, but she was out and instead I left a message. I slept well with the decision I made. I was excited to see my cute kids all dressed up in Halloween gear.

When I woke up at 8am I did my morning routine, but like any good surfer would, I checked the surf report one last time. This was the worst decision I could have made because it tore me apart. Ignorance would have been bliss. The weather report showed perfect offshore winds with swell coming in from the east!! OMG!! I was about to die. I took the phone from the charger and searched for Mariko Sensei's phone number. I pressed the "on" button and looked at the numbers and miraculously, I stopped myself. I turned the paper over again and looked at the map. There was a star that marked my house and an X that marked the party location. Was I really about to come up with some phony excuse so I could go surf? Looking at what I was about to do, I felt like I did not deserve that star. I took in a deep breath and when I exhaled I killed all my aspirations for surfing that day. I grabbed my camera and proceeded to the X. Extreme!!

As I pulled up the few kids that were outside came running up to my car with smiles cheek cheek. I put on my costume which consisted of an afro wig, a skeleton mask I made during one of my elementary school lessons, and lastly a cape. As I entered the building I saw all the kids dressed up in various costumes having fun. At that moment, I knew I made the right decision. If I could have this day back I would do exactly the same thing. Celebrating Halloween with some of my elementary school kids comes once year. While I love surfing, waves will always come another day.