april fools

yeah, there is no "japan's top photographer" contest.

but i got a few good shots recently. here's one:

japan's top photographer

guess what, everyone...?
i just won the 'japan's top photographer' contest!!

i'm gonna get prize money of $10,000, plus a guaranteed publishing deal! plus, i'll be featured and interviewed in several of the biggest, most respected photo magazines in japan! this is the beginning of an entirely new career for me. i'm so fucking excited!

organization

right now, my photo site is organized basically by the type of film/camera i used: black and white (film), color (film), digitally altered (mostly shot with digital cameras and photoshopped). plus one more category: figure. i made that one so that people who don't want to see nudity can browse my other photos. but now that i think about it, i'm not sure how logical this organizational scheme is. maybe i'll change it?

but how best to reorganize them? i could do it by subject. for example, people, things, abstract, places, etc. or maybe by "genre": funny, documentary, views, emotive, details, etc. or maybe i should make categories and subcategories?

this is going to take some thought.

scanning negatives

i just realized that the single shot that took the longest to set up of all of my photos is not scanned.

i made a shot of a typewriter in my uncle's apartment several years ago. it was unplanned, completely spontaneous. but i ended up spending about 5 hours setting up lighting and the 4x5 inch format view camera, with all of its settings. i was in the zone that time. except for the fact that it ended up underexposed. but anyway, it's a good shot.

and i never got around to scanning it! time to rectify that...

working process

i thought i'd post an example of what i'm working on at the moment.

this photo was from the "maybe" group of shots, that i thought might end up on my updated website:



it's interesting, especially to people who don't go hiking in the mountains of japan. but it seemed to be missing something. it didn't have enough punch. so, i messed around with it a bit, and came up with this:



it's a bit more interesting, and not necessarily very cliched. but...

i don't know. it's not quite there, and maybe i should go in a completely different direction. or just cut this one.

i haven't finished this one shot yet, and i have hundreds more to go. good times!

wait, i can make titles? i just found this text box...

it's been a very long time since i've updated anything on my photo website. at least 5 years, maybe more. i finally got up the amount of both good material and motivation to do a huge update. i'm working on it right now, and it seems like it'll be a while before i finish. but i'm focused, and devoting most of my waking, non-working time on this project. i've got a lot of ideas!

the hardest thing is deciding which photos to use. i went through my photos, and chose a *lot* of "maybes". that part was easy enough. but next, i'm working on cutting, taking out the shots that don't cut it for one reason or another. round after round of cutting. each decision takes so much consideration.

well, i decided to start this blog about my photographic/artistic activities and developments. partly to let anyone who might care know what i'm up to and how things are going. but mostly to motivate myself to actually *make* developments in my career, and to bring them to fruition.

i'll hopefully be posting fairly regularly.

to make this post (almost?) worth reading: i had an interesting idea. photo scavenger hunts!

here's how it works: get together 2 or more people, or 2 or more teams. there could be a list made beforehand, or the players/teams could take turns thinking of ideas to scavenge. let's say the item is "rabbit." everyone goes out and takes photos of either an actual rabbit, or a toy, statue, or cartoon of a rabbit. or, maybe something that vaguely resembles a rabbit, perhaps a tree branch with "rabbit ears."

next, everyone meets up again (maybe have a time limit?), and compare photos to see who got something closest to the stated goal. if the players aren't too competitive, they should be able to decide a winner among themselves. if, however, people anticipate problems with this judging system, an impartial judge should be brought in from the beginning.

the game gets more interesting when the "object" to photograph becomes more abstract. how about "love?" you could shoot a couple holding hands, or... well, what does love mean to you?

it could also be something difficult, like "fog" on a non-foggy day. people might try to find or produce steam or smoke, or shoot frosted glass. clouds could work, too.

judging is based on 2 criteria:
1. closeness to the goal; and, if two or more people/teams shoot the same thing--
2. artistic and technical quality.

anyone wanna play?

☆