_valerian

Do you know Mr. HANABUSA LYU of the photographer who is working as much
as me in Nikon.
He is a famous photographer who takes a picture of Paris and the woman
in Russia etc.
A lot of photographs are the nude photos. It is all beautiful, sexy,
wonderful art work.
I do not think that he loved all women who became it for Mr. model.
It is decided the mind of course or catches accurately as subject
though a competing wonderful women.
In a word, it stands there as a photographer and it works.
It is because he is a professional photographer.
A lot of photographs are the one that produces and is taken though also
take a lot of women also by ARAKI.
It is service at the same time as his expression it.

You will occasionally still be young, and hesitate variously because
you
are not a professional yet.

Falling in love with the woman is wonderful.
To the favor of someone important.
Moreover, it is also wonderful to take the person who loves with the
camera.

An important thing is that you grow up while taking the photograph.
I think that you will worry more in the future.
Work, the woman, the photograph, and everything are satisfied because
of
difficult.
However, it is good that you worry.
I think that it is growth.

Have a good times.

>>>It must be noted that “the woman” is no one in particular… Not anyone that I have met yet, that is.

Since my apartment was still set up in the same way after two people from Camera Magazine came out to shoot my place, I figured I might as well take a few digital pictures too.

We will start in the spare room, or what can be called a Studio if I want to sound cool.

To the right you can see 20 some fiber prints hanging to dry. On the wall are some more photo copied photographs. On the desk is an assortment of cameras. The desk is where I go through my negative files and is a good surface for flattening my fiber prints.

Is this either a big enlarger, or a small dining room table? Guess what? Those are both right answers. I print 11×14 fiber prints (Ilford, glossy) with an 80mm EL Nikkor lens. 80mm is the length that is needed to print 6×7 format negatives and it works fine for 35mm ones too. I have a used old 50mm Nikkor lens as well. To the right is the window into the kitchen. On the towel drying shelf are some 35mm and 120mm film developing reels. I have more reels than tanks because it is quicker to dry a metal tank and go develop more film with already dry reels than it is having to wait for just used reels to dry.

On the other side of that window is the kitchen, which is normally a food-prep area but I don’t and can’t cook so it is instead a darkroom. I can have the whole thing set up to print in about 20 minutes, including the time it takes to mix the chemicals (Fujifix and papitol paper developer) and lower the metal shutters that are on the outside of all of my windows. The far right tray is for the developer, and the stove fan above it is a blessing. The left tray is for the stop bath. Above are the same reels that were in the second photo. The red blob on the shelf to the left is a plastic Daruma bento case which can be used as a bank after the food is gone. I got this one on the shinkansen when I went to Karuizawa in March. He is full of useless 1 yen coins.

The red tray on the floor is for the fixer ( I keep the shower room fan on the entire time I am printing) and once the photos are fixed they go in the tray that is on top of the tub. There is a large brown jug that supports the washing tray. The tray just barely cannot fit into the tub, so the water runs out from a side corner and then down the drain. When I print 8×10 workprints I can have all the chemistry on the counter in the kitchen.

I shoot Fuji Presto 400 film which I buy in 20 packs at yodobashi camera. I think that after I go back to Nebraska this summer I will look for a bulk loader that I think I have somewhere around in my old room and bring that back to Chiba with me. I can bulk load at half the already low low price that I get Presto for in Shinjuku. The tray in the bottom of the fridge has 30 rolls from out school trip to Nebraska this past June. I have not been in the mood to develop them yet. The bottom shelf in the door has a few rolls from the past few weeks, and everything above that is 120 film for my pentax 67, some exposed, some ready to go. The bag to the left is about to bust, and when it does it will errupt with the mangled metal film canisters of nearly 900 rolls of film. I think I will put them out to get recycled soon but at the same time there is a bit of pride in the whole thing.

So that’s what my place looks like. I might have said this before, and if you speak to me in person you know I mention it too much, but I am quite single and this past year has been one of concentration on the craft, both with mad mental skillz and the better parts of paychecks. Some folks might see all this and incorrectly think I am rich. Rather, I am blinded by obsession, and fairly stupid in this regard. Sure this is not a cheap way to go through life, but when Cost is brought up, I tend to fall back on my well worn excuse that I don’t smoke or drink, and so . . . I guess that there must be some sort of moral leveling ground there.
“You spent two grand on a camera???!”
“Yeah but… um– I have never had a beer so I used that beer money that I never used to buy it.”

There are two falsities in that conversation. One, it is not like I had a stash of cash in a Non-Beer fund, and Two, it was not $2000.

Anwyays, the magazine will be out on December 20th here in Japan, which is two days before I go back to Nebraska. It will have photos similar to these, but much better, and with explinations in Japanese. If you really want a copy of this issue, and you read this, then I will probably have one in my bag for you. Chances are though that you are here in Japan and so you know you will need to get down to Kinokuniya bookstore right after work that day. Aw what the heck, just skip work and wait outside the locked front doors of any meduim sized bookstore that morning.

Well it has been another home-alone-on-a-friday-night kind of evening, just like every week for the past 2 months. At least this time I got about 23 portfolio prints made. I went through my new negative files, the ones that I have not made workprints from yet, files 743 to 804. I think the last time I got caught up on my workprints was 3 weeks ago. I wanted to try looking at some new fresh work for the first time all nicely done printed on 11×14 inch fiber paper, instead of the usual 8×10 RC based sheets I normally use. I am always a little uncomfortable with new prints. They don’t quite feel like mine right away. For the past few years I have made a point to “live” with my images for a while. Thankfully there is a 7-11 nearby and it has a touch screen controled photocopier. Usually the next day after a long day of printing I go through my workprints and enlarge the good and some of the bad ones to A3 size paper, which is just about I guess 11×14. Close enough anyway. The quality of their copier in Photo Mode makes copies that from a distance can’t be seen as anything else than an actual photograph. After I come home with my copies (and a nikuman or two) I put them up on my walls with doubel sided tape. This is how I start to live with the image. The good photos sometimes lose their shine, I recognize that they are too easy to like and maybe too contrived. It is the pictures that I can’t get down with at first that usually become my favorites. After having a mess of images staring out at you all the time you come to get to know them, to get familiar with them. And unlike the suck that is iPhoto, it does not take a full 4 minutes to be able to look at them. This relationship of constant exposure helps me deal with what I have made. I don’t have to click on any links to see my work nor must I deal with small prints in my hands. It is like a photo show that will be up for a long time, one that gets added to every couple of weeks.

Yes things are busy and I am still photographing. I need to make my place look like a photographer lives there for when the magazine comes to shoot some pictures this weekend. That won’t be too hard to do, since I will spend all of Saturday working on portfolio prints.

Kevin asked for updates, EVERY DAY and that is understandable, as this is the most interesting site for him. Which is weird because he is a much better writer than I. So is his girlfriend.

Anyways, I put together a lesson for my Jr. High 3rd year english classes that is based on exposure to good photography. We try to teach the kids english through all sorts of things but I am not too big fan of the textbook/worksheet approach. I used our real sharp copier here at school and copied a bunch of Winogrand and Weegee photos- also some of Frank’s Americans photos too. Laminated them and for the first lesson I had the kids in pairs write stories in English about what they thought was happening in the photos, or what will happen next. You know that one Winogrand photo with the legless man on the street and all those people around him?

Well, actually he is an old man who was carrying his wife in his backpack, and he happend to fall in a hole in the sidewalk. There were some other good ones- I used a lot of Winogrand’s Public Relations photos, which are great for all their energy and implied relationships.
The next photo related lesson I taught is actually what I am doing this week- I bought a photo book entitled “No Title Here” by Jeff Mermelstein. Amazing book with an equally amazing essay about the current nature of “street photo” and snap-shot photography today. The kids lined up into two teams and I held one of his photos (a color photocopy) up. Each student had to say something in english about the photo. From “The sky is blue”, to “I think the blue sky is beautiful”. They really suprised me- “I think that is an apple tree” or “I think he is going to kill the man with that stick” or whatever. If they could say a new sentence they could keep playing, if they repeated a line they were out. The team with the most members after a 10 minute round won. Lots of fun. An important part of photography is the act of describing what you see. I want the kids to have this kind of skill in their own lives, and from description, interpretation. That is harder but it will come with time. I can’t set everyone ablaze with passion for the possibilties of art but maybe I can end up lighting a few candles. (Hows that for fancy writing)