29 January 2006, evening I've had a really multimedia-type of week. I bought 2 CDs, Louis Armstrong recordings from 1925-30, and the soundtrack for "The Life Aquatic", which is very rare for me. I haven't bought a CD in ages. I also accepted delivery of a book, David Attenborough's memoirs, called "Life on Air", and some Attenborough DVDs as well, "Life in the Undergrowth" and "Attenborough in Paradise". And, of course, I've been taking pictures like mad. Kumiko and I had a planning meeting with the owner of Early Gallery, where I'll be exhibiting in April. It was much more positive than the last meeting, so now I'm pretty excited about the proposition.
After the meeting on Saturday, I went to the camera shop and kitted myself up for film processing. I bought a tank and some reels and all the chemicals and a changing bag, and now I'm ready for action. Fortunately I don't have any rolls ready to process, because I need to practice loading the reels in the changing bag before I do anything else.
Descending the stairs outside Hankyu department store in Osaka.
photo with Rolleiflex Standard on Fujifilm Neopan 40021 January 2006, morning First of all, happy birthday to Mom. She shares a birthday with Martin Luther King (Jan.19), and deserves the same level of recognition. Why isn't there a National Holiday for her?
As a traditional photography enthusiast, I'm saddened to see all the camera-makers of the past being relegated to history. Konica-Minolta used my mom's birthday (the insensitive bums) to announce their own demise. I can't say I've been a big supporter of Konica or Minolta in the past, although I have bought two Konica cameras new, plus a Minolta film scanner, and quite a few rolls of Konica black and white film (always the least expensive brand), and color reversal film (Sinbi 200). I don't use very much anymore, since I shoot mostly medium format black and white (which Konica didn't manufacture). But they're not the only ones to fold. Agfa pulled the plug in November, taking with it my most-used film, APX 400, as well as all of their printing papers and chemicals. Contax, already reduced to a brand name manufactured by a second party, exited the world last year. My first serious camera, and probably the one that bolstered my interest in photography so much, was a Contax Aria SLR, still my most reliable camera. Kodak has stopped manufacturing many of their papers and chemicals (so I understand) and has stopped processing black and white film in Japan.
Luckily, there are still companies dedicated to film photography. Fujifilm is one of them, one of the only companies still releasing new models of 35mm point and shoot cameras, and the last company processing black and white film in Japan. I shoot mostly Fujifilm black and white now. Ilford, an English company, makes only black and white film and printing products. Rollei, although not producing many cameras, have just released 6 new black and white films, manufactured by a company called Maco in Germany. I salute you! Can't wait to try those new films.
Colleen, my singing partner during the kids cd recordings
photo with Olympus 35-SP on Fujifilm Neopan 160017 January 2006, early morn It rained. I didn't make it to the garden. I've started reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I'm on book two now, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I love children's fantasies, except for Harry Potter, which is lame. Part of the attraction of this series is old English country life. So even the sequences where the children are at home are fantasy for me. It's the same with Agatha Christie. I just love the setting.
13 January 2006, night Welcome to my "daily journal". It's been an interesting week at work. My company asked me to do some recording for an educational CD we're producing, so all week I sang children's songs and read books into a microphone. I love singing, so this kind of work suits me very well. I wish I could do it all the time. Next week it's back to the old grind. I don't know if I can do it.
I've been organizing photo negatives tonight. I had a big backlog of them piling up in various spots where they shouldn't have been. Sometimes I amaze myself at how many rolls of film I plough through in a month. It's a very rare time when I don't have film at the lab or waiting to go to the lab.
This morning Kumiko practiced her first real foreigner-intended Japanese lesson on me. Her presenting style is always fun, and I'm impressed that she doesn't seem nervous. Since part of my job is training new English instructors and critiquing lessons, it's easy for me to give advice and pinpoint trouble spots. It's just weird being the student rather than the teacher. Kumiko would never admit it, but I have a feeling she's one of the best in her class. She works so hard at home. I could never spend that much time studying. I would turn on the TV, or fall asleep or possibly die.
Remember the garden? We have a plot at the community garden, but we haven't been to water it in about a month (or maybe longer). I just lose interest completely once the weather turns cold. I wonder what it looks like now. It's past the point where I'm embarrassed to go because I haven't been in a long time. Now it's been so long that morbid curiosity has overshadowed the embarrassment. I think I'll check it out tomorrow. But I have to get my bicycle out of the impound lot first. It's probably been there for about a month as well.
6 January 2006, morning Well, I had to go back to work yesterday, but now my regular weekend (Fri/Sat) has arrived, so it was a very short work week.
On the 3rd, we joined my friend Paul and his family at Expoland, an amusement park near our house. Paul has two kids (Matthew and Joe) who wanted to see the "purareru" show. "Purareru" is the Japanese way of saying "pla-rail", which is short for "plastic rail", which just means little plastic trains that run on batteries. I thought it might be a fun experience, but the show was only mildly interesting. Paul's kids were a lot of fun though, as well as his wife, Kyoko. I bought three new Tomica cars in the gift shop: a Datsun 1200 truck, a Toyopet Crown, and a Daihatsu Midget. Pretty exciting stuff.
On the 4th, we joined Ayami, another friend from the office, for a fantastic chicken dinner at the restaurant where she used to work. They specialize in chicken from Miyazaki prefecture. It was great. We talked a lot about music, because I knew that she had a taste for local indies punk bands. We found out that her favorite band is called "Maximum the Hormone". Kumiko and I couldn't stop laughing about that name. Another of her favorites is called "Pan" (bread), a band that throws chunks of bread into the audience. She invited us to the next Pan concert, but I think we'll give it a miss. We're just too old.
My friend Mike gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for my birthday, and I recently used it to buy a photography book, Robert Doisneau Paris, which is really amazing. I can't believe the kind of casual, unposed shots he got indoors, with what must have been a big reflector flash, because there's no way he could have been using existing light with the film available back then. But all these shots, indoors and out are amazing and beautiful and tonal, except for the later ones. Honestly, the shots he took in the 40s, 50s and 60s are much more aesthetically pleasing, subject matter aside, than the shots pictured from the 70s, 80s and 90s. His style didn't change, but obviously the material did - the film and flash. Most of the shots are from the 50s and 60s, though, and his technique seems to have been similar to my own - walking aimlessly through an area of the city, or standing in one spot, waiting for the right people to stroll into the picture - so the book is really inspiring for me.
This is my new project. These people (Tammie and Patrick) are supposed to be interacting across frames,
but I took the shots in the wrong order. I'll keep working on it. Photos with Contax Aria on Agfapan APX 4001 January 2006, evening Ahh, it's good to be back at home. My mother-in-law put on a great New Year's meal of course, but there's nothing like spending the night at someone else's house to make you appreciate waking up in your own. After eating fantastic sukiyaki, we watched some of the Red and White Show and some of the K-1 fighting program (same as last year), then at midnight, we all walked over to Sumiyoshi Jinja (the local shrine) for hatsumode. We lined up at about 12:15. It was really pretty: a beautiful clear night, and all the lanterns burning (electrically), and then a big bonfire in the center of the grounds sending up sparks and embers maybe twenty meters into the sky. We prayed and had sake and met a few people with whom the Niijimas were aquainted, then paid 100 yen each for little fortune papers. Kumiko and I both got lower-level luck (too bad), and then we went back to the house. From there on I was pretty bored, even after returning home this afternoon. New Year's Day is boring wherever you are. Now we're watching the annual Kinniku Battle program, which is a kind of athletics/strength contest. Our friend Glenn, who lives in Perth, must really love this show, because he asked us to record it. We're doing it, Glenn! One more thing. Our friend Mike visited in August, and I only posted a few favorite pictures from the trip. I just realized I never posted the main batch. I'll do that now. Here they are in alphabetical (not chronological) order. Thanks for coming, Mike!
The early stages of our big snow day in December.
photo with Franka Solida III on Fujifilm Neopan 400
