With N-chan

Today was like a new chapter for me. I had chance to take photos of my beautiful friend N-chan in a very special place in heart of Midori-ku. Here is her interview in Vimeo.

Days like these remind me of the reason why I became photographer.

Continue reading “With N-chan”

Regarding Beauty

“Beauty” for me is something sacred, like something untouchable and something that isn’t from this world. It is just there for a very short time and it will disappear, like a beautiful ghost.

It’s so, very fragile and light. It is not meant to be touched, and it is not meant to be stared.  It is too pure for human hands to touch.

When I shoot,I’m just standing in this huge crystal clear river and I’m crying. For that moment it’s my world.

Regarding Image Theft in Japan

Couple weeks ago I received a message from a friend whose photo I took back in 2012. In her message she told me that her face is appearing in this shady website of Japanese company which sells some kind of medicines. And it indeed, there my photo was. In description she was told to be 42 years old, which is not her real age. Against her knowledge or consent she was endorsing their product, her face clearly recognisable. She was frightened if her appearance was used in further, more damaging way.

It was pretty clear to me from the beginning that the image was stolen from Flickr since that and Facebook are the only places where I uploaded it. Later communication with the company verified that the image indeed was downloaded from Flickr.

I was pretty shocked. But my initial shock was nothing compare to what was to come. I called the company in Saturday morning, and explained the situation. The first guy was pretty polite and he seemed to understand what is the issue. But what they asked me was a jaw-dropper.

They asked me to provide the model’s name, address and phone number. Because they need to check something. Yup. Can you believe that?

My hands were shaking. I said that I will never provide them such information, and that such inquiry is absurd. Since my Japanese skill is not native level, I thought it’s better to ask my friend’s help.

So, my Japanese friend called them and explained the issue calmly from the beginning. They said they will get back to me on Monday. The image disappeared from the site sometimes during the weekend and was replaced with a photo of cappuccino cup.

The company did finally call me on Tuesday. The man asked me have I ever heard of this company called Flickr. According to him, Flickr is a free site and they had legally obtained the image from the site. My hands were shaking again, real bad this time.

However, I managed to keep myself pretty calm, and I directed him to my Flickr page and my image. I asked if he is familiar of meaning of english text “All rights Reserved” and copyright mark. He gave me kind of muffled answer that was nowhere near apology, more like “uhhmm.. I .. see..”.

I told him that if I ever see another image of mine in their site, lawsuit will follow.

What’s really sad is that it seems all the images of people in the site are probably stolen same way. All these beautiful people smiling and endorsing their product without knowing. To imagine what kind of group lawsuit could be possible is kind of mind baffling, if these people only knew.

It is always very important to verify the source of the images that are used in website designs. Purchasing images from popular sites such as iStockphoto and Getty is generally acceptable since they require model release, therefore model in image accepts that her appearance might be used in advertisement. The permit written in model releases however does not usually extend to medical products, and does not allow use which suggests that the person in image is personally endorsing the product. There is no model release that would allow that kind of usage of the image I saw in the site.

It seems it is up to the photographer himself to defend his rights. I just cannot let this kind of thing slide. Not as long as I call myself “photographer.”

Nikomat EL

I was making some prints in Photo Kanon  today and I found interesting camera on the shelf. They had Nikomat (Nikkormat) EL and Nikkor 50mm 1.4. It looked brand new, like it had just came from Nikon factory. So I asked how much it was, and I was surprised, only 18,000 yen. The meter works, and it even came with new battery.

I’m not very interested about cameras. Especially digital cameras. They release new ones every year and new cameras take cleaner and cleaner images and pack new features. They are like miniature computers. The whole race for convenience turns me off.

But Nikomat! This camera was made before I was made! They produced these in Japan from 1972 to 1976. There is something that genuinely attracts me with really nice objects like this. It feels like a real tool which has a story.

I shot a roll of Lomography 400 with my Nikomat this afternoon and I really love to shoot with this camera. My Bessa R3m feels like a plastic toy after I hold this brick on my hands. It’s obvious that this camera is made to last.

Metering is nicely implemented, and is really easy to get used to. I didn’t try to shoot with aperture priority mode yet since I’m really used to shoot full manual. Downside with this camera is that if battery dies, you can only shoot with 1/90 (unmarked shutter speed), since the shutter speed js controlled electronically. That would mean ND filters if shooting outside. Battery is, by the way located under the mirror! At least you won’t lose battery door..

This is SLR all right and focusing is very different than with rangefinder. There’s no autofocus. But also it feels kind of refreshing to see exactly the image I’m going to capture, through the lens. I’m so used to shoot with my rangefinder. And this can focus closer than Leica.

Shutter is kinda loud that is to be expected from SLR.

The Nikkor 50mm lens is a big question mark for me. I have never shot with Nikon lens but this is as wide as 1.4 so it should be really nice lens for indoor photos. My Nokton 1.4 lens is very contrasty one, so I do hope Nikkor would offer a bit more gentleness what comes to contrast. I will develop my first roll tomorrow, so we’ll see.

I will write a complete review of this camera after I get acquainted with her more.

Computer Trouble

Some months ago my Macbook Pro started freezing. Pretty annoying really, and it happened after I had just installed Mavericks. Using the Apple Hardware Test I was able to pinpoint the fault to the SSD that I had installed by myself, Crucial M4 256gb in fact.

I thought the disk had just died. It was out of warranty so I thought there is not much to do except discard the drive. So I restored from backup and put the old HD back in. And then Mavericks was so slow that I found it impossible to use. Since I didn’t feel like shelling another 300dollars for brand new SSD, I just thought I’ll bear the situation.

Just today, my friend told me that he had exactly same situation with his M4, and that he had found a fix. In fact there is a firmware upgrade for the SSD drive, a neat bootable disc which automatically upgrades the firmware. I did it, and everything is working fine again! And really really fast.

I really love Mavericks, this is really speedy OS and feels in many ways snappier than earlier versions. Apple is really making big improvements for the operating system of Macintosh. After Snow Leopard, Mavericks is definably my favourite one.

Fujifilm EF-20 flash for sale

ef-20

I’m selling my Fujifilm EF-20 flash. I’m asking 6000円 plus shipping. I can send it to you. This flash has seen a little use and is in good condition.

The flash should work with these cameras:
FinePix X100 / SL300 / SL305 / SL280 / SL260 / SL240 / HS30EXR / HS33EXR / HS25EXR / HS28EXR / HS20EXR / HS22EXR / FUJIFILM X10, FUJIFILM X-S1, FUJIFILM X-Pro1