I have been thinking about Gaza more recently, fueled by my wife's donations to an amazing Japanese lady that creates Palestinian Flag bags. This brought on a wave of different feelings, including frustration of friend's and family's personal views of the war. This is when I decided that I wanted to promote a personal favorite charity that does incredible work in Gaza.

Now, about the photo. As the weather had been cooling down, the wind had intensified and changed direction, bringing larger waves to the West coast of Okinawa. It had been raining for multiple days, and the heavy feeling I had about the situation brought the idea of using the gloomy weather and crashing waves as a back drop for this emotional topic. I remembered going on a walk a few weeks back and seeing this staircase that led down to the ocean, it felt like it would be perfect for what I was feeling inside. On the way home from work, I noticed that it was particularly rough waters. Once I pulled into my driveway I rushed inside and asked my wife if she would be willing to dress in black and don a Keffiyeh. She said yes and immediately went to change. It was about 5:15 PM, so I knew we had limited time. I set my camera bag outside to acclimate and changed into clothes I could get into the ocean in.

We made it there quickly, since the location is about a 4 minute drive from our house. As soon as I set foot in the sand, I knew it would perfectly capture the raw emotion I wanted to portray. As I took my camera out... my lens started to fog.. Fuck. The short drive over and the A/C was enough to ruin the 15 minutes I had spent getting it used to the weather outside. I wiped the fog away once and looked through the viewfinder and I was intrigued at the slight haziness it left, making the image feel imperfect and faded.

I began adjusting for lighting and white balance. I knew that I wanted less definition in the dress, this way the figure could remain anonymous, almost void like, allowing the red and black Keffiyeh to stand out. I waited for each iteration of waves to come, and for the sunset to mute the now brown / green colors of the ocean. It was perfect. The waves crashed around her, covering the sand beneath the stairs, signifying a lack of foundation and the ascent from nowhere that they now face. She perfectly portrayed a nameless, faceless entity staring out into the harsh sea, showing the future that awaits over a million Palestinians. The only thing left was to post in hopes of bringing continued awareness to anyone that was willing to view.

Photo

Focal Length: 50mm | Aperture: f/3.2 | Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec | ISO: 400

SaPa, Vietnam.. This place was a Photographer's paradise. The rolling hills, the tall mountains, the lush rice fields: An absolute treasure. Though getting there was a bit of an...adventure...

After spending a few days in Hanoi, we had booked a "VIP" private train car on a 12-hour sleeper train from Hanoi Station to SaPa. This cabin was supposed to provide us with a place to sleep.. Instead our beds were right about the links in the train cars, so every small curve made the loudest clanking sound. Needless to say, we didn't sleep a wink. Once we arrived, we ordered a Grab from the station to our hotel. Immediately after putting our bags away, we walked to a nearby cafe for a salt coffee (a non-negotiable drink in Vietnam).

After finally sitting down to drink our coffee, we looked out to the beautiful view of the cloud filled mountains. We didn't know beforehand that this small train would be passing through a few times over the next hour, which was a nice surprise. I got up, took in the view and pulled out my camera. The air felt exactly as it looks, cool, crisp, and a refreshing contrast to the warm, humid Okinawa temps. The clouds set beautifully in the crevices of the mountain range, slowly rising as the morning went on.

I knew I needed to wait for the next small train to come by, so I rested against the railing, waiting for my shot. The train came back and the conditions perfectly lined up to capture it going on its way against the lush backdrop of Northern Vietnam.

Photo

Focal Length: 24mm | Aperture: f/4.5 | Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec | ISO: 100

First, Wakayama has to be one of the most beautiful places in Japan. So much untamed beauty explore.

The three hour drive from the airport to the area we were staying in didn't feel long enough. It was filled with large cliffs, rough coastlines, beautiful forests, and so. many. oranges. (it was harvest season for mandarin oranges). Once we explored some more of the known sites around Wakayama, we decided to just click around google maps for anything that looked intriguing. That's when we spotted this walking bridge. It was located behind what looked like a high school, with no parking in sight. So we hiked to it from the spot we found about a kilometer away, going around the school, through a neighborhood, and by a baseball field.

Once we stepped foot on the bridge, we realized why it was not as popular as other spots. There were slightly rotted wood panels, shaky handling, and a sway that would make the most coordinated watch their step. As we walked across, I took note of the deep orange from rusted metal, and the even deeper greens of the forest in front of us. It felt like we were walking through a portal from Japan to Washington State. The clouds brought a nice even lighting to the area, and enhanced the shadows ahead, making it feel ominous.

I stabilized myself as best I could, and began shooting from different angles. While standing, it didn't feel like I was able to portray the sheer size of the trees in front of me. Once I moved back a bit, zoomed out, and framed the bridge in the center, it began to feel like the trees were swallowing everything around them. The bridge structure was approximately 50 feet or so to put everything else into perspective.

Being the horror fan that I am, I could not stop thinking that crossing the bridge felt like entering the first 30 minutes of a horror film. You know, where the couple sees a dark abyss ahead, ignores all the bad signs, and continues to face unmeasurable horror. So anyways we walked across and went into the forest, only to find a quite large bear warning signed and noped back into the light. I hope you enjoy this photo as much as we enjoyed the experience.

Photo

Focal Length: 50mm | Aperture: f/2.8 | Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec | ISO: 800

The Okinawa 10,000 Eisa Dancers Parade. This is a yearly parade that is usually held in October. We love seeing Eisa Dancers, they are so unique and fun to watch. This year, for the first time, we decided to make our way down to Kokusai Street in Naha to catch a glimpse of the festival. I loved seeing the vibrant colors, the very in sync dancers, and the face paint that shows their culture and gives a peak into Okinawa history.

I was actually very excited to shoot this parade, as I had just picked up a new Trooper bag from Wontancraft, and new gear is always fun. Anyways, I walked around for about 10 minutes looking for a good angle and found a nice spot right up front. I took out my camera and began shooting. I was getting slightly distracted by my wife, who was all smiles (when she wasn't getting cut off) watching the parade. It seemed like the photos wouldn't turn out, as there were lots of other people walking by and squeezing in to get a view.

Then, luckily it cleared up just in time for one of the Chondara to walk by and give me a good pause for a photo. We will definitely be back for as many Eisa festivals as we can find next year. Their energy is unmatched and we always have a great time.

Photo

Focal Length: 105mm | Aperture: f/4.0 | Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec | ISO: 500

I've always enjoyed seeing these little birds, the Mejiro. They are always one of the highlights of Cherry Blossom season here in Okinawa. They are hard to capture though, because they are very small and usually don't stay in one spot for very long. So being able to get this shot was very nice. I remember is being a cold January morning when went to Nago, more specifically Nakijin Castle Park. We were with our friends that day, walking along the steep roads looking at all the trees that had just began blooming.

That's when I saw this little guy perched up on a branch, and decided to give it a go. Having only my 24mm - 105mm lens I got as close as I could with startling the little bird. Once I was set up, I just waited for the one moment that he would be still enough for the lighting conditions that we had. It was slightly overcast and the area was fully illuminated yet. Either way, I was able to capture a nice portrait of this Mejiro with a beautiful Cherry Blossom framing around him and some nice foreground. He knew he was the star of the show..

Photo

Focal Length: 105mm | Aperture: f/4.0 | Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec | ISO: 320

The 5th Shuri Castle 1,000 Lantern Reconstruction Walk. We missed the first part of the festivities that afternoon on Kokusai Street, but were determined to see the lantern walk. I had been to Shuri Castle back in 2018 and remember it being absolutely beautiful. Tragically, it burned down in 2019, which was the second time it had burned down since it was built in the 14th century. So much history gone..

We arrived here at Shuri Castle Park around 6pm because I wanted to see the lantern walk participants arriving for the festival. It has felt so nice outside lately, so waiting around was very pleasant. This also gave me the opportunity to scope out where I wanted to set up my tripod. I knew I wanted to do a few long exposures in order to grasp the extent of the participation. Once they began arriving, I began shooting. I initially started with a two second shutter speed, but I wasn't getting the motion blur that I wanted. So I began adjusting to three seconds, then four, before finally jumping to 10 seconds and realizing that was perfect.

With a 10 second shutter speed, I was able to capture exactly the amount of motion blur I wanted, while reducing the amount of people that would show up, even with stopping for pictures. I wanted it to remain anonymous while showing the vast amount of people that showed up to support the rebuilding of such a historic castle here in Okinawa. I ended up taking about 15 long exposures and using 7 of them in a photo stack to fully depict the night full of hope and light.

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Focal Length: 39mm | Aperture: f/11 | Shutter Speed: 10 sec | ISO: 100