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Kyoto International Photo Showcase 2011

日本語

Updated: Our group photo exhibition in Kyoto went very well. It was great meeting people and explaining about our pictures and work. Thank you to all who came to see us.

Photos of the exhibition here:
http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=833

Exhibition details:
PhotoGuide Japan organized a group photo exhibition in Kyoto held on Nov. 16-20, 2011 at the Kyoto International Community House in Kyoto, near Keage Station (5 min. by Tozai Line subway from Yamashina Station). The exhibition room was open from noon to 7 pm (till 5:30 pm on the 20th). We had a gathering on Nov. 19 (Sat.) at 5 pm – 7 pm and on Nov. 20 (Sun.) at 4 pm – 5:30 pm when the public was invited to meet the artists. Free admission.

The theme was “Home Sweet Hometown.” Many of us foreigners in Japan have lived here for so long that Japan has become our second hometown. We love our hometowns in Japan so much that we often photograph it. We shared some images of our beloved hometowns.

Featured Artists
Micah Gampel: “My Furukiyoki” self-portraits with friends in Kyoto. Very amusing collection of prints.
Peter Macintosh: Huge mural of Kyoto geisha photos taken over the past 10 years.
Motoyasu Matsutani: Pretty pictures of Kyoto.
Peter Miller: Copperplate photogravures of furusato scenes in Japan such as Shirakawa-go and Kamakura.
Philbert Ono: Introduction of Shiga’s hometown song, Lake Biwa Rowing Song. (Biwako Shuko no Uta) created by Kyoto University Rowing Club members in 1917.
Bruce Osborn: Maibara (Shiga Prefecture) Oyako (Parent-child) portraits taken in the four seasons.
John Wells: Mixed media (oil painting, sumie painting, etc.) of Kyoto scenes/objects.

KIPS 2011日本語 

The Japan Times inserted a nice announcement for our show in the Nov. 13, 2011 issue:

The Japan Times, Nov. 13, 2011, page 2 (National News)

Tokyo camera shops limiting hours

Note that major camera stores in the Tokyo (Kanto) area are closing or limiting their store hours to conserve power or to adapt to the rolling blackout.

Stores outside the 23 wards of Tokyo are especially affected. Check with the store by phone to see if they will be open.

Canon reports earthquake damage

Canon has reported damage and suspension of operations at almost all of their offices and factories north of Tokyo.

http://www.canon.com/news/2011/mar13e.pdf

http://www.canon.com/news/2011/mar14e.pdf

Nikon reports earthquake damage

Nikon has posted a bulletin on its Web site on March 14, 2011 to report damage and personnel injuries to factories and workers hit by the Tohoku earthquake in northeastern Japan. They do not know when they can resume operations.

They will likely have global supply problems. Their damaged Sendai factory produced their top D-SLRs including the D3x, D3s and D700.

See the Nikon bulletin here:
http://nikon.com/about/news/2011/0314_01.htm

Hope they get up and running soon.

Safe from earthquake

Northern Japan got hit with a major earthquake today on March 11, 2011. We felt it in Tokyo as well, and it was the worse earthquake I ever experienced. I was at home and rushed out as soon as it became clear it was a big one.

We had a few aftershocks and it was hard to return home, fearing more aftershocks. But it settled down, and my books, flat-panel TV, stereo speakers, etc., toppled over. Fortunately, no real damage except for a few scratches on the TV.

Anyway, I’m alive and well.

Philbert Ono

YouTube video limit extended again

I just uploaded another video clip to YouTube and I got the following message:

Congratulations! Your account is now enabled for uploads longer than 15 minutes. Click the Upload button below to select a video.

Wow, I was happy to hear that the video length limit was extended from 10 min. to 15 min. last year in 2010, but now it looks like I’ll have a lot more freedom with video clips as long as the file size is not larger than 2 GB. Great!

Web site revamping

Welcome to PhotoGuide Japan’s new NewsZONE section. Major changes have been made as follows:

  • The main NewsZONE URL has changed from http://photojpn.org/news2/ to http://photojpn.org/news/. And what used to be at http://photojpn.org/news/ is now totally different.
  • PhotoWho’sWho (photographer biographies) has moved completely to http://photoguide.jp/txt/Category:Japanese_Photographers. It is no longer at photojpn.org/news. PhotoCloseups also merged with PhotoLog.
  • PhotoBBS (message boards) has been shut down and most messages have migrated to this NewsZONE blog’s PhotoNews and PhotoLog categories.
  • The new PhotoNews category includes Japanese photography news, photo expo notices, exhibition notices, book announcements, etc. The PhotoLog category has my personal rants related to photography.

What’s New (what you’re reading now) is about the latest Web site updates at PhotoGuide Japan.

Some photography-related pages have also been transferred to this NewsZONE blog, such as PhotoRepairs, PhotoEvents, and PhotoFAQ.

Now that our NewsZONE section has been realigned and straightened out, next will be the revamping of DirectoryZONE still plagued with an outdated system and outdated information. So far, only PhotoRepairs has been revamped.

Our online gallery’s new look and features

Our online photo gallery at PHOTOGUIDE.JP/pix/ has undergone a major makeover upon the major upgrade of the software that runs it. It now has a new look and feel while most things remain familiar.

And it’s not just a cosmetic upgrade. New features also make it easier to use and more friendly:

  • YouTube videos are now embedded right inside our photo gallery. You no longer have to leave the site and go to YouTube in order to watch our videos. When you see the YouTube Embedded Video thumbnail image above, you can click on it to see the video within our photo gallery. (I’ve waited for this feature a long, long time.)
  • The single-image (full-size) display page now has a filmstrip below it, showing clickable thumbnails of adjacent images. It makes navigation easier and faster to view another image.
  • Commenting system has been incorporated, one that uses captcha to prevent spamming robots. You can now insert comments for any picture. (All comments are subject to approval before they appear.)
  • Go ahead and look at PHOTOGUIDE.JP/pix/ and see the improvements for yourself.

    New Facebook Group

    I’ve just created a new Facebook Group called Photographers Japan for imaging professionals in Japan.

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107783882597033

    If you’re a professional photographer, videographer, or working in a related field (writers, editors, art directors, gallery owners, etc.) in Japan, I invite you to join the group.

    Networking, information sharing, self-promotion, and as well as making it easier for potential clients to find and hire a pro photographer in Japan are the main purpose of the group.

    Anybody can join the group, but I would allow only relevant professionals to start discussion board threads to promote themselves and their activities. Amateurs and people in unrelated occupations should remain read-only members.

    PhotoWho’sWho moved

    My collection of biographies of Japanese photographers called PhotoWho’sWho has been completely transferred to a new URL at:
    http://photoguide.jp/txt/Category:Japanese_Photographers

    This transfer was in the works off and on for 3 years. The transfer of all 200 bios was finally completed in April 2010. Note that the bios have not been updated, it was mainly a copy-and-paste operation with almost no new information added in the process. A few broken links have been fixed, but that’s about it.

    The transfer was made because PhotoWho’sWho was previously run by a software system (the now-defunct Post-Nuke) not geared for search engine optimization. The URLs were terribly long and cryptic. The new software system at PHOTOGUIDE.JP uses the same search engine-optimized system running Wikipedia.

    PhotoRepairs updated

    My list of camera service/repair centers in Japan for all major manufacturers has been totally updated. It also has a new URL:
    http://photojpn.org/news/category/repairs/

    I found that only Nikon and Pentax has an English list of camera repair centers in Japan. Bravo to them. I provide direct links to their repair center list in English.

    Otherwise, I have translated the addresses, etc., for the repair centers of other major camera equipment makers in Japan.

    Summer 2009 festivals

    I got a lot of summer festival videos online at YouTube, especially awa odori:

    Koenji Awa Odori 2009 1/3
    Koenji Awa Odori 2009 2/3
    Koenji Awa Odori 2009 3/3
    Minami-Koshigaya Awa Odori 1/2
    Minami-Koshigaya Awa Odori 2/2
    Aoishin-ren at Minami-Koshigaya Awa Odori
    Mitaka Awa Odori 1/2
    Mitaka Awa Odori 2/2
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 1/5
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 2/5
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 3/5
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 4/5
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 5/5
    Kita-Urawa Awa Odori 1/3
    Kita-Urawa Awa Odori 2/3
    Kita-Urawa Awa Odori 3/3
    Otsuka Awa Odori, Tokyo
    Matsuri Tsukuba and Nebuta Parade
    Sendai Tanabata Matsuri 2009 1/3
    Sendai Tanabata Matsuri 2009 2/3
    Sendai Tanabata Matsuri 2009 3/3
    Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri 2009
    Fukushima Waraji Matsuri 1/2
    Fukushima Waraji Matsuri 2/2
    Asakusa Samba Carnival 2009
    Hachioji Matsuri, Tokyo
    Yokohama Port Opening Expo
    Kanko Maru Yokohama cruise
    Yokota Air Base Japanese-American Friendship Festival 2009
    Fussa Tanabata Star Festival
    Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri

    Here are the photos:
    Koenji Awa Odori 2009
    Minami-Koshigaya Awa Odori
    Mitaka Awa Odori
    Kita-Urawa Awa Odori, Saitama
    Nakamurabashi Awa Odori 2009, Nerima
    Otsuka Awa Odori, Tokyo
    Matsuri Tsukuba and Nebuta Parade
    Kaminoyama Castle, Yamagata
    Yokota Air Base Japanese-American Friendship Festival 2009
    Fussa Tanabata Star Festival
    Asagaya Tanabata Matsuri
    Fukushima Tanabata
    Hachioji Matsuri, Tokyo
    EXPO Y150: Yokohama Port Opening 150th
    Edogawa Fireworks

    Tohoku summer festivals in Sendai, Yamagata, and Fukushima

    I finally revisited Sendai during Aug. 6-8 to see the famous Tanabata Festival, the grand daddy of all Tanabata Matsuris in Japan. I was not disappointed. Sendai’s Tanabata is definitely a few notches above any other Tanabata in Japan. Most of the streamers are made of paper instead of plastic. And all those origami paper cranes. I shudder to think how many man-hours were spent to make them. Click on the image to see more photos.

    From Sendai, I took a day trip to neighboring Yamagata to see the Yamagata Hanagasa Matsuri, an evening parade of dancers wearing a flower hat.

    On the way back to Tokyo, I stopped by Fukushima to see the Fukushima Waraji Matsuri Festival which is another evening dance parade with a twist. Sometimes you see dancers wear waraji straw sandals.

    Climbing Mt. Fuji

    Mt. Fuji trail

    I finally got around to posting my full-length article about climbing Japan’s most famous mountain. There are some good tips on climbing Mt. Fuji.

    See the article here: http://photoguide.jp/txt/Climbing_Mt._Fuji
    Photos: http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=174

    Kamakura’s Meigetsu-in

    Meigetsu-in

    Near Kita-Kamakura Station is Meigetsu-in temple famous for ajisai or hydrangea. What a sight to see all these ajisai in full bloom at the same time in mid-June. A definite must-see if you’re in Kamakura in June.

    More photos here:

    http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=750

    More photo sets coming soon when I update the site soon.