Okiten 2012

For the last month I've been hard at work on a few photos for my 2012 Okiten (Okinawa art show) entry, but I didn't want to show them off until they were finished.  The first photo is one that I developed during the spring of 2011.  I let it simmer in my brain during the summer before finally settling on a plan, which began in September.  The location I selected for the shoot was on one of the furthest beaches from my apartment, which was not convenient.  During the course of this shot I made over 20 trips to the beach to scout, do practice shots, do the real thing, then go back to get the star trails shots.  Between that and the post-processing, there's easily 40 hours into this photograph.  I will do another post later further detailing how it came about.  This shot is actually meant for the Zamami People Project that I am working on, but I liked it enough to use as one of my two Okiten entries.

The actual photo is a composite of ~120 different frames taken over the course of two hours.  What you are seeing in the foreground is a dance performed by Zamami's fire dancer, Kiwamu Miyakubo.

I'm not very optimistic that it will be chosen for display (or a prize) at Okiten, but considering how subjective the judges seem to be, it might get lucky.

The second entry was inspired by an online friend of mine who critiqued last year's entry of a young girl as being 'too easy of a shot' to win at an art show.  She suggested shooting old people instead because they aren't naturally as cute or willing to be photographed as kids.  I spent much of the last year trying to think who would fit the bill and it finally it came to me during Geruma's Sports Day in September when I photographed this man's hands.  He also wove the bamboo baskets that were given as prizes during that rope-making contest, so I approached him in December to ask if he could make a basket and let me photograph him during the process.  He obliged and so I spent a Saturday on Geruma shooting him for two hours, then I went back on Sunday to photograph him using the basket for its traditional historical use, collecting shellfish.

I was pleased with the photographs, which actually turned out to be a little troublesome.  I had 1400 shots to sort through and it was very difficult to narrow down the choices.  I settled on 15 of the best shots and sent them out to some trusted [photographer] friends to get their votes.  Unfortunately the votes were spread all over, accompanied by many valid reasons for the various choices.  Eventually I settled on using the panorama shown, which meant I needed two 'portrait-oriented' photos above.  I wanted one with his face in focus and one with his hands.  The hand shot chosen doesn't compete very well with the landscape hands-only shots I took, but I just couldn't make the formatting work to include a landscape (though now, in retrospect, I think I might have been able to include two landscapes on the right side).

My entry, which was submitted late due to printer troubles I had last week, was numbers 336 and 337 in the photo category.  Of that total, I think around 100 will be chosen for display during the art show and of those, only 4-5 will be awarded prizes.  I am not expecting to win a prize, but I would be quite pleased if my work was chosen for display.  

Here are the completed, framed photos as I submitted them today:

Judging is Wednesday and results are announced Friday.