Maui Matsuri 2008

For the past few years, the Maui Matsuri has featured live action performances by Kikaida and Kikaida 01.  These are Japanese tokusatsu superhero shows from the 70's that were recently brought back to popularity thanks to the great people at JN Productions in Honolulu.  I have had the honor of being asked to videotape the performances almost every year, and it is just so much fun to see the great costumes they make and the enthusiasm that goes into each performance.

The show also features the actual Japanese actors from the TV series - Ban Daisuke and Ikeda Shunsuke. It's great to see them interacting with all their fans.  Many of the kids (like myself) who grew up watching these shows now have children of their own, so now there is a whole new generation of Kikaida fans.  JN Productions has even created a website dedicated to Kikaida and all the other Japanese superhero shows we remember when we were kids - Generation Kikaida.

This year they also introduced Inazuman, another Japanese superhero from the 70's.  I vaguely remember having one of the Inazuman action figures when I was a kid. If I had kept all the Japanese superhero toys I had from my childhood, I'd probably have a small fortune by now.

JN Productions is bringing Inazuman to DVD later this year.  Definitely will have to pick that up.

From left to right: Inazuman, Kikaida, Ban Daisuke,Kikaida 01, Ikeda Shunsuke.

The only show that I've missed so far is the Kamen Rider V3 show.  That was one of my favorites, but the year they brought him over to Maui, I was away at a photo workshop and couldn't videotape the show. :-(

You can see more photos from the show and from past shows at GenerationKikaida.com.

Funny commercials

Stumbled across this today - a commercial about a bunch of crooks breaking into a bank.  It's in Thai, but subtitled.  Great payoff at the end.

Congratulations Joanne & Kevin

I had the honor and pleasure of videotaping the wedding of my friends Joanne and Kevin yesterday in Kaanapali, Maui.  Although it had rained the night before, the weather cleared up in the morning and they had a very nice ceremony at the old airport beach.  Congratulations you two!

First test with Beauty Dish

I was first introduced to using a beauty dish at a photography workshop I attended several years ago. It's basically a big reflector that fits over a monolight and gives a really nice look to an image.  Beauty dishes are commonly used in fashion and glamour photography because of the way it nicely diffuses the light.

I bought a used one on eBay several months ago, but didn't really have a chance to use it on a location shoot until this past weekend.  On Sunday, I met with Angel Eyes - another model I met through Model Mayhem.

The beauty dish was mounted on an AB800 set to full power and powered by a Vagabond 2 battery pack.  We used a set of Pocket Wizards to trigger the strobe.  Because the strobe is much more powerful than an on camera flash, we were able to get more color out of the sunset backdrop by using a higher shutter speed (around 1/250).  An added bonus of using a high shutter speed is that it freezes the splash of the water at her feet.

After seeing the quality of light that the beauty dish produces, I'm thinking I want to try experimenting with it more often.  One thing I'm thinking about now that I've had a chance to review the images is that I should have moved the light in closer to get a softer look to the light.  In the setup shot above, we had the light up on the rocks about 10-12 feet away from her, in order to keep the strobe from getting wet.  Salt water and battery powered strobes don't play very well with each other.

It is a bit cumbersome to lug around as I don't have a carrying case big enough to fit it in.  I'm very lucky I had an assistant (Julie) on this shoot, as I probably would have ended up dropping it and chasing it around the parking lot. Thanks Julie! 

Japanese Commercials and 24 Season 7 trailer

Japanese companies often use American actors/actresses in commercials to promote their products.  There have been ads with Bruce Willis selling gasoline, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz promoting cellphones, and Tommy Lee Jones sipping Boss coffee. 

I just found these with a "24" theme featuring Kiefer Sutherland in his Jack Bauer role selling the energy bar - CalorieMate.

(trailer for Season 7 of "24" at the bottom):

Using your Nintendo DS as a Kanji Dictionary

We travel to Japan frequently, so I've been looking for a good electronic Japanese dictionary to carry around with me.  I found this one that was made for the Nintendo DS called Kanji Sono Mama DS Rakubiki Jiten.  What's neat about this is that it lets you look up a kanji by writing it on the screen.  Here's a short demo on how to use it:

Off-Camera Lighting

Ever since I started visiting Strobist to learn more about lighting, I've been trying to make it a habit of experimenting with what I've learned every chance I get.  This past Friday I had the chance to do a shot I've always wanted to try - backlighting the couple at the altar.

Usually with Canon strobes, you need to have line of sight to your slave flash in order for it to fire.  In the past I had used the ST-E2 transmitter on top of the camera to trigger the slave flash.  This was pretty much hit or miss whenever the slave flash was behind something - a door, a model, Darth Vader, etc.  

Someone suggested I use 2 strobes - a slave off camera, and one on the camera as a master trigger.  The flash on-camera can be set to just triggering the slave, but not firing itself.  Apparently this allows for better range/reliability than just using the ST-E2 transmitter.

For this shot I had my assistant put the flash on the altar positioning it so that the head of the flash came right between the couple's faces.  I then fired off several shots until we got this one.  One of the things to watch out for is to make sure you don't see the flash head in the viewfinder when you take  the shot.  Since the flash is firing back toward you, if your camera sensor sees the direct flash, it will seriously underexpose the shot and you won't get the cool backlighting effect.