Photography

I set up a picture website on Shutterfly. I chose Shutterfly because its free, is not blocked on my school network, has unlimited photo space, and does not delete photos after a certain amount of time. To log in, go to [|www.shutterfly.com]. Name: japanncta@yahoo.com Password: japan To add photos, click on the My Pictures on the toolbar at the top. Go to "New Folder" and create a folder with your name on it. You'll see one titled "Lindsey Cafarella's Photos" as an example. In your folder, you can create as many albums as you want. I'll probably separate mine into days (Day 1, Day 2, etc) and have a special folder for pictures of people. However, I took a really embarrasing amount of photos, so it'll take a little while for all of mine to be up.
 * Picture Website (from Lindsey)**:

Finally, a word about photos and social networking. I set these pictures to be private (meaning only those with the login information can see them). You can post anything crazy on here, and nobody else will see it. I probably don't have to say the next thing, but just in case: //I hope that you will be very discriminating when posting pictures of other people to other photo sites, blogs, and social networking sites like Facebook.// Teachers can get fired for all kinds of ridiculous stuff online these days, so if you're not sure if somebody wants it posted to sites besides Shutterfly, please ask first or just don't post it.

Please download and see the following documents pertaining to photography and you.

** Photography on the NCTA Study Tour 2010 ** Topics included in this message: 1) Importance of composition 2) Taking people pictures in East Asia 3) Three types of travel photographs 4) Equipment for travel photography—still cameras 5) Equipment for travel photography—video cameras 6) Further equipment issues to consider 7) Camera insurance 8) U.S. Customs 9) “The Pearl of Great Price”

We are all going to want to take every opportunity to create photographs while we are in East Asia. Several of you are planning to go to China prior to our Japan experience so I have included some tips about shooting there. As you know the two countries are different and that includes attitudes toward photography. I bought my first camera in Tokyo in 1963. I was immediately hooked. Photography has remained my principal hobby ever since. If you have an interest in looking at some of my digital work from various parts of the world, check out []. For a statement about my development as a photographer, click on the word “profile” at the top left corner of the first page. After retirement I expected to be a professional travel photographer, but I cannot seem to disengage successfully from the academic life. I enjoy teaching too much and opportunities to do so continue to present themselves. From time to time I teach classes on travel photography. Allow me to share some thoughts on the subject.

1) In the current era of automatic focus and automatic light metering, composition constitutes the most critical single contribution we amateur photographers bring to the picture-taking process. The most useful guide to good composition is the **“rule of thirds.”** For some reason I have never seen fully explained to my own satisfaction, human beings find composition particularly pleasing if the subject is placed in one of four locations within the image. Divide your viewfinder in thirds both horizontally and vertically. These lines intersect at four points. Try to select one of these locations for the placement of your subject. In a landscape picture try to place your horizon line along the lower third to emphasize the sky (clouds /sunset) or the upper third to highlight the foreground. Generally, the only time one places the horizon line across the middle is when you have a reflection that balances the upper and lower parts of the image.

Some photo opportunities cry out for a **centered** treatment of the subject. Such images are rather formal looking. They often seek to convey the grandeur of a building. Some people pictures (**portraits**) also seem best centered.

I use two approaches when photographing people in China where I do not speak the language. The least confrontational one is to use a strong **telephoto lens** (200-300mm) and hope I am not noticed. This has its drawbacks. Often other people walk between you and your subject at the critical moment. I also have the slight feeling that pictures taken this way are “stolen.” Admittedly, some of my best people pictures have been taken using this technique. The other approach is more “engaged.” I suggest you work as follows: Smile to get eye contact; hold up your camera; point to it; then open your hand, palm up, toward your intended subject (do not point your finger at them), and give a questioning look while saying, “OK?” Respect any negative response with a nod and a smile. Try to leave the person with a positive feeling. If they have given you the “OK,” shoot away. Always express thanks. Sometimes when the person seems particularly friendly and does not seem to be in a hurry, I will show them the picture on my camera screen. That can lead to some nice interactive moments. You may discover that the person actually speaks some English and you can communicate even further. Then the fun __really__ begins. Sometimes people in China ask for money when I seek to take their photograph. I have never had this experience in Japan. Normally, this happens up front when I have initially asked to photograph a Chinese person. Sometimes this happens when people are self-consciously dressed in an interesting way (example, ethnic minority costume). As one who photographs a lot, I do not like to encourage this practice of **paying for pictures**. I will, at times (before taking any pictures), simply smile, laugh, and wave my hand to signal “no thanks.” Sometimes when the opportunity is just too good to pass up, I will pay. Normally, parents with small children do not mind having pictures made of their little treasures, but ask before poking a lens at the charming small ones. The **children** themselves may become frightened if you are too aggressive. The crying scene that follows will haunt you long after the event. Frightening a charming child subject is a very likely possibility given the size of our group and the eagerness to replicate a good shot someone else has discovered. In the fall of 2006 I watched in dismay as excited Furman coeds unintentially terrorized a cute toddler at the Chengdu Panda Center. Give children space. Don’t crowd around unless you are confident the child is comfortable.
 * 2)** Most of us will want to take **pictures of people**. For me such pictures are the most difficult of all to take successfully and the most likely to create misunderstanding or ill will in the taking of them. Japan is a very camera friendly place. China is less so, but not openly hostile except where soldiers, policemen, and airports are concerned. Japanese are likely to be taking pictures of you, so feel free to shoot back. It may be difficult to keep Japanese young people from acting silly and waving the “peace sign” at you as part of their poses. Where people pictures are concerned, Chinese seem to emphasize pictures of friends and family. Those of you going to China will notice that women, even very young women (preteens), will often strike poses you may recall from glamour photographs in the 1920s and 1930s. Where they learn this and why it is so universal in China intrigues me. Unfortunately, Chinese often seem to be unsure why you, as a stranger, want to take pictures of them. Your subject may be asking themselves “am I doing something wrong? Am I doing something strange? **Why is the foreigner taking my picture?”** Certainly, workers in high tourist areas are hardened to the experience of being photographed, but be alert to possible misunderstanding. Japanese seem far less sensitive, but even there always be respectful and show good Southern manners. (As a Texan, I sort of think I know what that is. My mother was from Kentucky. Otherwise I would be completely lost. You have heard what Texans are like. Well, actually they really are!)

As you do your general background reading on Japan, do not neglect to educate your eyes. Japan is an amazingly photogenic country. (India is number one in my experience, but we are not going there on this particular trip. Maybe another time, eh?!) Japan has already been photographed up, down, backwards and forwards. This is great for us because we can train our photographic eyes well in advance of our trip, and I recommend this visual education process very highly. Look at pictures, lots of pictures. Your local county or city library probably has various portfolio coffee table books of photographs of Japan. Check them out. Study them. Get ideas for your own photographs. Some years ago a wonderful book called //A Day in the Life of Japan// brought a number of professional photographers to the country with the assignment to shoot for a day and pool their images. See if you can find a copy. //National Geographic// will have some great pictures to explore. The //Eyewitness Travel Guides// also have beautiful pictures. As you look at pictures begin creating a **“shot list”** for your diary and teaching images. Teaching images may include our various modes of transportation, buildings, vending machines, agriculture, or special costumes. Trust me, I will be sure you get plenty of shots of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines for you classroom use. Diary photos, in my mind, are photos of our group members, fronts of our hotels, hotel rooms, places we visit, you immersed in a Japanese bath, etc.. In my experience it takes discipline to do this well. I never seem to photograph the hotel rooms adequately to satisfy my wife and members of her family who are interested. I also fail to **photograph meals** (food dishes, table setting). I am usually too hungry. My mother-in-law finds this to be a particularly serious character flaw. Making a “shot list” and reviewing it regularly keeps you focused on looking for subjects that you will blend together later to “tell your story” when you get home. Begin to develop “your story” well ahead of departure. It will change as you travel, but I suggest you go with an outline in mind.
 * 3)** For me there are at least **three categories of travel photographs**—a) diary images [we were here & it looked like this]; b) teaching images [visual support for your classroom teaching]; c) aesthetic images [beautiful sunrise over Hangzhou’s West Lake]. Clearly, there is cross-over among the three.

I assume you have all “gone digital” by this point. If not, I would strongly urge you to consider the raw economics of film vs. digital on an extended trip like we are taking. You can easily spend on film, processing and printing what you could spend for a new digital still camera which will serve you and your family long after you return from East Asia. Further, as we go through numerous security checks, you will need to “baby” film. No fear of radiation damage with digital. If you decide to purchase a camera, do not wait to do so overseas. You get the best deals here in the U.S.. If you are shopping for a new camera, a basic question is whether to go heavy or light. Many travelers enjoy the ease of use and comfort of carrying a small, pocket-sized digital camera. Most of the teachers on the 2008 SCCTA/NCTA study tour carried such cameras. Quite a few great photos were produced using them. As you will see, I personally prefer to go to the gym, lift weights, and carry larger equipment. The “go light” folks will unquestionably be happier at the end of each day. I am not so sure they will be happier at the end of the trip. For travel photography I like to work with a zoom lens that moves from what in the film world was a 28mm to 200mm range. 28mm is great for buildings. 200mm works well for people pictures. If you are looking for a pocket-size camera, I suggest one with this range. I also like to use a polarizing filter to darken the blue in the sky and counteract reflections on shiny surfaces. I do not know of a pocket-size unit that will allow the use of a polarizer. My personal objective will be to capture image files that can produce sharp 19” color prints to hang on the wall. That requires a camera that takes photos at resolutions of about 10 megapixels. My wife recently purchased a tiny Canon camera with exactly that image capturing power. For pictures to use with PowerPoint in my teaching, I have had excellent success with resolutions in the 2 megapixel range. My most published photograph is a 2 megapixel photo actually taken with a video camera. By the way, the price of cameras seems to escalate in direct proportion to the resolution. If you are in the market for a new digital camera, you might begin checking out reviews at < [|www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html]>.
 * 4)** **Equipment--Still camera:** In a separate post I outline in some detail issues I suggest you consider if you are contemplating the purchase of a digital still camera. Secure your camera equipment soon and begin practicing with it long before the trip. You might consider as a practice project by creating a small portfolio of prints showing your family, pets, house, school room, hometown, etc. to serve as a conversation piece with Japanese you want to get to know.

For maximum impact, you should plan to be in the video clips yourself. Steve Johnson has long and very strong arms. He was able to hold his camera out to video himself. He listened to the guides talk and then stood in front of a pagoda, castle, temple, whatever, and gave the basic information (on camera) in his own words and style. It would have been easier had he had a partner with whom to share the camera holding. He reports that his students get a real kick out of seeing him on-site. I have had the same reaction from my college students. Our students live in a pop culture that expresses itself on YouTube. I suggest we try to “get with the program.” I know already that there are participants on our 2010 Japan trip who have a great deal of experience making classroom video materials. I plan to do some “brain picking” myself. Let me encourage you to work on a video script, story board, and video shot list before leaving for Japan. You will all be doing research projects related to our site visits. Information from those projects will be posted on our wikispaces website. Use the information you find there to fashion your script. **Even if you do not plan to make video, a teaching script for a slide show would be good preparation for the trip.**
 * 5) Think video for teaching purposes**: On the 2005 SCCTA/NCTA study tour, Steve Johnson and I were the only ones to take video cameras. He and I are both convinced of the dramatically increased impact video has over still pictures when presenting material to our students. I will take a small video camera with me on our trip to Japan this summer.

I realize that some still cameras have the capability of shooting short bursts of video footage. I have no personal experience with this. What I have seen produced with such cameras does not compare well with actual video camera material. My digital video experience has been with miniDV tape cameras rather than some of the new units that burn directly to CDs/DVDs or have built-in hard drives. In taking video pictures, the single most useful additional tool is a light-weight tripod. Video images that suffer from camera wobble are difficult to watch, particularly on a large screen. I recently had the opportunity to show some of my video work to the head documentary guy at Lucus Films. Among my various self-criticisms was image wobble due to hand-holding the camera. I was interested and relieved that he did not seem worried by this. He pointed out that much on-location footage today (particularly with travel videos aimed at a young audience) uses hand-held camera techniques to give a sense of amateurishness and immediacy. That said, your video will be much more aesthetically pleasing if it is steady. You can spend a small fortune on tripods. However, I have one I bought for $10 at K-Mart. It works fine for the small video camera I borrowed from Furman University for my trip to India in March, 2008. The down-side to using a tripod is your loss of spontaneity. You have to practice using tripod to get it set up quickly as the group moves on to the next “sight” or site.
 * Practical considerations regarding video**: Your school or school district may have a camera you can borrow for the trip. Be certain to borrow or purchase a digital (DV) rather than “analog” video camera. The value and usefulness of video is significantly enhanced in the editing of such images. Editing can be time consuming, but given current computer software it is relatively easy with digital video. Video editing is complex and VERY time consuming with analog video. I have done both. There is no comparison. (Even using digital footage I find that on average I invest two editing hours for each minute of finished video. That includes setting background music and over-voice where needed.) If you have skilled, helpful audio-visual support personnel in your school, you many not need to worry so much about this. Discuss this thoroughly with your media people “up front” before borrowing or purchasing equipment. If possible, get their agreement to assist you upon your return. Engage them in the planning process and I suspect they will have an increased interest in working with you when you get back.

Each night I recharge my battery and download my images to an iPod. I then clear my memory cards and start fresh the following day. By the end of the trip the iPod will be the most precious item I carry. I have photographer friends who purchase large-size, multigigabyte memory cards, or even multiple cards, and do not download until they get home to their computer. That is certainly cheaper than buying an iPod, but the “tunes” are nice on the road. You can purchase extra memory cards in Japan. Problem may be finding a camera store that is convenient. That presents a hassle rather than an impossibility. I try to plan in such a way as to reduce hassles to the minimum when I am traveling abroad. Two hours searching for a memory card constitutes two precious hours not taking pictures!!
 * 6) Equipment issues on the trip:**
 * Power:** If your camera uses regular AA or AAA batteries, you can easily get them in both Japan as well as China, Korea, and Vietnam. If your camera is like mine and uses a unique rechargeable battery, be sure to buy an extra one and keep it fully charged as a constant back-up. Nothing like seeing a //geisha// coming down the street and your batteries have “gone South” on you. Neither strong language nor tears are of any help at such moments. I have vivid mental images of great shots I have missed over the years. Such mental images are of absolutely no comfort whatsoever! Always __carry__ back-up batteries. Searching for them in shops along the way while we tour during a day is not a reasonable option.
 * Image storage:** If you have a digital camera, you will need to consider how you are going to store your images. Everyone will want at least one extra memory card as a constant backup. Beyond this the issue gets rather personal. On a typical day traveling in China and Japan I take about 125 photographs. If I encounter a festival, wedding, funeral or some other unusual event, the number will be higher. (I did not shoot this many pictures when I was paying $.30 per shot for slide film & processing.) You will soon notice that I shoot several images of one subject if it is interesting. Shoot high, shoot low, shoot round, shoot flat. I will determine the __best__ shot later. “Later” means when I can see the images on a large computer screen. That will not be until I get back to the U.S.. Since the screen on the back of the camera is extremely small, I really cannot tell much about the quality. I only delete images each evening that are clearly out of focus or have some obvious flaw.


 * 7) Camera insurance.** If you have an expensive camera, be sure it is listed on your home owners’ insurance policy. STUFF HAPPENS! At least one person in our group will drop and break their camera. It always happens. Hope it is not me, but I have dropped some in my time. (Stories on request.) Insurance replaced them for which I have always been grateful. I am not really the klutz this makes me sound like. When you carry cameras constantly over a forty year period, honestly accidents happen from time to time. Be prepared for the worst and work hard to keep the worst from happening.


 * 8) U.S. Customs identification**. When you return to the U.S. at the conclusion of our trip there is the possibility that U.S. Customs will want to check over your luggage and ask about anything you have purchased abroad. I always take verification of my camera purchases (all purchased in the U.S.) so I will not be charged import tax on them. There are two ways to do this. One is to take a copy of your sales slip with you to Japan. The other is to take your camera equipment (before the trip) to a U.S. Customs Office and fill out a form showing the serial numbers, etc. which will then by verified and stamped by the officer as having been in your possession prior to your departure from the U.S.. While at the Customs Office I recommend that you pick up a copy of a pamphlet called “Know Before You Go.” This contains a lot of useful information about U.S. Customs regulations that might impact your return home happiness. You never know what might happen upon your return. You could simply get a smile and “welcome home.” You could also get “the third degree.” You never know.


 * 9) The “Pearl of Great Price”-- Carry your camera everywhere**. You never know when something absolutely wonderful is going to happen while you are traveling in Japan. In 2008 after supper one evening when our NCTA group had been on one of my notorious Kyoto death marches, some of us decided to hop a subway up to a shopping street just to see what was going on. No real agenda. Frankly, I was looking for donuts. We were all tired. I was the only one who took a camera! We got there to discover that a parade of guys in samurai armor was underway in a nicely lighted covered mall. I got the pictures. I think you “get the picture.”

I hope this essay will get you to thinking about the photographs you want to take on the tour. Look at as many picture books on Japan as you can find. Seeing what the pros shoot will help us all train our eyes to see more effectively. Serious photographers truly study an environment as opposed to simply passing through it picking up “vibrations.” They look at it large & small, high & low, up & down. This requires a lot of mental and at times physical work. The end results are often deeply satisfying and serve to spark your memory again and again in subsequent years. Japan is going to present you with amazing sights. Practice your skills; be ready!