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A while back someone posted a comment
about how, while they like my phtotos, the felt as if
I had worn myself into a rut and were just presenting
"polite" images. Polite in the sens that they
were technically good, but also sanitized to only show
Japan in its most pictuuresque light.
They were right.
I was trying so hard to produce "postcard"
quality images that I totally lost sight of the fact
that photography is not just about what a photo looks
like, but also how it makes you feel when you look at
it.
Consequently I have recently started
to not worry so much about producing technically perfect
images and have started to slowly move into a more experimental
and to some extent abstract style that attempts to capture
how it "feels" to be in Japan in addition
to what it "looks like" to live here.
As I step into this new direction
I have decided to play around with a little cross processing.
(But in a 21st century kind fo way) Instead of going
the traditional wet-developing route, I was instead
lucky enough to stumble upon a great cross-processing
action for Photoshop.
You can find it here at Shanzcans
photoshop tutorials page. (The site uses frames
so I won't directly link to the page) Just click on
the link for "Shanzcans Tutorials" and scroll
down to number 23 to find it.
By no means will I stop taking "normal"
type images. I'm just branching out a little bit more
as my photograpohic style matures.
I guess I am just making the natural
progression from the eye to the soul.
But the traditional side of Japan
has captured me, just as effectively as if I had been
bound up in chains. (but with a lot less chaffing...)
So I will continue to also present photos that are as
true to life as possible.
I could do it no other way.
You see, I’ve been so long time marinated in the
sights of traditional Japan that they will forever flavor
my photographic style.
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On a slightly more Japan-centric note
I would like to talk about a subject that in the past
has received far too little attention here at Sushicam....
Durable goods deregulation, stagflation
of the Yen, and the effect it has had on Japans growing
trade rift with South West Asia along with the implications
preseted by this fact on Japans fiscal tax code.
No.
Not really.
Just checking to see if you all awake
out there. (And if you were, reading that short paragraph
may have been enough to put you to sleep.)
Now that I have surely lost half my
audience with that brief tyraid into the blithering
land of boredom me get back on track.
What I really wanted to discuss was
this:
Japanese baseball teams have some
really funny names.
While the root team name itself is
not so strange or anything (Giants, Dragons, etc...)
it is the sponsors names that, when combined with the
team name, make for some really obtuse combinations.
My personal favorite among Japanese
baseball team names is the "Nippon Ham Fighters".
The root name of the team is "Fighters"
Which to me sounds more like a good name for a hockey
team, (or Viagra knockoff) but who asked me?...
This is a good aggresive, powerful
name. And by itself no doubt brings the right kind of
mood and spirit to both the players and fans. But enter
the sponsor and now you can see how things can quickly
start to slide downhill.
The sponsor for the Fighters is a
Japanese pork product company, named "Nippon Ham".
(Or "Nippon Hamu"
if you want to get technical...)
So their name goes from being a respectable
"Fighters" to a somewhat less serious, but
by all means unoffending (unless you are Muslim I guess)
"Nippon Ham Fighters".
Nippon Ham Fighters.
At least for me, this name conjures
up visions of people clubbing each other senseless with
big bone-in haunches of pork. (But I've already had
two beers so your milage may vary....)
Clubbing people with large slabs of unprocesed food.
In a way this could actually be a much more entertaining
sport to watch than baseball...and may warrant further
investigation...
(And, a lot of the payers already
have the basic moves down. 1. Grab a club-like implement.
2. Swing it as hard as you can.)
Now a quick summary of some of the
other names:
The Yakult Swallows - This ones reminds
me of that old joke, "Whats the difference between
like and love? Spit or Swallow."
Fukuoka Daiei hawks - In America this
would be like a team being named the "Seattle Wal-Mart
Sea Hawks".
The Yomiuri Giants - The New York
Times Yankees.
Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes - Los Angeles
AMTRAK Dodgers.
Yokohama Bay Stars - This teams wins
the awards for not only having the most normal sounding
name, but also for changing their name the most over
the years. Originally called the Taiyo Whales and founded
in 1950 by a fishing company, they were renamed as the
Taiyo Shochiku Robins after a merger. For some reason
or another they then changed their name back to the
Whales and then in 1978 they moved from Kawasaki to
Yokohama Stadium. The change in location prompted the
team to add the word "Yokohama" to their name.
In 1993 the Whales changed their name to the current
"Yokohama Bay Stars".
Just in case someone from the japan
League is reading this I wan tto add a few ideas of
my own I have for expansion team names:
- The Kawasaki Comb-Overs
- Yamonote Gropers
- Team Tanuki
- Seibu Squid
If case anyone else is interested,
here
is a site that talks about the differences between Japanese
and American baseball.
Comment 26
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