This shoot was in rather more relaxed circumstances. I took my lights and a dark backdrop to Ginza and photographed the musicians as they were waiting to perform.

I used a very simple lighting setup – two speedlights, two umbrellas and a backdrop. All I needed then was 19 smartly dressed musicians with instruments and smiles.

Shugendo’s adherents are known as Yamabushi – men (and a few women) who undertake arduous ascetic training in the mountains. Favourite Yamabushi activities include hiking for miles on end, standing under waterfalls and walking on hot coals.

These photos are from a press-tour to Dewa-Sanzan in Yamagata, famous for its three Shugendo mountains. As you can see there was some great weather and I got lots of photos of our Yamabushi guide on two of the mountains: Haguro-san  and Gassan.

Unfortunately, photography wasn’t allowed at the third, Yudono-san. That was truly an incredible place, mysterious in the mist and rain. But you’ll have to visit yourself to see it!

I wanted to show his projector in action so we set it up in a small meeting room at his company office. The light on his face came from a small hand-held maglite wrapped in foil to narrow the beam.

Pop fact for Nikon users: it was fun to learn that the projector uses off-the-shelf Nikkor enlarger lenses.

Hard to believe now with the pro-nuclear LDP just voted back in, but last Spring and Summer there was a real sense that the Japanese people were rising up against nuclear power. These were the biggest popular protests since the anti-Vietnam demonstrations of the 1960s.

There was a lot of argument about exactly how many people took part but the last July the Financial Times reported that 75,000 people were at one of the largest Friday night demonstrations.

Things are very different now. The protests have dwindled down to a hard core of determined, largely elderly, activists.

During the summer and autumn I covered several of the protests and set up this Facebook page (please like it – I am uploading new photos one by one).

Personally I am against nuclear power, but my main aim taking these photos wasn’t to put myself on either side of the debate. Rather, I wanted to show how strongly Japanese people feel about this issue.

Popular protest in Japan is very small scale and low key compared to the UK, where I come from. The protests really felt like an exciting time for Japan and Japanese democracy. Such a shame that they now seem to be petering out. As it happens, I’ve struggled even to find publications willing to run these pictures so far.

As a first installment in a substantial backlog, here are a few more photos from my Tokyo Parkour project. (Must get that going again).  They come from two shoots: one in Shinjuku after dark and the other in Shibuya in the early morning.

I learned an important lesson doing the night shoot, namely: “remember to check the weather forcast and the train timetables”. There had been a huge typhoon the day before which gave probably the most spectacular sunset of the entire year so far. Of course, I arrived much too late and only had time to get a few shots with the pink sky in the background.Most were taken with a 16mm fisheye. It’s amazing how the distortion makes the traceurs look like they are flying.

With the Shibuya shoot – at the unearthly hour of 6am – I thought it would be interesting to photograph the traceurs without them moving at all.Glad we got there early in the morning. The light wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but there weren’t too many people around and it wasn’t too hot.

Now I need to have a think about the next shoot.

BLACK can tell his own story far better than I can, so check out his TEDxTokyo talk below. You’ll understand when you watch the video, but it’s always a privilege to interview someone with a dream and the passion to make it happen.

We met in Shinjuku where I took most of the photos. The others were at the Les Oiseaux Noirs cabaret. (I blogged about that a while ago).

As you can see, I took some literal inspiration from the name BLACK – for the outside photos, one strobe zoomed to give a snoot-like effect.

BLACK did a few tricks while I was taking the photos. But he was rather worried for the safety of passers-by because of the oversized solid magnesium yo-yo he uses. It was specially made by a lathe-operator artisan in Tottori prefecture and I don’t think you’d want to get hit on the head by that.

日本語はこちら

ここにあるポートレートは、いつも記事を書かせていただいている航空機内誌用の写真です。ヨーヨー・パフォーマー、ＢＬＡＣＫのインタビュー記事です。

僕よりも、ＢＬＡＣＫ本人のほうが、ずっと、彼自身のストーリーを上手く語っていると思うので、ぜひ、ＴＥＤｘＴｏｋｙｏでの彼のトークを下でチェックしてください。 ビデオを見てもらえばわかることですが、夢を抱き、
それを実現するための情熱がある人にインタビューさせてもらえる、そのことに、「自分はホントに恵まれているな」と日々感じています。

インタビューは新宿で行い、写真のほとんどはそのときに撮影したものです。その他の写真は、Les Oiseaux Noirsのキャバレーで撮りました。 （キャバレーのことは、以前、ブログに書いています。）

屋外で撮った写真は、見てのとおり、ＢＬＡＣＫという彼の名前からインスピレーションを得て、ストロボ・ズームを使ってスヌート風の効果を出しています。

撮影中、ＢＬＡＣＫはいくつか技を見せてくれましたが、 彼は、マグネシウム製の特大ヨーヨーを使っているため、道行く人々の安全をしきりに気にかけていました。 彼のヨーヨーは、鳥取県在住の旋盤技師職人の手による特製品。頭にこの一撃を食らうのは、さすがにカンベン願いたいですよね。

The main reason I was there was to shoot one of the performers, yo-yo artist BLACK (blog post to come). But I got some of his co-stars too: Lu Nagata, Kiyoshi Ibukuro, Juan and Agatha, Philippe Aymard, Paul Lazar and Christopher Hardy. Together they are known as Les Oiseaux Noirs.

This was my first time at cabaret so I really didn’t know what to expect. But it was an astonishingly varied and entertaining evening. Bombastic yo-yo trickery from BLACK, bewitching pole-dancing from Lu Nagata, drum, koto, piano, poetry, tango and song. Paul Lazar played spellbinding violin. The multi-talented compere was Philipe Aymard.

I would recommend that you immediately book tickets to see them. But as far as I know, the group got together for just four shows at Roppongi’s zero hour and have now gone their separate ways again.

日本語はこちら

キャバレーの時間

ついこの前、キャバレー（と言ってもホステスさんがいるのとは違う方のキャバレー）の写真を撮りに六本木へ出かけた。今回は、出演者の一人でヨーヨー・アーティストのBLACK（彼についても、後日、ブログにupする予定）をカメラに収めることが主な目的だったが、彼の共演者らも撮ってきた。

Lu Nagata、衣袋聖志、Juan&Agatha、Philippe Aymard、 Paul Lazar とChristopher HardyがBLACKの共演者たちだ。 全員が一つとなり、 Les OiseauxNoirs（レ・ズワズ・ノワール）として知られている。

僕にとっては、今回が初めてのキャバレーで、一体どんなものなのか、全く予想もつかなかった。 しかし、実際に見てみると、それは驚くほど多彩で面白く、素晴らしい夜だった。大音響の中でBLACKが繰り出す巧妙なヨーヨー技、Lu　Nagatによる魅惑のポール・ダンス。琴、ピアノ、詩、タンゴ、そして唄。 Paul Lazarのバイオリンは、聞く者を魅了する。 Philipe　Aymardは、マルチな才能が光る司会者だ。

今すぐチケットを予約して、彼らのパフォーマンスを見てほしいところだが、 残念ながら、僕が知る限り、彼らが集まったのは六本木のZERO HOURでの4公演のためだけ。すでに、またそれぞれの活動へと散ってしまった。

I decided to walk the famous Shikoku 88 temple pilgrimage – all 1400km. I suppose it worked because after I got home to the UK I got my first journalism job. And the photos I took of the pilgrimage were, in fact, the first I ever sold.

Well, I went back earlier this year to do a story. The first time I had a sleeping bag and cooking stove. This time it was an iPad and rucksack full of Nikon gear.

Life changes, eh.

日本語はこちら

いつか来た道

今回は、どちらかというとちょっと私的な感じがする撮影だった。今から１０年程前、日本で初めて就いた仕事を辞めて、これからの人生をどうしようと真剣に考えていた時期があった。

かの有名な四国八十八か所巡りをやろうと決めた。全1,400キロの道のり。結果は成功だったと思う。イギリスに帰って、ジャーナリストとして初めての仕事を見つけたし、巡礼の際に撮った写真が、記念すべき、売れた写真の第1号となった。

そして再び、かの道へ。今年の初めに、記事の取材で訪れた。
前回は、寝袋とキャンプ用コンロがお供だった。今回は、iPad1台とニコン製機材を満載したリュックサック。

人生とは、変わるものである。

The story was on wakame seaweed in Shikoku. One February morning I was up before dawn to head out onto the frigid inland sea in tiny flat-bottomed boat.

I wore just about every item of clothing I’d brought with me and I still froze my balls off!

Naruto, where I took these pics, is one of the best-known edible seaweed producing regions in Japan. The most famous area, Sanriku, was devastated by the tsunami. So these fishermen had a busy year.

Doing this day in day out for the whole winter certainly makes the job of a photographer look pretty cushy.

Turned out that wasn’t necessary though. Futaki already has a brilliant collaborator in Aaron Wong and the inflight magazine that commissioned me wisely decided to use his underwater photos. (He has some great shots of Futaki under the Shiretoko ice-flow in Northern Japan. Can’t compete with those!)

But I still needed shot to accompany the interview I did. How  to convey Futaki’s relationship with the sea a little? We arranged a shoot down by the sea near Hayama – under the watchful gaze of police guarding the Imperial Villa.

Drizzly and overcast it would have been a terrible day for fun at the seaside. But the light made for some fairly dramatic photos. For the head and shoulders shot afterwards I asked to imagine herself diving. She was a fascinating person to talk to as well as a great model.

I shot the seaside photos with a single SB800 strobe using Nikon’s wireless system. Perhaps I could have used more, But one flash was enough to handle while balancing on a slippery rock!