IMPRESSIONS AND IMAGES: 2006

CROSS-PROCESSING IN DIGITAL

So what the heck is 'digital cross-processing'??? Well first off, I was turned on to analogue cross-processing by my friend Adam Hodgins while I was at Lakehead. He had this cheap, plastic medium format camera called a Holga that he used to take square photos. Very talented guy! Check him out!

http://www.sabola.com/photoblog/

So cross processing is when slide film is used and then developed using the chemicals for negative processing. This causes color shifts, over exposure and a funky retro 70's feel. I tried to duplicate the effect using Photoshop.

This is Jenn's Mom's mailbox. I also distorted the image to have it appear to have been taken with a fisheye lens (a hopeful future purchace). The following 6 shots were taken in Japan. The first two at Fushimi Inari shrine outside Kyoto. Insidently this is where the little girl is running at the end of the movie 'Memoirs of a Geisha'. Here is our lovely host Jen crackin' it while talking to Lou. And ofcourse ROCK STAR Dave Prideaux at Osaka Jo during Hanami the Cherry Blossom Viewing season. This shot was taken during our first spring in Japan. We ventured out to Kobe and found ourselves at the harbour. Me. Some random plexiglass sculpture in Kobe. Self-portrait on the Hankyu train. Most likely I was amusing myself and gaining intimate knowledge of our camera on my way to work in Kyoto. This a student in K3 in Hong Kong who's hand is trying to block my shot. Jenn is walking through Victoria park in Hong Kong. I also distorted the image to have a slight fisheye lens effect. Jenn and I stopped on our drive up to Tundra Bay and took this shot using the self timer and some stones to prop up the camera a tad. Well I hope you enjoyed my attempt at digital cross-processing. Any comments or suggestions are certainly welcome.

LIFE IN JAPAN 2003-2005

Well I really had to start the Japan blog with a shot of Mount Fuji or Kinkakuji and since we didn't make it to Mount Fuji...

Unfortunately one of our hard drives died and took about 18 months worth of digital pictures we had taken. Jenn and I bought a film SLR and pretty well forgot about our digital point-and-shoot so we don't have any digital pictures from 2004. We have 1000s of shots on film but I have not scanned them yet.

So what was it like to live in Japan for 2 1/2 years. Well we struggled and grew and were bewildered and annoyed and felt intense kindness from the most unlikely people and places. We ate delectably strange food and were able to travel to places most North Americans scarcely have heard of.

But what we most cherish from Japan is the people...our beautiful friends.

Goodbye Annge and Megan...

I believe the reason for the above get-together was one of the many sayonara (a.k.a. goodbye) parties for the many fantastic people we met who had decided to move on. Although this appears to be a "bad turnout" party, let me reassure you that the eight of us were plenty crowded in our tiny apartment, not to mention our bed to get this shot. (the people you don't know from left to right are Annge, Autumn, Jen, Megan, Edwin and Sarah)

Below is the Yoshida triplets. From left to right, Kyoko, Ayaka and Mitsuki. Our most loved and terribly missed relationships from Japan also includes their mother Tsukiko. The Yoshida family literally brought us into their home and enriched our time in Japan in a way that is difficult to explain.

Now if you don't know who the characters are below they are Dave and Nina Prideaux. Our lives changed after meeting Dave and Nina in the most positive way and they will always be an inspiration to us.

Speaking of people there were lots of people we didn't know and a Sunday afternoon in Umeda made that pretty clear. As a trivial pursuit tidbit of information the hallway I took this photo in is the same hallway where Andy Garcia lost is jacket and passport to the Japanese Yakuza (Mafia) in the movie Black Rain with Micheal Douglas.

The most popular place to have your photo taken at night in Osaka is on the Dotomburi bridge near Shinsaibashi. So when the 'rents came for a visit they also had to have their picture taken on the bridge. While Mum and Dad Smith were in the land of the rising sun, we made our way to Hiroshima. We arrived late and could not get in to a cramped and socially acceptable hotel so we found our way to the 'LOVE HOTEL' district and got a couple rooms. Because family homes in Japan tend to house 2-4 generations of a family, privacy is at a premium so people use love hotels for 'alone time'. It's not in any way dodgy like by-the-hour hotels in North America and the rooms were ENORMOUS.

Back to the real reason for our visit. Here is a shot of the A-bomb Dome. The two following shots are models of before and after to show the massive and complete decimation of the city If you want to see castles, come to Japan.

Himeji Jo (Jo means castle)

Osaka Jo Osaka tower in Tenoji

Our lovely Sakaemachi. Look no further for all your Hostess Bar need and the local grocery store.

Smoke and mirrors and who knows what.

The KIX airport is built in the middle of the ocean 3 km out from the main land. We have seen documentaries on the engineering that went into building the island and building and it is truly amazing. Even if it is still sinking!!!!

If they can build an island in the ocean and plop an international airport on it, why not build an office building around a highway off ramp???? That's right. Buses, trucks and cars drive right through that building.

Since Jenn and I lived in Juso (which means 13 and also means Love Hotel district) we had to walk through the streets and pass the 'hostess bar' touts trying to lure men into spending money and women into 'taking pictures' WINK WINK.

But the hostess bar below was just for Japanese. Imagine if the word Japanese was changed to WHITES. That way of thinking is why it would be so hard to make Japan your home if you're a 'Gaijin' (outsider).

But even with it's flaws the sun sets on Japan and the beauty and culture remain intriguing and unbelievable and we will always have a special place in our hearts for Japan and its people.

KYRA - FOR YOUR LOVE WE THANK YOU

This Blog is dedicated to Johanna Welker.

Her love, courage, commitment and generosity allowed us to share so much more of Kyra's life.

She was born on August 24th 1991 and given to a family that named her Kyra.

When she was just nine months old this family decided they didn’t want a dog like Kyra cause she was kinda like a cat, personality-wise. We went to see her and how could we not take her home and love her to bits. Just look at her!!!!! So that’s what we did.

Kyra has been with us since nearly the beginning of US and even for those periods when there was no US there was still Kyra.

Kyra didn’t bark, she didn’t like chasing balls, she would perform a trick only once before becoming bored and scoffing at us when we asked her to do it again. She wasn’t often cuddly and walked away the minute she had had enough. She moaned at us when we made too much noise while she was trying to sleep and acted like she could care less (after an initial sniff) when we walked through the door.

But she was a gift from heaven and we love her just for being Kyra.

One thing that would get her excited was when we brought out her leash. She loved when we lived near Victoria Park and would take the path all the way around. At the beginning of our walk she would pull & pull & pull.

Then, it was almost like she instinctively knew the humans had hit their halfway point and that we were completing that second half of the loop, which meant only one thing…WE WERE HEADING HOME!

Her pace would instantly turn to a slow, sleuth-like dawdle, where every little scent was worth a good 1-2

minute nose investigation.

She also loved the snow and it was something you couldn’t tear her away from. She would bound through the white stuff and stick her nose deep in it trying to track down the source of some smell.

Kyra was relaxed or laid back or lazy depending on your point of view but then from out of nowhere she would have a nuclear burst of energy and rip around the house like a psyche patient.

And even after years of being on Senior Diet Dog Food people still mistook her for a puppy because she had this child-like prance to her step.

But the years eventually catch up to everyone as they have with Kyra too. So this Blog is to celebrate her life and how she enriched the lives of everyone who loved her.