Aces High

Went up to Fukushima last Sunday on a job. These flying horsemen turned out to be pretty photogenic. With a lens range between 16mm - 70mm , mainly the hight and space got more of the images than the often used closeup shot with a long tele lens would give you. The motorcycle scene has as anywhere else its "own" photographers. Many times doing the same framing and composition over and over again, shaping somekind of unwritten rules. By breaking these "trends" and produce a new set of angles is just healthy for the "industry" if you ask me. For example, put a famous motocross photographer on a fashion shoot for a glossy mag and you will have something you have never seen before, this goes both ways of course. By keeping close to the subject (like Capa once said!) proves to be the ticket most times. I seldome work with a telelens except for portrait/fashion jobs. 4649

Random TV Dinners

Some random projects I've been working on lately, shots for you to ponder over on calm October nights. The end of October but the weather is perfect for shooting outside, cool and dry with a mix between clear sky and soft box acting thin clouds. Heavy rain will follow, something I like since it changes the mood drastically. Sucks to be on a bike with a camera bag in the rain though.

USUGROW -Linchpin Literatura Maximus-

USUGROW, the extremely talented illustrator has just come out with a new art book. I was asked to collaborate with him for one of the many CD jackets he done for varoius artists. Since I have been shooting the one and only New Wave Of Japanese Heavy Metal band called PULLING TEETH for many years now I was honored to be given this chance. I really like USUGROW as a person and his art work as well...outstanding stuff!

www.usugrow.com









To see guys like USUGROW produce these kind of art work is very inspirational for me, it makes me wanna push harder for my own art in photography and fight harder to reach out with wht I have to show.




PULLING TEETH web : www.smd-web.com/pt/



Thanx USUGROW and best of luck in the future with whatever you decide to do with your art form, I'll back you up with everythign I can.

4649

RxKxBx -SPEEED NIGHT- 17 NOVEMBER @ 9pm (new time)

SPEEED NIGHT is just another reason to join up with eachother and ride hard and fast with no rules in mind, all through the dense streets of the biggest city on the planet.

The Ghetto at 9pm (changed from 5pm), be there if you feel ready for a nightly assault on the pride of Tokyo, the Tokyo Tower and back.

Be Safe / Do Or Die



Also, on November 6 at 7pm, we have been invited over to check out this fashion show in Roppongi called SALONISTA. Bike fashion...? Hmm, wonder what that might be... I'm a Dickies and Uniqlo guy, still riding strong(er)!



Thanx for the invitation Nobby san, see you there!

www.stereojapan.com

Linchpin Literatura VI

I haven't been updating the Linchpin Literatura post for some time now so here is a couple of "better buy" suggestions for you, building up a more defined sense of your own. Take inspiration from these people and shape your own style and you will be an inspiration for others, give AND take.



Mario Testino's ALIVE, this famous fashion photographers snap shot collection is nice. A reminder that keeping it simple works and a positive boost that it's not as much in the equipment as it is in the eye of the beholder the secret to great photography lay. Why is is that so many top notch photogarphers seem so... gay? I am far from homophobic but if that's where the secret is I am doomed.

Nigel Parry's BLUNT is a nice collection of portraits of famous people. There are many images in this book I really don't "see", but a few of them really makes me want to focus on portrait photography more and more. It's in these dark and contrasty black & whites I find my aim and this brings me inspiration to never give up. That's what photobooks do, or should do anyway. Give you a wider perspective of your own style and from there it's only your self that can take it further.

I love good photobooks and this is the only "hobby" I have, to collect a big volume of other to me great photographers work. Sure, photograph, travel, ride bikes, listen to death metal, get tattooed and all that is dear to me but that's a lifestyle, not a hobby.

-Stay tuned-

Monochrome Safari II

B/W images taken during the early years of mwcp. For me it's important to go back to the roots of your vision from time to time to help you stay on track and remember that when your eye was less influenced by what you are doing at the present you were shooting with another goal in mind, a more pure and less profitable i.e. more egocentric mode. Funny thing is that a B/W images for me now would look and be shot pretty different from in those early years. The composition might still be in the same direction but the reading of lights, contrasts and moods has changed, for the better or for the worse is a question I have to struggle with forever I guess. You should develop into something new and more precise as long as you know where you stood in the past and keep that in mind shooting in the present. The future is happening and the present became the past just now...

Payed My Dues...

...Which brings me back on a fast and slippery memory lane a couple of years. A close encounter with a taxi on the neighborhood zig zag streets was a reminder that you shouldn't put too much trust in a vehicle with taxi plates. Things like this can't take overhand in your riding style, speed will prevail, just have to be a bit more observant and build up faster reflexes. After core rider master Motoyans's full-contact encounter last Monday we are now down to 0-2. There is a wind of change ripping through the city as we speak...RxKxBx

Payback time...revenge is a dish which tastes best served cold...