Squirrels

These cute little buggers were running all over Hyde Park in London, and were relatively easy to get good shots of because they were so used to the people everywhere.

ロンドンのハイドパークにはリスがいっぱいおった。かなり人間になれてたから比較的に撮りやすかった。

The Invisible Spectrum: Infrared Photography (赤外線)

I have been dabbling a bit in infrared, or IR photography. You use a lense which filters out everything but the near-infrared spectrum of light. The raw images look like this.



But with a bit of post processing (mostly just removing the colour), you end up with images like this. Infrared light bounces off foliage making it shine bright white. So trees or grass can look quite surreal in IR photography. I still haven't got it completely down, but I'm working on it.




IR Photographyって何？！（このリンクにクリックして）

Snow and Huge Mountains (雪山)

There is nothing quite like the stoke of getting into big mountains in the middle of winter when they are covered with massive amounts of snow. Every year my mates and I head to Nagano, home of the 1998 winter olympics, and spend a few weeks snowboarding and skiing. A mate owns a lodge in Hakuba (the olympic village) and it makes a great base to hit the many resorts and back country in the area. This picture brings back a lot of great memories for me. The mountains are really impressive! Most people don't realize just what Japan has to offer by way of snow, but there is a lot of awesome terrain and snow to be had. Check out the Snow Japan link on the right for a glimpse of what can be found. Or have a look at my Snow in Hakuba gallery on my website at http://giphsub.smugmug.com/ for more pics like these of the snow in Hakuba.

これは長野県白馬村から撮った写真だ。長野県の雪山は凄く奇麗で何回見ても感動する。この写真見たらまたボード行きたい！

Castles

One of the cool things about being in a country like Japan, having grown up in Australia, is that they have castles everywhere which are centuries old. My favourite castle has to be Himeji Castle. I have spent hours wandering around the grounds and inside the buildings. This pic, however, is Hiroshima Castle. It was actually obliterated in the atomic bombing, but they rebuilt it. It's only a small castle, but it is quite pretty when lit up at night

Black Kite

Here is another shot of one my favourite birds in Japan - the tonbi (black kite). Usually you see these fellas from below, so it is quite uncommon to see what they look like from above.

I've been spending the last few days tinkering with my photos website and changing bits and pieces. Check it out at http://giphsub.smugmug.com/ or click on the link for Giphsub Photography on the right.

Silhouette

Dragonflies are quite cool creatures if you can get close enough to take a look. I remember being terrified of them as a small kid, but now they are one of my favourite things to photograph. Check out the Dragonflies & Butterflies gallery on my site for more pics of these cool little beasts.

Forced Labor

When I started my job at a private high school here in Hiroshima a number of years ago, I was "placed" in a club as a komon, or coach. I grew up playing all sorts of sports and have no problem with the idea of helping coach a club, in fact I quite enjoy getting in and running around with the students. But I was told that I was going to be one of the coaches for the handball club! Handball? Isn't that a foul in soccer?? So not knowing anything about the game other than that it seemed to be popular in Europe, I designated myself as the team photographer. This April I was mercifully changed to another club. One which I know even less about! American football!! I'm an Aussie! What the hell do I know about this game! Anyway, I don't think I saw our team win even once in the whole time I was supposedly helping the team, but at least I got some good photos! ;)