Zach awry in Japan

28 November 2008 The Four of Us

There’s a lot of stuff I want to post, but Tamaki has been beset by a stomach bug (the upside to which is that Genbo is now bilingually fluent on the subject of multiple forms of peristalsis) followed by an ear infection.

So, the best I have to offer right now is this shot of Genbo and me in the elevator. It represents the multiplicity of self and the fungibility of socially construed identity. Either that, or just one silly father and son.

Elevator’s gettin’ crowded

24 November 2008 A Day of Play

Today it was raining, and, since it is a national holiday here in Japan (I’m not even sure which one; probably the emperor’s neice’s birthday or something), we all went to Borne Lund on Kawaramachi street in Kyoto, an upscale toystore with a great indoor play area. My friend Jeffrey met us there with his son Anthony, and he happened to have his camera along with him. He was nice enough to send me these photos.

Getting a leg up on that astronaut training

If you can believe it, the rule was no throwing balls in this ball cage

Nice arm, Genbo!

And, no jumping….(but even the nice workers seemed resigned to having their admonitions repeatedly ignored)

Jeronimo!

Today was the first time Genbo really played in this ball thing without being too scared

Guess all it took was a slightly older friend

Zoe got her fill of playing in too, but she’s also just recovering from a cold, so she also spend lots of time exactly as you see here.

Aww….

18 November 2008 Genbo and Maki

Fooling around with the ZF 100/2 today. There’s something about the lens that I just love. By far, my favorite pictures tend to be taken either with the Zeiss or my Nikon 70-200. I’ve got plenty of other good glass, but these two definitely add something the rest don’t. Here I was using it to grab some snapshots of Genbo and Maki in a pretty dark room. That meant I had to use it wide open at f/2, which means that only a very small sliver of the frame is in focus. Here you see some of the successful ones (well, except for the first shot below). When you add in the fact that Genbo and Maki were sitting on a rocking chair, and the lens is manual focus only….well, let’s just say it was good practice.

Who cares if it’s not in focus?

Fixing mommy’s hair…

How do I look?

Who knows what’s going on here

Genbo no doubt absorbing some vital piece of parental wisdom

18 November 2008 The most beautiful girl in the world

I just love this picture of Zoe

18 November 2008 Fall colors in Japan this time

These are all taken from my balcony. The colors are all pretty realistic, and I have not increased the saturation at all. However, in order to get the great light and shadow I had to wait until late afternoon, at which point the sun was pointing almost directly into my camera, which kills contrast. So, I had to boost the contrast to keep them from looking completely washed out.

Love those red trees in the foreground

Bigger piece of the hill

The pool at which I swim a few times a week to battle my mid-30’s child-rearing gut

There’s something so delicate about the light on those hills that only partially comes through in the photo

4 November 2008 Fall Colors

We have been blessed by truly beautiful fall weather here in Minneapolis. Today Genbo and I were wearing short-sleeved shirts for a while.

Fall has always been my favorite season; well, ever since I went back east to school when I was 14. It’s not necessarily the colors of the leaves, although as you will see below I love those too. No, it’s a clarity to the sky, which is a paler blue, the light, which is crisper, and the air, which is cooler. Or maybe it’s the light that is cooler and the air that is crisper.

All photos taken with my favorite lens, the Zeiss 100/2. It works fine with my new camera, the D90, except for the fact that it isn’t chipped, so I can’t use the camera’s light meter. That’s not too hard to work around, but it also means that no EXIF information is recorded into the files, so I have no idea what aperture any of these were shot at. This is kind of a photographic bummer, but not such a big deal since I am philosophically opposed to opening up the thing wider than f/4 anyway.

(Click to enlarge at least two or Sarah Palin will become….No, never mind, I cannot even write it in jest.)

3 November 2008 Video of Genbo

Here and here. It seems as though posting embedded video causes some people’s computers to crash, so until I get it straightened out I’ll just post links. I’ve also temporarily taken down the video of the Otsu festival, since that post was the trouble-maker.

3 November 2008 Genbo’s First Halloween

This is Genbo’s first Halloween in America, and he had a very good time. He enjoyed it with his step-sister Linnea, who showed him the ropes.

He was Curious George, which strikes me as fitting because he A) loves Curious George, B) was born in the year of the monkey, and C) has always seemed to me to be very monkey-like (in a good way) in his love of and playful manner of cavorting around.

Conquering yet another porch with Linnea

I love his nervous expression here (”Um, dad, you’re suuuure this stuff is all for play, right?”)

No nervous expression here

“Hey Genbo, no eating while still on the porch! It’s declasse.”