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"It’s important to spend time getting to know your subject, and to enjoy the entire process of taking a shot."
It puts my mind at ease knowing that my cameras are supported by the efforts of so many people at Olympus. And I understood how much goes into it when I witnessed the superb craftsmanship on display at their manufacturing and lens production facilities. I really like to interact with people and companies that are dedicated to their work — I think it’s the only way to be.
The photographs shown here are from the "La Luce" exhibition held at the Olympus Gallery in October 2007. I used an E-300 to take the shots entitled "Towards a New Spring" and "Comparing Heights." I really like the camera, and these days it’s the model I use the most frequently.
When I took the photo entitled, "Towards a New Spring," I asked some local woodsmen to let me participate in an event called Wakagi Mukae, a ceremony held in early January that ritually opens the mountain for woodcutting. After the ceremony, I stood and looked around and felt the approach of spring, even though it was still mid-winter. Pressing the shutter button, I hoped to capture the light, wind, smells, and sounds of what I was experiencing at that moment. For "Summer Sky," I used an E-400 I got in Europe. When I go to Nagoya on business, I often stop on the way back at the town of Gujo Hachiman. On this occasion I had so much fun talking to the children that I ended up spending half the day playing with them.
It’s my style when I shoot to spend time getting to know my subject and the surrounding environment, and to enjoy the process itself, even as I press the shutter button. To get a particular shot, I don’t mind making a 1,500km round-trip by car, thinking about the shot all the way there, so that my thoughts can mature and be reduced to their essence.
Another important factor is how one responds emotionally to a particular scene. As I often say in my photography workshops, it’s not just about aperture settings and technical matters, but about making new discoveries, even while doing something as simple as setting up a tripod. As you prepare to take a shot, there’s time to commune with your subject, and it can change the way you feel about the photo you are about to take
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