Oscarson Photography

I take my time with my rolls of film. I like when I get a roll developed and it has months of memories that I had forgotten I had recorded. Like sunny fields I walked by, a walk with my wife on a pier, a random get together with a friend…

The black and white photos are taken with a Canon AE-1 on Ilford XP2 Super black and white with a 50mm lens. This is the same camera my mother used to capture every family event for the first year of my life. I seriously love this camera. Looking at it brings back a lot of great memories of hanging to the camera strap while out walking with my mother at my brother’s cross country meets, or a birthday party or other outing. Using it feeds my love for analogue manual camera control.

The last couple color photos were taken with a Zorki 4 on Kodak Gold. The film was exposed mistakenly just a bit and I kind of like the Holga like feel it gave the images.

I am excited about every shot I shoot on film. When I shoot digital, with a top of the line camera and tack sharp glass, I am pleased with maybe 1/2 of what I don’t delete. With film, I somehow justify even the junk shots as containing some kind of artistic element that makes it worth keeping. Take the last couple color shots; if I took those with my Canon 5d mark II, I would have deleted them without bothering to process them. But having them via film… for some reason they become my favorites.

A boring post to read. Sorry. Here are some photos. The first of Sho is already my new favorite picture of her. Taken in Boston just hours after my interview that landed me this job in Japan last fall. I’m not going to bother explaining the rest. Just enjoy.

To finally give the answers to last post’s quiz, the news was that Sho is pregnant (due June 20), and we moved to Japan in February. The third thing is that I got a new job in Tokyo, but in hindsight, that is not exactly something you could have derived from the photo, so it was unfair to include. My apologies.

This new job opportunity, and the move itself, happened very fast. We did not have time to even let most of our friends in Japan know we were coming. We are here now and trying to get settled.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s do this proper; using photos.

In February, Sho and I said goodbye to Washington,DC. We loved living in DC and there is much we will miss. Mainly living so close to family.

I will miss having this park along the Potomac in Georgetown to shoot portraits. The location looks great on Sho.

We did this last shoot with two good friends who we already miss dearly.

We are super excited that they are expecting as well. Our kids will only be a couple months apart. What’s more exciting, they are expecting TWIN GIRLS! They are coping with this bit of news very well.

So then we moved to Japan. We had just under two weeks to get registered, find an apartment, move in, and get the basic essentials. Thanks to prayers and guidance from above, we were able to do just that. This picture is taken at low tide, but the view from our balcony is one of my favorite parts of living here.

It was cold cold cold when we first moved here, but it has slowly warmed up and the amazing cherry blossoms in the three parks adjacent to our apartment are exploding with emotions of spring.

For those unfamiliar with this time of year in Japan, it is traditional to go do a picnic under the cherry blossoms as soon as they appear. It is usually a very chilly picnic, but it is our way of showing that winter is over, and we can look forward to better, more comfortable days.

I would be remiss to not mention my good friend Tim. This is Tim in his home-built Time-Machine.

Ok, it is a track worthy Honda Integra that he loves dearly. He takes me to track days so I can practice my track photography.

Tim is the one who introduced me to the job opportunity that brought us to Japan. He and his wife have been instrumental in getting us here and making us feel immediately at home. I have mentioned their kids in past posts, but I just can’t get enough of them. I think we will walk through the cherry blossomed park to their house later this afternoon to celebrate Easter and all of the hope this season brings.

Without further ado, Merry Christmas!

There are three parts to this card. Some of the people who look at this blog already received the actual card in the mail, but for those of you who have not… this should be fun.

I’l be back to explain… later.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 I hope you are where you want to be doing what you feel you want to be doing for this wonderful holiday!

Thank you all for making this year so wonderful for us. 2012 promises to be an exciting year!

So, for those who stuck through that last post, I’d like to bring you up to date… almost. Let’s do September through mid-December. On Christmas day I plan to post our Christmas Card here and that should bring us up to date. For those who have seen our Christmas cards in the past, you know we put some thought and time into them. This year is extra-ly so. So for those who have seen it already, don’t ruin it for the rest! Thank you.

Now then, where was I? Oh yeah, about to come back from Japan…

Really, there is not much of a story to tell here, so I will bring you up to date on some of the work we have done since September. Enjoy.

These good friends have amazing timing. Their #1 was born Christmas Eve. This #2 was born Halloween. How cool is that?!

If you know me, you probably know Clay. He’s got himself a gorgeous girlfriend. He’s proof, for the doubters out there.

My sister needed some updates too…

I need to do a proper blog to share this family’s story.

and one of me…

Ok. See you Christmas Day.

Happiest Holidays!!

(It’s long but mostly pictures so just scroll down, if you like. I understand.)

You’ve twisted my arm long enough…. ok, no one has said anything, but that’s ok, because I wasn’t thinking about it either… obviously.

I started building a new website that would incorporate this blog, but Sho was not in love with how it was turning out and then the summer got crazy busy and I haven’t touched it since. Our photography has been semi-busy too. Sorry. Anyway, here’s a sum up.

First I went to Japan for work. It was a LONG and HO~T month to be working mostly outside in Japan. But it was a great experience. The student run conference that I manage went really well. I am just amazed at the level of dedication and ability of the student leaders. They became very good friends and I hope they remain so.

One of my jobs during the conference was to get a lot of good material for my organization’s new website. I did all of the photography and videography on the site. I am actually pretty happy with it all. The videos are… alright. I’m working on it. Even simple interviews are a pretty big production if you want them to look  right… so they don’t all look right. Anyway, pictures from the 63rd Japan-America Student Conference (JASC).

Did I mention that this conference is kind of a big deal? Especially in Japan. Anyway, these two were the chairs of the conference. They are unbelieveably capable and responsible. Far more than I am. I got to spend a lot of time with them, mostly carrying water for the rest of the delegation but I don’t bemoan a minute of it cause they made it so much fun.

When the conference finished, I put the students on a plane back for the U.S. and I slept for about 40 hours straight.

Then Sho came. And we mucked around in Japan for a couple weeks.

That is Sho’s mother on the left. She is amazing and amazingly fun. The friend on the right met us up north in the tsunami stricken area where Sho’s amazing parents had moved for six months to do volunteer work through the LDS church. We tried to do our part by spending one day aiding in reconstructing their cities, and one day reconstructing their economy by doing touristy things. The people there were so grateful for customers. It was a pleasure to visit their temples and eat in their resturaunts.

Words canNOT describe what we saw there. It was just shockingly unbelievable. This used to be a string of pretty houses and a city on a bay. In the distance you can see what remains of the tsunami wall that the wave broke through.

This last one was taken no where near the ocean. That boat does NOT belong there.

We felt guilty that we had done so little to help. I didn’t mean to be such a downer.. I just needed to show  a little of what we did. Let’s see what else…

Sho got a haircut. She refuses to get one anywhere but Japan.

Then we did some work for some people in Osaka and Hamamatsu. Wonderful familes we did work for a couple years ago. They were so gracious in working with us again. I hpe they see improvment in our work from two years ago!

This is the view behind Sho’s family home where she grew up. How amazing would that be?!

We ate a lot… mostly tasty meat.

We hung out with Sho’s brother (Left of me) and sister (Right of Sho) and cousin (on the far left). That was really cool. We’ve never been able to do that before.

We did Tokyo Disneyland with our good friends. They have the cutest kids. I could play with them all day! I just don’t want to spin in that cup anymore than I have to.

I don’t think their little girl is quite ready for big costumes… or at least big noses. Maybe that’s why she didn’t like me too much either. She likes Sho a lot though. Sho has a small nose.

We went to a festival and danced with the locals.

Japan is just a really amazing place.

Complex, yet stunningly simple. Warm and considerate, but oddly able to permit everyone their space. I like it… I could live there.