Celebration

This is one of my memorable photos taken at my previous workplace, in Dubai. It was March, 2008, if I remember correctly, we were celebrating the completion of installing the first 10 km of the Dubai metro Red Line. Most of the workers were from Pakistan, India, Philippines, and Thailand. Their camp was next to the site office where I worked, and we had chatted about their culture, religion, family and many many things. We were all quite different but had same target and assigned duties respectively for the goal. It was such a wonderful experience and would like to share, at least, their passion through the photo.


photo taken by (C)mkyg

For the brothers.

Take Off

So, how far should I get back to start my story? Maybe, the day I taken off?
I had a great photo session a day before my departure, and was looking forward to do my last photo shoot at Kanda-myojin "Matsuri". Unfortunately, couldn't make it but had enjoyed taking on-the-way-photos to DBX(Dubai International Airport).
At Narita, a city close to my home town, has an international airport but no EK(Emirates Airline) direct flight is available, so I needed to take train to transfer to Haneda Airport. The Haneda Airport is located in beside the Tokyo bay and the monorail is the common access to the Airport.

At 8:45pm, I left Tokyo, and arrived Kansai Airport(another international airport in Osaka, Japan)... I forgot, maybe around 10.30pm. It was quite short transit from domestic line to international line. I was runing in the dark airport passage with a big luggage. I was told to bring the 3 notebook PCs to Dubai office staff... they should not have forgotten I am a lady... I did sucessfully brought 3 PCs and my belongings.
I still remember I did not have any excitement nor fear to departure to unknown place. Nothing special, I was walking, beathing, and shooting.

photos taken by (C)mkyg

New Life

Starting new life.


photo taken by (C)mkyg

I was seeking something that doesn't exist any more.
It was in my history book, nothing is in the reality now.

I'm in DUBAI ;)

Hello everyone! On May 14, 5:15am, 30C degree... I arrived Dubai, UAE. As usual, not much special feelings. Just an another ordinary day had started. ;) A driver from our company came to pick me up and checked in the Hotel around 6:30am. Take a walk for a couple of hours and have done some first photo shootings ;) I'm at an internet cafe. Here's our current environment.

MSN Messenger: OK
Yahoo! Messenger: OK
Blogger: OK
Flickr: NG (blocked)
Skype: NG (blocked)

The site which has keyword "proxy" is also blocked.
Anyhow, so far so good. I'd safely arrived in Dubai. ;)

Thank you so much for all your encouragement.
Talk to you soon!

Cold Feet!?

What in the world could I imagine this would happen to me!?
(dear first visitor: I'm living in Tokyo but moving to Dubai in 13days...)
Ok, I need to confess here I was not a good Japanese citizen.
I didn't like Japan.
It was very boring and restricting country for me up till very recently.

I born in a small village in Chiba, Japan.
My family and I left this small community when I was 12 years old.
We move to Los Angeles, USA, had lived 4 years.
Since then, no matter where I go, every time I have cold feet is when I go back to Japan.
I always cried when my aircraft landed at Narita Airport.
"I'm back again...." and a sigh.

I started taking photography about 11 months ago,
and met an unreplacable person 9 months ago through photography.
(of course, everybody around me is unreplacable, but he was something different)
I was considering Tokyo is great place to make money.
There's alot of job opportunities if you try hard. But that was it.
Through photography and him, my mind had changed gradually
and started to loving this country, miss my friends more, miss Tokyo more,
miss him more than I've ever imagined.

Oh yes, I am, no doubt, cold feet.
And I know this syndrome effects only temporary.
Yet, I just don't want to....

Ok. let's go back to packing...........

I LOVE TOKYO!

I am leaving Japan in 3 weeks.
These are the drips of my lovin' Tokyo.
Some photos are from Greater Tokyo area that I've been visiting often while living in Toky.
To see the descriptions about the photos, pls click the thumbnail ;-)

see all photos
Sugamo @ Kogan-ji Temple

Yoyogi @ Meiji-jingu Shrine, Yoyogi Streets

Harajuku @ Omotesando St.

Nakano @ Nakano Station, Yakitori House, Nakano Sun Mall, Nakano Streets

Shinjuku @ Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku Streets, TokyoMetropolitanGovernmentTower, Kabuki-cho

Saginomiya @ Saginomiya Station

Takebashi @ Tokyo Metoro Tozai-Line, Takebashi Station

Motoyawata, Chiba @ Motoyawata Streets

photos taken by (C)mkyg

Wedding Photography

"Do you have time tonigt?" "Yeah."
"I want to inform you in person that we are married." "Ok.. then I'll see ya."
My brother called me at the 4th of March, 2007. His fiancee and him were married on previous day. I had little hang over but went out to see them. We met up at the station close to their house, and move to Japanese restaurant. As soon as we sat on the seat, my brother opened his mouse.
"Miki(my name), can you take our wedding photo? We didn't request the wedding photographer. Can you do that?" "OK..."
My first wedding photography experience had started.


photo taken by (C)mkyg

I went to preview of the chapel and the banquet hall after a week from that day, the 10th of March. I was very lucky be able to make an appointment, moreover, the guide was very professional. I've checked,
- Where and How much the lights come during the ceremony :imagined the time of the ceremony, considered the strength and angle of the lights. these were allowed me to adjust the brightness.
- How, When, and Where the people move : this helped me find the best shooting position(left/right/front/back with zoom/etc..), beforehand.
- The progression of the ceremony : I guess this was most important. I had known what is going on throughout the ceremony, able to make focus on the point quickly.
- The spot that would look most beautiful : this could be more important when you have weekend wedding. My brother's were on Fri, so was not too bad but finding place to take photo for keepsake should have done before the ceremony. Because on weekends, it's very crowded, we usually kicked out as soon as the ceremony finished although not always the ceremony held in a perfect place for photography. Take photo for keepsake right after the ceremony.
- The time table : the time when bride and groom appear in anteroom, when they go to rehearsal, and of course when the ceremony starts. Figuring out the wedding schedule helped me making shooting schedule.
- The changes of clothes : usually, more clothes more length of wedding. to estimate how much memory device I should prepare. In their case, about 4 hours started from the anteroom, the change of clothe was only once. I used about 3G memories and took about 550 photos.
- What they do in the banquet : it was not too hard in their case. the banquet hall had windows, the natural light came from outside add to artificial lights inside. No candle service, no Karaoke on stage.

And today, the 30th of March, was the wedding day. To be honest, I couldn't feel like I was attending a wedding. I felt exactly the same as on the street, taking photos of people. But I knew what will happen next and where I should be ;-) That's the only difference between street photograhy and wedding photography after all. Oh, yes, one more thing. There's commonly lots of white. Be aware for the reflections.

My first wedding photography experience had finished.
This is just a note for my next challenge ;-)

p.s. I haven't got permission to publish their photos with beautiful expressions yet.. if I got it, will add some more photos ;-)


photo taken by (C)mkyg
Happy Wedding! Kenji & Tomomi.