Tsushima Wisteria Festival
I do not know the exact age of this wisteria tree, but I do know it is quite old. It actually is not the oldest one here, but it has been tended to very carefully. It grows apart form the much larger, older collection of wisteria in the background.
Take me out to the ballgame
Chunichi Dragons fans, and a few Hiroshima Carp fans, file out en masse after a tie game.
The slow, crowded slumber down the concourse reminded of just how crowded Japan is.
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“Give credit where credit is due.”
The designers of this flow-chart are credited along the right margin. ↑
“GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE.” says the chart…
Seems like a fair statement, but somehow folks still don’t think twice about using other people’s images without proper attribution.
Obviously the image I just posted is not mine. It belongs to a couple of designers. Their names are written along the lower right margin.
So I was prompted to post this after a friend on a growing social media site found out one of his pictures was used for a premium blog theme sale, without his permission.
To add insult upon insult, he was neither credited nor compensated for the use of his picture. Note that the premium theme in question sold over 700 times for $35 (each time). You can do the math.
You can see the photo and theme here (sorry, dead link since posted; the photographer and the developer were in talks over it as I wrote this).
Obviously the sale of the theme was not for the photo itself, however to measure the impact of the photo on successive sales is beyond me. All I know is that if Tommy Lee Jones found out his image was used for Boss canned coffee without his consent nor compensation, saying that Boss only sells coffee will not keep the lawyers away.
Unfortunately, my friend is not famous, and will probably get nothing out of the infringement. Under amicable terms he might get some free advertisement, but that’s all.
“What can I do to avoid this?” The answer is, “Nothing.”
But you can make it more official. US law more or less protects stuff like this without you having to file paperwork. You can set your permissions in some photo-sharing sites like Flickr.
I always close my posts here with a link to The Creative Commons (below). You can get some ideas there. You can also watermark your work, but there are ways to remove that, too, even on an iPhone.
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Walking to the shrine
A local summer festival culminates in a large precession from the river to the shrine. Despite the extreme summer heat after the rainy season, these festival revelers still kept good cheer. The young boy is being carried as a spiritual totem to the shrine for the final prayer which will wrap up this two-day celebration.
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Shadows and Signs
The position of the shadows on the (ubiquitous) corrugated metal caught my eye.
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Smoking in Japan
Lighting up
It’s an all-too familiar sight in Japan: smokers in clearly marked non-smoking areas.
Since coming to Asia, it has been interesting to see how well the tobacco industry is actually doing. After seeing a series of litigative defeats in my own country, I thought surely the industry was hurt. Perhaps so, but upon seeing vending machines along streets, and staggering reports that more than 50% of Japanese men smoke (or had smoked) made me realize that Asia is still in the 1950s.
Gotta light?
Generally, local ordinances are in place around train stations and schools. Many visitors to Japan will notice increased signage for many things, so plenty of signs are printed, taped, mounted on poles, and even cemented into sidewalks and stairs. Fines can be 2,000 Japanese Yen on the spot, but I have never spotted anyone being stopped …except by my camera.
Apparently nothing stopped this old timer from enjoying a mid-afternoon puff.
Rolling and smoking
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A work in progress
I recently blogged on my 500px.com page about how we are, in addition to technology, a work in progress in of ourselves. I’m speaking from a photographer’s point of view. We often get lost in the process as we focus on our ever-advancing camera gear.
It got me thinking.
I wasn’t looking for a definitive answer or a closing point, but was instead raising that idea for the sake of staying in the moment. Maybe then I could remain aware of myself as I carry on with my photography.
So if the subject of photography is anything other than yourself, the photographer, then why would being aware of yourself be important? I cannot answer that for you, but for me it’s important.
It helps me to balance my presence in, say, street photography where I’d rather remain unseen. More deeply, it helps me to see what impulses are making me frame a subject like so, or choose this or that for a subject. It helps me keep tabs on what affects my work.
But this idea is certainly not restricted to photography. It can pertain to anything.
Are you a teacher? A student? A parent?
It seems silly to ask that as if any of it matters, but it is necessary. No matter what our lives are about, we are all moving from one place in our lives to another. Change is constant.
Does that also seem silly or odd-sounding? Maybe, but saying all of that is not supposed to give answers. I’m just creating a question. Leaving the question open, no matter how simple it is, allows us to keep our realm of understanding fresh. It’s like a door. A shut door will not allow anything in, or out.
Within this environment we can better remain in the present, more acutely tuned into each breath of change as it happens. And if we’re lucky, we can sense the moment of opportunity where we can better control our choices, actions, and destiny.
☺
