Constant dropping wears away a stone

Back to present on of my most labor intensive and dearest hybrid media pieces yet... It started with an assignment to cover our sensei & dojo for a German magazine a while back... You can read about that here.

Now I had some great images of Imaizumi Sensei and our dojo. And I was getting more involved in the multi media aspect of things as well... So I tried to figure out what other ingredients the piece was still missing... I wanted a narrator who was somehow personally connected with the piece. After sensei declined I approached some of our more senior students until I ended up asking Warren Wynshaw for his input. It wasn't that he was low on my list, but I didn't want to bother him with what I felt "unimportant" stuff... Not that it was unimportant to me, but not necessarily important for other people... To my huge surprise he immediately agreed to participate and we ended up recording his voice over just a few weeks later...

The last obstacle was - as usual - in my mind. I started writing the soundtrack early on and there were only minor changes to it over time... One thing that bothered me was the "fake guitar" that I had used to create a measure of grit and earthiness... It was fine, but lacked the authenticity I was looking for... I approached two of my friends (Christian Wilkes and John F. Richards), who after a series of delays delivered their tracks to me within days of each other... So, I ended up with two distinctly different, but cool guitar tracks that I really liked... An embarrassment of riches... It took me quite a while to figure out what to do. Fellow aikidoist, jazz alto saxphonist and friend Richard Tabnik came to the rescue and suggested using both of them in different sections of the piece...

In the end it came together quite beautifully me thinks. And it comes to show that persistence does have its merits after all... I guess the trick is to figure out if there is a message with projects that get stuck... And what that message could be...

Two things I love...

When I was tasked to handle the contact with a German writer who wanted to interview the head teacher of the aikido school I practice at, Imaizumi Sensei, I was very excited... In a usual class setting he doesn't really speak that much, so I was curious to see what would happen in an interview situation... What would he share? What pieces of wisdom would he impart? When it turned out that the magazine actually chose me to supply the images for their article I was even more excited... I had been studying at the Shin-Budo Kai main dojo for about 8 years and finally it was time to combine two of the things / arts I like best: Aikido and photography.

I figured I would shoot two classes, the interview and a short formal setting after the interview... And was kindly permitted that setup...

I was of course nervous... I always am. And I get made fun of for it as well...
Usually I am my harshest critic, but in this case I felt I needed to make an extra effort because I wanted to be able to go back and train and not have the shame of a failed shoot follow me around...

And I found new appreciation for what sports photographers do... It is actually not that easy to show the most typical part of an art, a sport or a technique... While it was suggested by a veteran sports photographer to just light a scene and have set up techniques I decided against it... I wanted to capture some of the fun and intensity that I know exists in aikido... That came of course with a price: Low mixed lights and circular motions in changing degrees took their toll in regards to file quality: Noise and missed focus were not making things easy... But in the end I am very happy with what I got.

The images show the story layout for my portfolio & website. For me they show a mix of concentration, intensity and fun that makes aikido so special to me.