There's a teenager in Japan, Natsumi Hayashi, a self-trained photographer who took a simple idea and ran with it. I love her photos for their simplicity and testament to hard-work and perseverance. She takes hundreds of photos jumping, trying to get just the right pose to make it appear as if she's actually levitating. Her work reminds me of the levitation in such films as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero".
Allen Murabayashi, of Photoshelter, had this to say about her and her work, and I totally agree: "lots of people take homage shots, but they’re just jumping in the air. They don’t levitate. They don’t jump 100 times for the perfect image. They don’t do it over the course of a few years to make it their own. She’s just a girl with a camera, and then all of a sudden she got a gallery show and a 5D, and I was really psyched for her. Her photos inspired me to levitate, and what could be a greater gift?"
Maybe her hard work will inspire to you go that extra step in pursuing your idea of a great photograph.Her work is here, enjoy.
I can't believe that not only does she shot these but she is the subject as well. Faster than a speeding shutter. I think we need a theme for our next photo shoot. How about a having a beer at an Irish pub?
ReplyDeleteShutterpilot:
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know where to start, to be able to find the exact time to "click" the shutter. It would be hard even if you had an assistant
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
She gives her steps on her webpage:
ReplyDelete"With a self-timer
EOS 5D Mk2 has a 10sec. timer as it's longest timer set up. This means that I can get away as far as 10 second distance from the camera after I press the shutter release button.
First, I get a composition and a focus manually.
Then I press the shutter release, run to the right position for a levitation as checking the camera's blinking red LED counts down 10 seconds and jump by my intuition.
In this manner, I need to jump over and over to get the right shot."