ok, some edited photos

Ok, here are some photos that I have edited. Some were just made black and white. Some were made partially black/white and color. And then others were given a "pop art" feel. Any comments are good comments, so leave them if you want.

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cool news

Well, my week is almost over (I mean my work week; I still have two days of skiing ahead of me). So, this week has been busy, and it might be a late night at the office tonight. Next week, I will be starting my first adult class here in Japan. My first class will be for five weeks in a row, and will have around 20 people. Not really sure who is going to come, but I think it will be a real fun time. So this week, I need to put the finishing touches on my material for the first class. Now it is a little difficult to know exactly what materials to put on the worksheets, but after next week it shouldn't be too difficult. Like most things, I just like to have a general idea of what I want to do, and then I just wing-it.

Well also this week, I have had people over for dinner two nights in a row. On Tuesday, I had a couple of Japanese friends over for dinner; Kesami and Michiru. Both work at the restaurant on the top of the mountain in the next town over. I meant them at a party we had at the restaurant after I did a Christmas event a while back. They can speak English, and I can speak a little Japanese. So, now we trade English and Japanese lessons once a week. I hope that this will improve my Japanese. I cooked pasta, homemade meat sauce, and a salad.

Then, last night, I had a group of friends from Toyoshina over for dinner. This is the regular Wed. night dinner club, and this week it was at my house. It is always fun to have dinner with these friends. This week we made gyoza (stuffed Chinese dumplings), salad, Cha-han(Fried Rice), and dessert; very good I might add.

So, for three night in a row, I am doing dishes. And my back hurts. Do you wanna know why? It is because my kitchen counter tops are 26 and a half inches high (about mid/upper thigh on my body). This is extremely low for me? So usually I have to take a break from washing every 10 or 15 mins. For reference, most kitchen counter tops are 36 inches high in America. What a difference.

This week I have also been playing with my photo editor on my computer and have come up with some interesting photos. These will be posted later today.

AND NOW FOR THE COOL NEWS. On March 13, I will be in a movie playing a Russian diplomat. The movie is called "Silk" and is directed by Francois Girad ("The Red Violin") and will be staring Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean), Alfred Molina, and Michael Pitt. You can go to http://imdb.com/title/tt0494834/ and see a little information about the movie. On March 5 or 6 I will go to Matsumoto to have my costume fit. Right now it is being made in Italy. Pretty cool, huh.

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ok, tomorrow

Well, how much times flies by here in Japan. My weekdays and weekends just go so quickly, I simply don't know where times goes. Maybe in Japan, time moves at a different pace, or maybe I am just having a fantastic time (although no scientific investigation has yet to take place, I think it is the latter of the two).


Any who, I have been working on some photos and trying to do some creative things. It is a lot of fun, and after I finish working on a few photos, I will load them up tomorrow. Critiquing and praising is always welcome.

Also, I will post some information on a pretty cool thing that I will be doing on March 14, my birthday. All I have to say is that I love living in Japan. As you say in Japanese, 明日ね(あしたね, ashita ne); translation; see you tomorrow.

a beautiful morning

It was a beautiful morning and I had a little time before work, so I ran into my house and got my camera. I got two really cool shots.

The first photo shows a the blue sky with the sun shining over the mountains; this photo was taken about 8 in the monrning and is looking westward.

The second photo was taken at the same time, but is looking eastward. As of now, I am happy with this photo, but not thrilled. I think that I could do a little more. First, I think I need to straighten the photo a little. Second I need to work on the over-exposed highlight in the top right corner.

Well in additon to these two photos, I also was walking back into my house, when I caught a look at my car and the ski rack on top. For some reason I just wanted to take some up close pictures. These are the photos directly from my camera, although now I am doing some digital darkroom editing on them.

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in the next couple of days

Well I have been a little busy this week working on projects and such, but within the next few days, I will write a couple of different posts. I have some good stuff to talk about.

slater,

another excellent weekend

As usual, I had another fantastic weekend here in Nagano, Japan. The week just flew by; all of the sudden, I realized that it was Friday morning and another weekend of skiing was just a day away. Who could ask for more.

I left for Hakuba early, early on Saturday morning. The traffic wasn't bad getting there, so I got to the chair lift at about 7:15. This morning, though, there were quite a few cars in the parking lot; Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. Most of the time when I get to the lift early in the morning, the lot is empty. So I went up to the ticket office to purchase my two day pass, and then I realized why it was so busy.

This weekend, there was a race taking place on the mountain. While most races are exciting to watch, this one was special. It was a two day Para- Olympic style event where racers had some sort of handicap. Some racers only had one leg, some were blind, and some had no use of there legs. So how did they do it?

Well the racers with only one leg just had one ski. It was amazing to see them go down the mountain. The racers that were blind would ski with a buddy. Although I didn't see them race first hand, I have been told that their buddy will ski ahead of them and use a microphone to tell the blind racers whether to go straight or turn. And finally, the racers with no use of their legs would ski sitting down on a special sit with a complex spring/balancing mechanism that was attached to one ski. All in all, I was completely amazed by the skill of these skiers. Sometimes I have a difficult time just skiing one two skis with use of both of my legs.


Any who, this weekend I was also shown some new tree/avalanche gate runs on Happo O-ne. Now that I have my new skis, I am getting quite a bit better at navigating these runs. However, skiing through the trees and stuff is a lot of hard work; much harder than skiing on the groomed runs. But to tell you the truth, there are a 100 times more fun. It is a whole different world when you feel like you are just alone in the mountain.

Well here are some pictures of the handicap skiers.

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Jan. 2006 posts

So far, I have added many new posts to my blog, including a good number of pictures. So you don't miss out on any of my posts, make sure to visit the archived link on the right hand side bar to view Jan. posts. On Feb. 1, they will be archived and removed from the front page.

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skis

Yep, I have three pairs of skis now. I came to Japan with only my ski boots, and within 6 months I have acquired three pairs of skis. Here is the run down

Atomic ETL 168cm with Atomic s310 bindings:

I purchased these skis used from a friend that I met in Hakuba. It was coming to the end of Sept., and I needed to get a pair of skis before the ski season started. Luckily, I found a guy that was moving back home and needed to sell a pair of skis, so I bought them. These are pretty good skis, for carvers (see below). They turn pretty well on the groomed track. They were a good choice for my FIRST pair of skis.

Volkl P40 178cm with Rossginol bindings:

These skis were free; zip, zero, nada dinero. I went to a bar one night with friends from Toyoshina, about 25 mins from my house. At the bar there was a live band playing, and my friends was friends with one of the guys in the bad. After the show, my friend and I went to the musicians house to because my friend was going to get a snowboard. When we got there, his house was like a ski shop. At first he brought out two snowboards, and then he said, "wait, I think I have another one." In total, there were three snowboards and a new pair of bindings; my friend was given 2 snowboards (one of the brand new) and a pair of new bindings. However, in addition to the 3 snowboards, he also had 2 or 3 pairs of skis. One pair was too short (brand new Atomic 156cm), but the other were the 2 or 3 year old Volkl P40s. He ended up giving me the P40s; pretty cool if you ask me.

These skis are quite fun, and fast on the groomed stuff. They are a little too thin to go off piece. Also, these skis are designed for the moguls, something that I have yet to really get good at. I guess having these skis will give me a good excuse to get good at moguls.

Volkl Karma 177cm with Marker 12.0 Free Ride bindings:

These are the skis that I bought new from a great shop in Hakuba called Rappi. As I started skiing more and more this season, I realized that I wanted to do more than just ski down the groomed track; I wanted to go off-piste and into the powered. The carving skis would just not allow me to do this. When I would try, I would just sink in the powered. Also, I wanted to start doing some easy tricks, like switches and 360s. Once again, carving skis are not designed for this.

So in come Fat Twin Tips. Fat refers to the fact that the waist (center) of the ski measures 87mm; most carving skis measure between 67mm and 70mm in the waist. Since the waist is wider, that means that the tip and the tail of the ski are wider. The wider or fatter skis allows one to "float" on top of the powder, which is amazing. Now, I would mention that my skis are classified as freeride/all mountain skis: skis that are able to do the park (half pipe, kickers, etc) as well as the powder. Some powder only fat skis can measure up to 125mm in the waist; that is huge!

The second difference in these skis is that they are twin-tips. Twin-tips refer to the fact that the tip of the ski and the back of the ski are similar; both ends are rounded and flair up. As I was thinking about it, it is almost like a smaller version of a snowboard. A snowboarder can "switch" (pull a 180 degree turn on the ground) between goofy and regular stance with ease because of the snowboards flared up ends; now I can do the same on my skis.

In total, with the fatness and twin-tips of my new skis, I don't think I will ever go back to skiing on carvers anymore. I just don't see the point. I can do everything I can on my new skis that I could do on my older skis and more. So, I think I will see the pair of Atomic skis, but I just might keep my Volkl P40s so that I can practice my moguls. Oh yeah, these marker bindings I got for my new skis are amazing; they are made out of titanium, so they are light. When I start doing some serious back country skiing this spring, this will be nice when I have to climb up the mountain with my skis because there is no ski lifts to take me up!!

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白馬(Hakuba) in the morning

So, I bought a season pass to go skiing in 白馬(Hakuba), as mentioned earlier (I go every weekend!!). On my first weekend of skiing this season, I got to the slopes at around 7am. I was so excited that I couldn't help but leave real early in the morning. I am glad that I did, because I got these wonderful shots of the sun rising over the mountains.

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town pictures, 筑北村

Here are some pictures from around my town I took maybe a month or so ago. If you remember, I know live in 筑北村 (Chikuhoku). The village named changed back in October when 本城村(Honjo), 坂北村(Sakakita), and 坂井村(Sakai) merged together to form one village.

For some reason, I really like the picture of the cement truck going down the road and the women walking down the path with her dog.

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nikon d70s

As I mentioned, I bought a new camera here in Japan: the Nikon D70s. It is an amazing camera. This is not only my first SLR camera, but it is also my first DSLR(Digital SLR). SLR stands for "single light reflex" and deals with the ability of the image coming into the lens to be reflected 3 times, I believe, directly into the view finder. Not sure of all the details, but I know that it is a good thing.

So I have always wanted to have a cool camera, and now I do. However, using this new camera is a learning experience every time I take a picture. There are quite a few, by which a mean a thousand, options to adjust the camera before taking a picture. Compound that with all the post-production possibilities and almost anything is possible.

Below are a few pictures of the camera. In addition to the body, I also purchases two lenses: a 28-80mm Nikkor DX and a 55-200mm Nikkor DX (Nikkor is the name of the Nikon branded lenses; DX refers to the fact that the lenses are CPU controlled. A CPU lens can send information about aperture, zoom, etc to the camera body, which then stores it in the meta-data for the picture.)

Oh yeah, I should mention something that I read on dpreview.com (an excellent digital photography website). Konica Minolta will no longer be making DSLR cameras under their name. They plan to sell all their assets to Sony Corp. From a Konica Minolta press release: "In photo business, represented by the silver-halide photography such as color film and color paper, we have produced Japan̢۪s first photographic paper in 1903, and Japan̢۪s first color film in 1940, thus pioneering joy of photography for more than a century. In 1984, we introduced the world̢۪s first compact washless photofinishing system known as a minilab system. The minilabs contributed to the expansion of worldwide photographic market by making photos closer to consumers and amazingly shortening delivery time." It is just too bad.

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this was pretty cool

Well here at school, every now and then a teacher is asked to give a demo class. Usually this is nothing special, at least as far as I can tell becuase I usually can't understand the entire lecture of the class. Well it was different with 野村先生(Nomura Sensei) gave his demo class (He is the guy in the background in dark blue). Before I go on, I should also mention that 野村先生　was the champion for the Matsumoto area.

So what is he doing in the picture and what was he champion of??? KENDO. Yep, Kendo; it is sort of like fencing except for pratice they use bambo swords. These swords weigh a good amount and I would image hurt a little more than the thin metal blades used in fencing, although I have never tried.

Any who, it was quite fun to watch this demo class. The Kendo pratice begain by a short meditation period followed by a short lecture. I knew that they were trying to clear their minds before the Kendo pratice matches, but I am not sure the exact instructions during the lecture. If I had a guess, it might be don't get hurt as these large and heavy bambo poles are being swung at your face, or something similar.

And so it begain. Students put on all the gear: a helmet with a metal face guard, a plastic torso/chest guard, some padded gloves, and their own swords. Putting on all the gear took a little time, as there were plenty of things to be tied, and straps to be straped.

The fighting began. Although this was my first expereince with Kendo, I think I would know how to beat a Junior High School Samurai if I was forced to fight one on my walk home from school. (I do live in the mountains, so there are some traditional Samurai that have seemed to survive through the ages. The trick to not confronting them in a death match is to give off loud grunts to show you status. The louder and deeper the grunt, the better.)

Back to the strategy. In all the matches, it went like this. The two would face off for a couple of seconds. "A" would make the first move. "B" would block the move. "B" would deliver the fatal blow to the top of the skull or to the side of the neck and yell "Huggghhh," or "haaaaiiii." And repeat.

Yep, that's the trick. Just wait for the other guy to make the first attack, then block, kill, yell. Quite easy.

click on my ads

I am trying something new. I have put some ads on my blog through Google Adsense. I don't think that the ads look too bad (they do blend in pretty well). Plus they might help me earn a little extra cash. So, just click on the ads when you visit the site and see if you find anything interesting. Already, I have found some cool websites that might even make my blog a little better and more exposed.

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skiing, skiing, and more skiing

Well, my first winter in Japan has been filled mainly with one thing:skiing. I have skied over 20 days this season so far (and it is only the end of January!!). On Saturday, when I went to the lift station at Happo O-ne, I used my last two day tickets in the ticket book (every time you go skiing with a season pass, they take a ticket out for each day). I was wondering how I was going to get my second ticket book for next weekend. At first, I thought I would have to go through quite a hassle that weekend. Stamping and writing my name numerous times. But to my surprise, the I was just handed a new book. And then there was skiing.

Well I have only been skiing for 4 years, but this is my breakout season. I have skied so many days, that I have improved dramatically. And on Saturday, I started to get a little bit more adventurous. At first I started skiing a few easy tree runs off the cat track next to the women's downhill run. Not too bad, and I felt pretty good. However, sometimes I just can't make the turns quick enough, so I have to stop and reposition myself. So the day was off to a good start. I did some more runs, and was pleased to find a little powder here and there.

And then I saw it. The open face of Happo. Of course it is out of bounds, but I saw a few people go down it. So I said to myself, I can do that!!. I took the lift up, skied under the rope, and I was there. It was just beautiful. I meant a couple of Australian snowboarders who were also going to ski the open face. I went down. I skied through amazing powder. I felt like a pro. Once you got down the bottom you had to maintain your speed as you traversed along a hill until you hit a cat track to take you back to the lift. As I was getting back to the cat track, I took a high line to keep my speed. I saw the cat track, and then I saw that I was going over a drop of about 5 feet. I couldn't stop, and as I went over the drop I did a half flip into a huge pile of powder. I flipped my skis over my head and kept on skiing. It was great, and to boot other people saw my performance and were impressed. I did the same run two more times; sweet.

Well I think that Sat. was my best day of skiing so far in my season (I think I say that every weekend, which is a good thing). Next weekend will be more of the same.

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powder

this run is so sweet!!first 2 times this season and more to come:)

New Direction for BLog

Well, well, well.  I have found it quite difficult to write for this blog.  Can't really point at any specific reason; well maybe laziness.  But that doesn't matter because this blog is going to go into a new direction.   It will be transforming from a text based blog to a PHOTO BLOG.

A Photo blog, you ask.  Well it is fairly simple (the name explains all).  Photos will tell the story.  There might be some text alongside photos.  However, photos will be the main content.  I have done this for several reasons.

First, it seems that I would never want to write for the blog.

Second, I bought a new digital SLR camera (Nikon D70s), so I am taking a lot of pictures.

Third, I found this great, FREE, photo hosting site.  It is absolutely amazing.  Not only can I store over 2.0 gigabytes of photos, but I can also do something really, really cool.  I can take a picture on my mobile camera phone, attach it to an email on my phone.  Add a little text.  And then have it posted to my Blog.  Remember, this is all from my mobile phone.  Pretty cool, I think.

Well I think that this will be a viable plan.  However, I do need you help.  I need you to leave comments and such.  Read my Blog so that I know I am doing something worthwhile.

Slater,
Zach 

mobile post

testing mobile post!!

testing zoto photos

This is a test of my new free Zoto service.

Testing Zoto

Testing Zoto