フランスのアルプス山中で野生のアイベックスと遭遇したことをきっかけに、思いがけなく写真家としての道を歩むことになりました。道中でたくさんの人達から励ましや支援をいただいて今日に至っています。行き当たりばったりの撮影活動でしたが、いつかその旅で出会った瞬間を多くの人たちと共有できたら良いな。。。と願い続けてきました。今回その願いを実現する為に、７年間の様々な出会いを写真集にする事を企画しています。写真集の構成とデザインは出来上がりました。印刷の資金は、世界的に人気があるキックスターターというプラットフォームを利用して只今募集しています。

このプロジェクトに参加していただくと、後見者としてあなたの名前が写真集に記されます。写真集やリターンの詳細はこのリンクから見ることができます。

www.kickstarter.com/projects/rendezvous/rendezvous-photography-book-project

是非とも写真集を完成させて、出会いの瞬間を多くの方々の元にお届けしたいと思います。皆様のご協力をお待ちしています。

増田弓弦

キャンペーン期間は６月１５日までです。

＊チラシには６月１０日までと記載して印刷されていますが、実際にキャンペーンが終わるのは１５日です！

Hi everyone.  I have just launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in order to raise the fund for printing my first coffee table photo book titled 'Rendez-Vous'.

The book has a collection of 70 wildlife and underwater images from the countries across the continents where I have been traveling to in the past 7 years or so. There are rewards for the project supporters including the books themselves and photographic prints.

If you are interested in knowing more about my Kickstarter project, feel free to visit my project page from here.

If you are not familiar with how Kickstarter crowdfunding system works, please read on.  I put together the outline.

1. The creator (in this case, me) sets the funding goal amount that covers the entire cost for fulfilling the project's aim. In my project's case, it is the total production cost for book printing and photographic prints as the rewards, which I will explain in the next paragraph, as well as their shipping fees and other fees.

2. The creator offers various rewards on the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign page.

3. Individuals who visit the project page can make a pledge for the reward they like receive, at the same time, supporting the project financially. Each and every pledges made by the backers will add up towards fulfilling the target goal amount specified by the creator of the project. You will be able to see all the reward options on my project page.

4. Only if the total amount of the pledges reach the funding goal amount, the money will be transacted from backer's credit cards by the third party organisation associated with kickstarter,  If the funding process ends unsuccessfully, your pledges will not be taken from your bank account.

5. If the funding is successful, the creator will receive the fund after the Kickstarter fee (5%) and transaction fee (3-5%) are deducted.

6. Upon receiving the fund, the creator can begin to do the work to fulfil the project's aim which is to send the rewards to the backers.  In my case, I will be ordering the printed books and prints, sign and send them out to the backers. Logistics are set at the time of the launch of the project and all the service providers are lined up in order to be able to fulfil the rewards to the backers in promised time frame.

If you would like to know more about the Kickstarter crowdfunding, please visit Kickstarter website for more information

https://www.daysjapan.net

４人の写真家の作品を２部に分けての開催です。私が去年の２月にカラハリ砂漠で撮影した写真が、５月の後編で紹介されます。北海道の広大な自然を相手に活躍していらっしゃる素晴らしい写真家、上田大作さんの作品と共に展示されます。自分も日本へ帰国し、なるべく多くの日を会場で過ごせるように予定していますので是非遊びに来てくださいね。またトークショーの開場や日程などの詳細が決まったらブログをアップデートしたいと思います。

　　　2016年5月13日(金）～2016年５月２６日(木）　　　増田弓弦　　　上田大作

　　　開館時間は１０：００～１９：００、最終日は１６：００までです。

　　　会場は六本木フジフィルムスクエアです。　入場は無料です！

５月１５日に展示開催記念のトークイベントがあります。上田大作さんと一緒に写真家としての旅についての話をします。司会は風景写真出版ライフスケープ誌の編集長、高橋佐智子さんです。入場料はドリンク一つ付きで２０００円。下北沢にあるB＆Bという本屋さんが会場です。定員５０名なので早めのご予約を！　詳細は以下のリンクからどうぞ。

http://bookandbeer.com/event/2016051502_bt/

It is currently running in Smithonian Museum in Washington DC and the exhibition will stay open till Autumn 2016.

If you happen to visit Washington DC, It will be well worth paying the visit as the event holds the winning images and a selection of 'highly honoured' images from the past 20 years of Nature's Best Photographer contest.  

For those who are not going to Washington DC, there is a link to their website where you could view the winning imagess online.

Many many Thanks for your support.

Enjoy!

http://www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/natures-best-2015/photographs.cfm

Yuzuru

Hi everyone.

After a long absence, I am updating my blog entries as I am extremely delighted to announce that 10 of my images which have just been taken in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park this February will be a part of Joint exhibition at Fujifilm Photo Salon in Osaka, Japan.

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is located in the north west of South Africa. The west part of the park is bordering Namibia and the border of Botswana is actually crossing inside the park. This semi-arid dessert landscape and its resident wildlife provide fantastic photographic opportunities for photographers. 

Exhibition is free to enter. It will start on 20/03/2015 and will run until 01/04/2015.

I will come back to update the blog further about my South African trip as soon as I upload the images to the galleries.

Many thanks for your support.

All the best

Yuzuru Masuda

今年の二月一杯取材して来た南アフリカのカラハリ砂漠で撮影した写真が今月の２０日から４月の１日まで他の自然写真家の方々の作品と共に富士フィルム・フォトサロン大阪にてジョイント展示されます。

ステップ気候のカラハリ砂漠の幻想的な風景とその厳しい自然の中で逞しく生きる野生動物の写真１０点を出展します。

もしお時間があり、近くに行く機会があれば是非会場を覗いてみて下さい。入場無料です。

増田弓弦

Mt Solomon

David and Zohar

David, Zohar and I set out on the ascent in the morning on the 02/03/2013 from the entrance to the trekking path off the route 12 not far from the Egyptian border. Thanks to the moderate weather in March, it was fairy comfortable and enjoyable walk. It would have been a completely deferent story if it was in the summer as the scorching sun in the dessert can easily cause heat/Sun stroke to the trekkers. The absence of airplanes flying across the desert on Saturday morning added an extra depth to the vast view we enjoyed as we walked along the jugged rocky terrains. 

 

The view of Jodanian mountains from Eilat

Two different mineral colours have different geological times.

When we reached the summit, we took a break with some snack and water.  It wasn't long before Zohar and David started preparing the ground for performing Acro Yoga. Zohar has been practicing Acro Yoga regularly for sometime and she seems completely comfortable to do some of the acrobatic poses only couple of feet away from the cliff.  As the name suggests, it was indeed a very acrobatic form of yoga I never saw before. I crawled around them with my camera and snapped lots of shots. It must feel great to be able to stay in such flying like position on the top of the mountain with 360 degrees view.

 

Acro Yoga on the Summit

We started descending along the steep trails with a few stops for water intake. When we walked further down along the path in the valley, we bumped into a preceding family group looking at something in an acacia tree.

Descending 

I soon realised there was a long-eared owl perched on one of the branches. A young boy was taking some photos quite close to the owl. I hoped that I too would have a chance to take couple of shots afterwards. Unfortunately, my zoom lens's maximum focal length on the longest side was only 70mm. I just hoped The owl would let me get close enough from the top of the rock which was sitting just by the acacia tree. I approached the owl slowly while I was continuously talking to David and Zohar pretending I was not interested in him. The owl observed every movement of me approaching him with his eyes half closed but he did let me come as close as 5 feet (1.5m) to him. He remained composed and did not fly away as if to demonstrate that he is in total control of the circumstance.  I succeeded to take couple of nice shots with my eyes on the same level as his profoundly wise looking eyes! 

 

Wise looking long-eared owl

I was so lucky to have this opportunity to photograph such an intimate portrait of the Mr sage owl.. Then we continued our way back to Eilat city in the mid afternoon sun.

 

End part of the trekking path

 

Just as I (maybe all of us?) was thinking that it was getting a bit hot to get through the last bit of the way, David's friend coincidentally drove by and gave us the lift back to the city entrance! How lucky...

 

Many Thanks again to David and Zohar for a wonderful day! 

 

 

 

 

 

Although it was a very last minute decision to enter this fashion category, with the exceptionally committed team from the Snuba dive centre, I was able to gather enough images to submit for the judging stage. It has been a great pleasure to work with such a great team and I am very happy to be awarded the 1st prize for the "Best Singular Entry".

The portfolio of the 5 images for the "Fish and Fashion" category was also nominated.

Model: Tal Yehezkel

Assistant / Safety Diver: Neta-li Sekler

Lighting Assistant: Hanan Ben David

Special thanks to Avivit for her understanding and ongoing personal support, Sasha for being unconditional in every situations I came across I needed his support, multi-tasking Netali for managing to do a lot of work from understanding the needs for each image ideas to making sure the safety and the comfort of the model which allowed me to concentrate on shooting, Tal the best model for her commitment to execute the ideas that only a person with an absolute enthusiasm and patience could achieve, Hanan for helping preparation and lighting, and Baruch for his personal advice and encouragement.  We all worked day and night for the 3days of shooting and now all has finished. It was such a shame that Tal the model (for the first time ever!) was not able to attend the ceremony as she had to work on that evening after taking lots of time off for the shooting during the competition. Netali also worked during the day as usual throughout the competition and she still managed to memorise exactly what was required for each shooting ideas! What a commitment from everyone.. I have been so grateful and each and every one of our images are real treasures.. Mazel tov to all the participants.

L'Chaim!!!