within reach: change

because someone keeps stealing my yard sign © kjm

I have refrained talking about the election here, for several reasons. For one, my editorial clients include newsweeklies and a certain newspaper of record - and even though most of the publications I work for wouldn't care, my old, straight journalism roots discourage too much public expression. (I had the pleasure of photographing Michelle Obama for one publication, and she was delightful.)

Another reason, and Marilu will confirm this, is that if I started talking about the election, I just might not stop (this would be the "don't get him started" argument). Lastly, though it may not always appear so, I try to keep the focus of this space toward my artwork and the spirit of creation - by myself, and by others.

All that said, this sign in my window reads "Obama/Biden."

picture maker

© corey arnold, left, richard avedon, right

In applying for a new health insurance plan, I was presented with this list of "ineligible occupations." I'm so glad I chose not to go the route of professional basketball player.

Adult entertainer/dancer
Air traffic controller
Armed Forces personnel
Asbestos/toxic chemical worker
Boxer/prize fighter
Circus, carnival and amusement park performer/worker
Commercial fisherman/crew on overnight excursions
Diver (professional skin or scuba and ocean rescue/recovery)
Explosive worker
Oil and natural gas worker (on and off-shore)
Professional motor vehicle racer
Professional athlete including but not limited to: ballet, baseball, basketball, football and wrestling.
Structural steel worker
Stunt flyer/stunt person
Underground miner

2/95th

© kjm

This week I made the cover of Time.*

I shot two portraits for the magazine's Time 100 story, an annual list of the magazine's most influential people. The subjects were neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor and stem cell researcher James Thomson, both above.

* The fine print: 95 other photographers are telling their mothers the same thing this week. I have 2 photos out of a total of 95 (you heard me, 95) small pictures on the cover. They are each actually smaller than my thumbnail. But it still made my day.

running, not walking

© kjm

Last week I photographed a brilliant embryonic stem cell pioneer one day, and a neuroanatomist holding a real human brain a few days later. Today I photographed at the site of 25,000 year-old mammoth remains in South Dakota. Next week I'm shooting travel stories in Scottsdale and Chicago and starting a series of portraits on a Native American reservation in northern Wisconsin. Whew.

I love my job.

renovation

© kjm

I've been thinking a great deal about my website lately. Without buying too much into corporate-speak, I've started to view the site as my storefront. That's not to say I don't have some actual bricks and mortar that I pay a mortgage on, but the website is my one-stop shop for anyone looking to work with me. Luckily, the lights are always on, hopefully it's easy and fun to browse, and feels a bit like me. This blog is more like a peek in the back storage room, or maybe my thoughts on the daily commute to the day job.

Anyway, I've got new space.
www.kevinmiyazaki.com

within reach

© kjm

One of the things I love about having a blog (besides the lucrative product endorsements), is that it's a place for certain pictures to have a home. A danger of doing assignment work is that you can put yourself in sleep mode until the phone rings. It's possible to be aware of interesting images around you, but what would I do with the picture once taken? Even the work I consider personal is defined somewhat rigidly by project. Easily brushed aside in some professional sense, the danger is losing the curiosity and spark that started me off in the first place. I tell young photographers to take lots of pictures - why should that be any different for me?

I don't know him, but I'm a fan of Channing Johnson's blog. The pictures he posts are small and heartfelt, and it seems like his camera is always in his hands. In my case, I've started to shoot more of what I used to pass by, and some of those subjects are in the space I occupy. It probably helps that I let things sit untouched, but I swear that's not on purpose.

as seen: something new

© kjm

At an early newspaper internship, I worked with a photographer who'd occasionally let me ride with him as he looked for feature art. On a slow news day, a photo of a someone painting a picket fence, or kids playing in a sprinkler could make the front page. Whenever he saw someone doing something - anything, really - he'd turn the car around and say, "What the Hell was that guy doing?," in this excited, amazed tone. The funny part was, it was usually some very small visual happening, but he was both surprised and excited at the possibility.

Yesterday morning, while sitting at my desk in the usual Adobe-inspired haze, I saw this photo, above, and said, "What the Hell is that?" It's also a very small visual happening - shadows on my office wall, but for as many days as I've sat at my desk, shadows have never appeared that way. It's a combination of a sun through trees, a window shade, old plastic window insulation (the lines), and who knows what else. Anyway, very long story short, I love how much depth there is in the image, and it reminds me of some kind of Japanese print.

Mostly, I'm happy at the thought of being unexpectedly surprised.

member, future travel photographers of america

I just returned from an eight-day trip to Michigan, photographing for a new client, Michigan Travel Ideas. It's the state's tourism magazine, and I was shooting a story on wineries, which took me to some fantastic places I hadn't been to before. After a frustrating end to June, in which I waited (and waited) to hear about a big ad job that never materialized, July turned out to be a great month for me. The phone kept ringing, and I shot for other new clients like Food & Wine, Sunset, Success, and Smart Money.

The vitals on the recently found photo, above, circa 1980:
Equipment: Nikomat (Japanese version), 50mm 1.4 non-AI lens
Location: Likely a Great Lake
Hair: Extremely feathered
Camera Holding Form: Not bad
Glasses: Thick
Compositional Choice: Probably should've been a horizontal
Camera Strap Material: Extremely denim

the office as island

©kjm

I just had this thought: Is Google Reader my new water cooler? And if so, does anyone know where I can buy some of those pointy paper cups?