Don't want to go to bed and can't sleep... Don't want to come out of bed and can't get up... Don't want to move and can't walk forwards, backwards, left and right... Don't know why and can't explain...
It was a beautiful day... I saw the people happy and celebrating arrival of the spring...
On that particular day I saw things from different angle and I appreciated what I had... We easily miss the beauty we have around us.
Anyway, we all go thorough up and down, and have good days and bad days...
ご無沙汰しております "Gobusata shite orimasu" Long time no see...
I was going to write 意識 "Ishiki"-part 2, but I haven't been in right mood... So I decided to write something about food and drink.
This is part one... (I hope I continue;-)
One evening, I just opened a bottle of wine which I have kept more than 15 years. A kind of special wine...
There wasn't anything to celebrate and I didn't have any reason to open such a bottle of wine. I just thought "Why not", opened and celebrated an ordinary evening!
I just came back from "Kangeiko", a 6 days course at a Dojo in the South of Germany. At the end of the course, we were exhausted from intensive trainings but we were all happy and enjoyed the week!
I mentioned this word, 意識 "ishiki', during the training. I just looked it up in my dictionary and it says: conscious, aware... We all know these words and have learned it from Karate training... We all understand it is important to be conscious what we are doing and to be aware.
We have repeatedly practiced to focus on one thing, every day, every lesson and every so often during the week...
I was asking the students to do their techniques with consciousness and to pay attention to the specific points in order to realize something very important, to improve techniques or to change bad habits... In the end, after many repetitions, everybody managed to do well. Afterwards, I asked the students to do a different thing, and again after many repetitions, everyone managed to do it. But: Most of them have forgotten the previous point...
I was asking simple things - something about the arms, the back, the feet... For example, position of hands, elbows and shoulders... angle of hips, knees and the posture... feeling the connection between the sole and the floor... something about the mind..., and so on.
If I list up points of techniques, there are hundreds of things to consider which all need to work together in order to correctly perform just one simple technique. How can we learn and do hundreds of things together at once...? Almost impossible! even two or three things are sometimes difficult... We have to focus and work on one thing at the time with 意識"ishiki".
This is very difficult but very important! Not only once, you have to continue and remind yourself all the time!!
Content copy right 2009-2010. Shinji Akita. All right reserved.
Have you ever thought there is a connection between Karate and Photographing...?
I have another friend. We talk a lot when we are together and we try to fix the world's problems...! His name is Carlos Salinas and he is a professional photographer and Karate-ka living in Calgary. One day, we were talking about photographing and he told me: "Photographing is like doing Kumite!" Again, as a good Sensei doesn't say much, he just told me briefly what he means and, typical of me, I didn't ask much...
Many months went by and I kept taking photos occasionally. At the same time, his words crossed my mind.
Sometimes, I managed to take a nice picture but it was just beginner's luck and most of the time I missed the good opportunities... "Ah! this is a nice scene and I want to capture it with my camera", after this thought I first had to get ready to take a picture. By the time finished, it was already another moment and the scene I wanted to take wasn't there any more. I got ready and was waiting for the same scene to happen again... Of course, the scene I wanted to take never came back or happened!!
I am sure most of you who are parents have experienced something like this... For example, you want to take a photo of your child smiling but when you point the camera they don't smile or when you ask them to smile it is not natural...
I literary understood what my friend Carlos had said but I couldn't apply it to photographing. I got frustrated and the time just went by...
When I visited him on another occasion, we again were talking about the world's problems and were trying to fix it! As always, we ended up talking about photographing. I was asking him to find out how not to miss opportunities... His answer was "same as Kumite"! So we started talking about Kumite instead of photographing and after while... Guess what? "Ahaa...!" I realized and visualized the answer.
During Kumite, we presume what is happening the next moment and we get ready to react for it... either block the opponents attack, or you attack before your opponent is moving in or moving back and so on. But it happens in a very short moment, in 0.01 sec or even shorter... The next moment is a different scenario so you never get your opponent. When you see the opportunity, it is already too late! When you see what your opponent is going to do it is already too late! you have to be one step ahead...
So you have to know or be able to see, or may be feel what your opponent would do next. In other words, you already see the moment you want before it is happening, you prepare for that situation and then react accordingly... the more you practice and experience, the more often you succeed and make less mistakes. The probability of your predictions gets higher and it won't be a lucky punch anymore...!
I now practice to predict what will happen before the scene comes up! If I miss it or if it is not happening what I was expecting, then I just let go and wait or look for another opportunity and scene...
Extra: I learned I don't need a good camera to take a good photograph but I found out there is a limitation with it. So now I want a another camera, a good SLR camera...
Being a good driver doesn't mean you can drive fast. You need a fast car to drive faster... Often, good equipment is important for the better performance... Do Karate-ka need a good "machine"? Yes, we need a good machine which is our mind and body, for the better performance! So we have to practice to maintain and make them better!! Mind you, most of us have very good machines but we don't know how to control!!!
Content copyright 2009-2010. Shinji Akita. All rights reserved.
May I introduce myself as a photographer...! It sounds serious but I just enjoy taking photos. I am a beginner and I have just started learning about photographing. I uploaded some photos I took when I lived in Berlin and I hope you like them.
Berlin These are just shots and there isn't much message and title... May be you could see I like cooking!
My camera: Lumix LX-2
Content copyright 2009-2010. Shinji Akita. All rights reserved.
Karate practitioner, living in Germany, running a Dojo in Limburg and visiting Dojos in different countries for Karate courses . I like cooking and I enjoy taking photographs in my spare time...
