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In print!

Kelly — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:37:00 +0000

An article I wrote for my school’s newspaper has been printed and placed on the front page :) It’s my first printed article ever and man, it feels pretty damn good. Along with the article are several photos I took for the “Student Voicebox” and a celebration shot of the Detroit Red Wings on their record breaking 21 home game wins.

Check it out :)

Student-made art project aids Japan on earthquake anniversary

Toko Shiiki-Santos poses in the WCC Photography Lab, located in GM 012. (Kelly Bracha/Contributor)

In the wee hours of the morning last March 11, Toko Shiiki-Santos woke up to distressing news about her home country of Japan.

“I got a phone call around 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. I woke up and listened to my messages. I just couldn’t believe it immediately,” Shiiki-Santos remembers. The messages from family and friends, some arriving via Twitter, too, were all similar.

“I’m alive!” some said. “I’m OK!”

Many thousands were not. The magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. that day, triggering powerful tsunami waves, devastating the Tōhoku region, and causing a number of nuclear accidents.

The death toll is widely reported to have surpassed 18,000. The extent of damage caused by the tsunami was reported to be more than $300 billion.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown is rated a level 7 catastrophe (the highest possible rating). Only one other incident in history, the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986, has attained this rating.

Shiiki-Santos’ mother and sister were together when they felt the earthquake in their home in Chōfu, Tokyo, just south of the quake’s epicenter. Shiiki-Santos, an award-winning photographer and singer, was 6,418 miles away, at her home in Ypsilanti. She felt helpless—and worse.

A photograph taken by Toko Shiiki-Santos for her art project. (Toko Shiiki-Santos Courtesy Photo)

“I am so, so far away from my home place. I felt survivor’s guilt,” she said. “I felt like I had to do something because I felt so guilty.”

And she did. After reading an article telling of survivors finding letters from their lost loved ones within the wreckage, she was inspired to start the “Message in a Backpack” project.

The project began shortly after the disaster and Shiiki-Santos wanted the project to convey how “people in other countries haven’t forgotten. We’re still thinking of you,” Shiiki-Santos explained.

How to help

The safety of the food chain in Japan is critically important, and there aren’t enough radiation detectors in many parts of the country affected by the Fukushima radiation leak.

To help, Toko Shiiki-Santos and Nino Trentinella created the “Dragon Project”—to collect pieces of art created by individuals from across the Unites States, New Zealand and South Korea and connect them to make one long ongoing dragon as a massive collaborated piece of art.

The dragon is then to be put on display in a fundraiser exhibit on Sunday, March 11, exactly one year after the earthquake, at WCC’s Morris Lawrence building from 3:30–8 p.m.

To raise funds, there will be a donation box in the exhibit with a suggested donation of $5.

You may also donate online through the Fukushima’s Child’s Fund at http://fukushimachildrensfund.org/ and the Ashinaga Fund—for support of children who have been orphaned by the Japan earthquake and tsunami, which can be found at

http://kifuform.ashinaga.org

Shiiki-Santos’s band “October Babies” in which Shiiki-Santos is the lead singer, will be performing at the exhibit.

The deadline for creating a segment of the dragon is Feb. 25 and information on creating your own segment can be found under Don Werthmann’s course page:

http://courses.wccnet.edu/~donw.

“Message in a Backpack” project gathered 142 handmade postcards with written thoughtful messages from all over Michigan, New Zealand and France, to be hand delivered by Shiiki-Santos to Japan.

Sixty-one students from Tappan Middle School in Ann Arbor created postcards and were delivered to Hirakata Elementary School in Kitaibaraki, Japan. When Shiiki-Santos returned, she had brought with her responses that were translated and given to the students of Tappan Middle School.

Don Werthmann, digital photography instructor for the School of Digital Media Arts at WCC, helped coordinate the postcard fundraiser and the “Message in a Backpack” project.

Werthmann has a deep connection with Japan. After traveling there several times, he has very good friends in Chiba Prefecture, just outside Tokyo.

“These events made a direct impact on my being,” Werthmann said. “My inner voice kept saying, ‘I’ve got to find a way to help.’”

Werthmann has a study-abroad program in digital photography through WCC and The Japan Center for Michigan Universities. He traveled with a group of Washtenaw students to Japan in 2010 and photographs from the trip are on display on the second floor of the Technical and Industrial building.

“We sold a lot of postcards. The first batch made around $4,000,” Shiiki-Santos said, “and at the end close to $7,000 was raised.”

“Message in a Backpack” donations were given to Habitat for Humanity International in aid of Japan.

In fall of 2011, Shiiki-Santos received an email from Nino Trentinella, a photographer and artist living in France. Trentinella found Shiiki-Santos through a photography competition in which Shiiki-Santos placed first in the “People” category for her piece called “In-between “Midlife”.

Trentinella wanted to work together with Shiiki-Santos on a project that could be completed by the one year anniversary of the disaster.

“I wanted to do something for the one year (anniversary),” Shiiki Santos said. “I knew there was lots of people that needed help still, especially in Fukushima.” Shiiki-Santos said.

Twenty-one

Kelly — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:02:58 +0000

Posted in Photography

I have been on a pretty lucky streak when it comes to going to sporting events this last month. I have especially been lucky to sit right in the front.

The last two Pistons games I attended have been court side seats, allowing me to get some really great shots of the game. For the historic Red Wings game last night, I managed to spend a good chunk of the game right at the glass, allowing for some close up shots.

This was the Red Wings twenty-first consecutive home win, breaking the NHL record.

No lenses over 80mm were allowed, so I made due with the 50mm and wide. Will edit them today.

Pistons vs. Bucks – 2/3/2012

Kelly — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:16:00 +0000

Posted in Images

The boyfriend and I got to attend a Pistons game a couple nights ago and it was pretty damn amazing… probably because we had floor seats. We sat right under one of the baskets. Was pretty exciting being that close to the players and action. We also had the perk of getting free noms inside the nifty little ‘courtside club’. Now if only I can sit that close when the Lakers are playing…

I of course brought my camera with me. This picture is my favorite from the evening.

Check out more photos here.

Nero – ‘Must Be the Feeling’ Music Video

Kelly — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:38:00 +0000

Posted in Video

I love Nero and I love this music video. Fantastic.

Take Off

Kelly — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:51:00 +0000

Posted in Video

Another fun iPhone time lapse. I used a 30 second youtube music clip that you can add to your videos. Pretty nifty. Love this stupid app – iTimelapse

Video Game Photography… a Different Kind

Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:56:32 +0000

Posted in Internet Finds

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

If I were to enter the world created in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, I could only wish to capture the amazing images Duncan Harris manages to create through beautifully constructed screen shots.

Dead End Thrills is a gallery full of amazingly crafted screen captures from video games. Harris manages to turn the world within the game into beautiful photography-like images that capture the games world through an artistic eye. On Harris’ website, he explains further how he does it:

Applying the principles of real world photography to the virtual worlds of games is just part of the solution. Hacking and tweaking games to remove player model, HUD and restrictions on the camera are others. The toughest, though, is rendering games from throughout the 3D era, from Deus Ex to Crysis 2, at truly uncompromising quality. There is a massive difference between running a game with top-of-the-line antialiasing and quality settings, and running it with those same settings at resolutions far in excess today’s norms, using offline resampling to achieve perfect results. Only recently, and after extensive research, have such methods become possible.

The results are enticing and give a better sense to the scale and effort put into the worlds created in each of the games he “photographs”. To see his work, go to Dead End Thrills. You can also follow Ellis on twitter.

Winter/Nature Photos

Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:13:00 +0000

Posted in Images

With Winter coming to Michigan, I’m excited to start photographing snowy nature stuff. Outside my home, there is a field of this very tall plants that are really beautiful when covered in snow. Unfortunately the snow already kind of melted, so I didn’t capture them covered. It was still very beautiful outside (and pretty damn chilly) and I just snapped some random pics.

Flickr gallery here.

Time Lapse: Main St. Winter & Night Drive

Kelly — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Posted in Video

Really need to start adding musics to these…

Created using iPhone 4S iTimelapse app.

How Not to Shoot School Portraits

Kelly — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Posted in Video

School Portrait (2011) from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.

This hilarious video reminds me of the days working as a Pre-School teacher and the dreadful portrait day where sitting on a chair for two seconds to get a stupid photo taken seemed like the most arduous task for a three year old child. Ugh. I often daydreamed of saying such things like that in the video to those little brats :P

via PetaPixel

2.5 Years, 13 Events, Countless Friends

Kelly — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:29:38 +0000

Posted in Articles

Just wanted to “officially” say that I will no longer be working as a photographer for MLG. I have been photographing events since Anaheim ’09 and it has been such an amazing ride. I have met so many awesome individuals that have become good friends, and have even met my current boyfriend through MLG, and I couldn’t be more thankful to have those people in my life. It has been a long journey. I have had many highs and many lows at MLG, but overall it has been the ultimate learning experience. Trying really hard to not make this all sound cheesy…

All in all it is time to move on. I need to start focusing on schooling and branching out in photography. I want to thank all the Pro-Players I have photographed… thanks for letting me shove my camera in your face over and over again :P I will miss you all. I have really appreciated my time with MLG and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I hope to see everyone again somehow, perhaps as a spectator :)