In print!
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.
“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.
2.5 Years, 13 Events, Countless Friends
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 :)
<3
Ever Wanted to Read an Analysis on 4chan?
Neither did I, but then again this is a collaborative paper written by intelligent individuals who attended MIT and University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community is about what happens in a large scale anonymous, transitory community and how such a community produces so much of the internet’s shared culture. The goal of the analysis is to understand the concepts of anonymity and ephemerality and how they effect community behaviours which in turn generate internet culture.
The analysis goes into depth discussing 4chan’s impact and gives some statistics on /b/’s traffic, which in turn is the lifeforce of 4chan. 4chan is described as a fast-paced and chaotic experience, deleting “old” content as soon as new content is posted, feeding the ADD riddled visitors, appeasing the need for a consistently changing and updated visual content ( that last part is my opinion, not that of the analysis).
In other words, it’s an interesting read if you give a care about the dynamics of 4chan and /b/ and its users.
‘My First Major League Gaming Event’ by Jonathan Lee
My new friend and MLG event colleague, Jonathan Lee, wrote about his experiences attending his first MLG event. It’s a nice and sweet short article and definitely worth a read.
I’ve been sitting here for the past hour trying to explain what it feels like to see my name on the same travel itinerary as Boxer’s, Nestea’s and MVP’s. MLG Providence was the first time I’ve seen celebrities in person, and I don’t think it’s disingenuous to call pro gamers celebrities. They get turned into memes, write best-selling biographies, and get deafened by chanting. No one asks for autographs from a normal person.
Read the rest here.
Shafted.
Last weekend was MLG Providence, the final event within the 2011 season. It went great and I thought I did a pretty good job overall. When I landed back home, I received a text message informing me of a tweet from a staffer about how Zemotion, a photographer, got interviewed by MLG. At first I didn’t care because I knew she owned a team, so I assumed it was simply related to her role as a team owner. Boy, was I way off.
While (ironically) going through my MLG Providence photos, I got a Facebook message from a friend, linking me to this tweet:
I read it, and immediately felt like I got slapped in the face by the very company that has had me as their photographer for the past 13 events. I watched the interview and felt even shittier. The introduction was, “I’m here with Zemotion who’s.. pretty easily the best photographer in eSports… no offence to the other great photographers out there…”
Yeah, the “no offense” really made it all much better.
I was pretty shocked after that and utterly offended. I felt completely unappreciated by MLG, I felt like I was disregarded and my confidence was shot. Those creeping thoughts of harsh self criticism all came flooding back and I started to cry. I was really hurt. I went to the galleries linked in the interview and starting comparing my work. I just didn’t get it. What was I doing wrong? Not that I ever expected or desired such a thing, but why was I never interviewed? I have 13 events worth of story and experience to tell… is my work not good enough? I thought I have taken and shared some amazing photos with the eSports community… am I wrong to think that? I’ve never asked for anything in return, I don’t get paid to work on the photos after the event and post them on my Flickr. I don’t receive any sort of revenue from views on Flickr. All I wanted was for people to get a chance to enjoy the photos that didn’t make the cut for the MLG galleries. I take about 4,000 – 5,000 photos per event, having 25 posted per gallery leaves many behind. I just do it for you guys, so that you can see more and enjoy them. What do I want in return? Just a smile when I see you at the next event. A nod, a hand shake, a ‘hey thanks for that new Facebook profile picture’ or something. I work really hard during MLG weekends, 12+ hour days walking around the venue trying to capture everything and all the important moments on a heavily time sensitive schedule, I do this… and then I get what felt like was getting shit on.
So when I read that title, my heart broke a little. It was carelessly written with zero regard to fellow staff photographers. No respect, consideration, or thought was put in to how that would make Josh and I feel. I just don’t know what to do except sit here and wonder when the fuck will I catch a break.
In regards to Zemotion, I have absolutely nothing against her. I want to be clear that this is absolutely not about her. I have nothing but respect for her and if anything I am a fan of her amazing fashion photography. I’m making a request to please stop tweeting at her in relation to the interview, it’s absolutely not her fault and she deserves zero flack. This is between myself and Josh and MLG.
I would like to see a title change to the article and perhaps someone should link Chobopeon mine and Josh’s Flickr pages.
P.S. – I understand that this is the work of perhaps one or two MLG employees, and not the voice of MLG as a whole.
Guy Fawkes Bandana
If you’re into rioting, picketing Wall Street as the 99%, or live in London, this badass bandana is a must have.
From etsy.com user GiantEye
Child’s Play Auction
Joey, a MLG Orlando attendee, worked hard to have many Starcraft 2 pro-players sign a poster of the Reddit Alien and is now auctioning it off on ebay for Child’s Play charity. Child’s Play charity enables the gamer community to make a positive difference in the lives of children and young adults, primarily through donations of toys and games to childrens’ hospitals around the world as well as funding pediatric health research.
For more information on Child’s Play Charity, go here. For the ebay auction, check out this link.
Photos from MLG Orlando
Finally got around to posting the photos from MLG Orlando. I have been getting a surprising amount of love for these photos on Reddit and from miscellaneous people. It has really boosted my “photography confidence” since I was feeling pretty down about the whole dynamic of being an eSports photographer. It’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the rest of the DSLR equipped individuals that come to events with better lenses than I can afford right now. I do get a little discouraged when I see them, but at the same time I just do my best and I suppose I’m doing something right since I get to still do it and enjoy it.
Here is the MLG Orlando 2011 gallery from Flickr. Hope you enjoy <3
One More Down
Another MLG has flown by. I have a sort of MLG hangover where my body is in terrible pain all over and I can’t seem to stay awake for more than 7 hours. During the MLG weekend, Friday and Saturday night I went to bed at a decent time like a good girl, but Sunday night there was a wonderful open bar madness at the Twitch.tv after party. Was great to just relax and sit with friends and have a drink. I went to bed around 2:00am and woke up at 5:30am for my 8:00am flight. Let’s just say I didn’t feel fantastic. Managed to make it to my gate where I got to talk to LiquidJinro for about an hour. He shared some stories about crazy travel woes and funnies. Eventually I got home and completely passed out.
Started working on some photos last night. I managed to take 5,098 photos over three days, and filter that down to about 240 for Flickr. I will be uploading them soon and post some of my favourites on here :)
MLG Orlando
Next weekend is MLG Orlando. This will be my 12th event and my 3rd time in Orlando. It has felt like a lot of time has gone by since Raleigh but that’s probably because the comparison of a mere two and a half weeks that were between Anaheim and Raleigh. Having this being the 5th event of the season and not the last, has me feeling off beat since I’ve only ever experienced a five event season. Can’t complain, the more events the better. I’m really looking forward to what will be happening between this event and the next.
I have been given the opportunity to create content outside of events (writing articles, creating photo competitions, etc.) which will be amazing. I’d love to have an article up on the site. I’m planning on capturing this event in a different style. Going to try to make a sort of photo essay in the eyes of a staff member. We’ll see how it goes… typically when I have these ideas, they seem to dissipate because of all the craziness during the event.
Either way I’m excited for Orlando. Every event is a time to start fresh and try something different.
National Geography Basic Photography Guide
Here’s a really cool 22-page guide taken from the full 400-page book. It explains the basics of photography, from aperture settings to composition.
National Geographic Field Guide
National Geographic Photography Basics [National Geographic]