From Tim and Jane's Wedding – Getting Ready

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Ceremony

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Ceremony

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Ceremony

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Ceremony

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Reception

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Reception

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Reception

From Tim and Jane's Wedding – The Reception

However there were some fantastic moment’s all round, including my wife’s red taxi being the main weddng car, a wonderful garden bar, and even an impromptu live performance by the great Mike Berry!

She was fascinated by the camera too, so made a great model. There’s more on my flickr account.

They have a beautiful collection of public domain and creative commons licensed material that you can use in any way shape or form that you want. And there are some hidden gems in there too – especially the videos from the Prelinger Archives and Universal Newsreels, which are all in the Public Domain. These massive collections include old TV ads, news archives, historical events and movies of great cultural significance from the first two-thirds of the 20th Century.

One of my favourites was “China’s Children” – an old silent Christian missionary film showing life in old China. In the interests of getting the material out to a wider audience I thought I’d try cut it down a little and put it to music:

I also used a whole load of Prelinger and Universal footage (along with some other CC or public domain footage) for the video I was hoping to make:

I think it’s quite sad that Britain doesn’t have an online equivalent of the Prelinger or Universal Archives, and I think its a compliment to America that they do. This sort of footage is part of our collective history and culture, and should be freely available – at the very least for non-commercial use. After all, us Brits pay the license fee, so surely own the content?

And finally I couldn’t resist one dedicated to Ein, our Rough Collie:

I’m sure I’ll do more, so if you’re interested, keep an eye on my YouTube profile, jamiedigi.

Ironically, this next one was written on a solid steel plate:

And my personal favourite, psychic sandwich making:

For the more serious photos from my Japan trip, see my photography site.

I always find it interesting how the Western media paints such states, showing only images that support the prevailing political point of view, and no coverage showing the nation as a place full of real people living real lives. It was very similar on the run up to the Iraqi and Afghan wars – we saw pain, suffering and terror, not people going shopping, taking their children to school or having a meal in their favourite restaurant. Those things just don’t make news, despite being equally if not more important than the pictures we actually saw before starting to bomb.

The following picture is from a New York Times article on Kim Jong-Il’s health:

I was therefore delighted to rediscover a site I found a year ago, called Wandering Camera. This site documents the visit to North Korea by a curious Russian photographer, who wanted to see what it was really like for himself. Being a tourist, his access to wander the country freely was a little limited, so really you’re seeing the opposite of the current media storm rather than an objective reality, but I still find it enlightening.

I’m going to be a hypocrite now and steal the one photo that most supports my point (if they can, so can I)! There are few photos of people, and most of them street scenes – the following is from the page on historical buildings:

The whole series is backed up by a commentary that pretty honestly describes the good and bad that they discovered along the way. Its all just one person’s opinion, but the sooner we realise that no media or medium is particularly objective, the better!

This lake is in the Nikko region of Japan, not too far north of Tokyo. It was off-season when we visited – its usually packed with tourists on pedaloes. The next day it would snow, and the sky was dark and moody – perfect for a black and white shot. The result was one of my favourite landscape photos yet. Click on the link for a larger version.

Woman at on-train bar: Can I have some hot water to heat my baby’s bottle, please?
Girl serving behind bar: I’m sorry, we really can’t do that any more. Health and safety.

Woman at on-train bar pauses for a second and looks at the menu.

Woman at on train bar: Can I have a mint tea then, please, but leave the tea bag out.
Girl serving behind bar: Sure, it’ll just be a minute.

This is a Japanese right wing protester in Shibuya, Tokyo. They turn up in vans, which they spend an hour or so dressing up with flags and right-wing signage, and then shout their messages over a megaphone for the whole district to hear.

I made a point of standing in front of two of them while they were speaking, taking photos. I thought that if it would irritate them even slightly, it would be a good cause. Check out the full sized photo here.