The Compassionate Friends

I finally finished a website for The Compassionate Friends, a national nonprofit, self-help support organization that offers friendship and guidance to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings.

This website is specifically for the White Plains chapter which my parents have been attending for quite some time. I've joined them for a few meetings and I'm very happy to have met many of the wonderful parents who have, unfortunately, experienced what no mother or father should ever have to go through and that's losing a child. I was honored to create this website and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Design is...

I absolutely love this poster. It's by Juanma Teixidó, a graphic/web designer from Paraguay. The colors, the font, the message - it's perfect in my opinion. I need to research a bit more and figure out what font that is. I want it. I need it.

Tiltshifting Effect

Here's an interesting effect I recently learned (click photos to view larger and more detailed versions):

















It's called "tiltshifting", a very neat trick which somehow makes a normal photograph look like a 3D miniture, kind of like pieces to an elaborate train set. I'm new to it so some of these are better than others but it's really fun... so expect more!

Btw, a few of these pictures were taken by my father in Japan.

Ikebana Lesson 5

Here's what I did at my last Ikebana lesson, only this time using two sakura branches and some lilies. It's becoming quite hard to photograph these arrangements as they are getting larger and more difficult to maneuver around. But then again it's also fun to take them apart and rearrange. Most of the time you end up with an even better arrangement that way!

Very nice poster...

...by Jeremy Prasatik.

Duane Wardlow

My Great Uncle Duane was quite the artist back in the day. Pictured below are some of his early illustrations.










Although his charcoal and pastel work was great to say the least, I find his gauche and watercolors to be the most inspiring. I'm not entirely sure, but I think he did work on ads in the 1950's and 60's. He passed away recently but I'm very happy to have some nice memories of him. I remember him visiting our family once while we still lived in Florida. Near the end of his visit he offered to do a charcoal portrait of me. How could I say no!? I'll scan that soon. Thanks to my cousin, Shayna, for helping me scan these by the way.

He's pictured sitting here closest to the camera on the left:



You can view much more of his artwork here.

Update: Here's the portrait he did of me.

Ikebana Lessons

Last friday I had my 4th Ikebana (Japanese Flower Arranging) lesson and decided I'm going to start photographing all my arrangements. Here are a couple pictures:




My teacher just so happens to be my Grandmother. She's been teaching from her home for many years now and I, being a website/graphic designer, not only realized how much fun it would be, but also how these lessons could serve as weekly design exercises.

Yoshiyuki's Equipment

Here is a selection of photos I took of some of my Ojichama's (Grandfather) photography, film and audio equiptment:


Leica M3 with filters and lenses


Graflex Super Speed Graphic


Birdie Type II Slide Projector


Bell & Howell Design 122 LR 8mm Projector


Keystone A7 16mm camera

Yoshiyuki's Equipment Continued

Canon 514XL Super 8 Camera


Elmo Sound Editor 912-S


Paximat-S Electric Slide Projector


Projecto-Editor 8mm Craig by Kalart


Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 100

My Ojichama died in 1984, so I don't really have any memories of him. But it's clear he had a real passion for documenting the lives of family members and friends. I also have quite a bit of his 8mm movies, many of which I'm transferring to DVD. I'll try and make some of those available to view on here soon. Here is a picture taken of him for a Japan Airlines ad:



You can view additional pictures of his equipment here.

3 Drawings...

...from college years.

Look What's Happening

More Japan 2004