Film photography in Okinawa, Japan

A few years ago, I visited Okinawa, a small island in the Pacific Ocean owned by Japan. I had just bought my film camera at the time, and so I really enjoyed taking photos during the trip. I mainly used Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak Colorplus 200, on my Canon AE-1 program camera. Japan is such an interesting and photogenic country, and there are so many beautiful landscapes and people to capture on camera.

I visited with my dad, after I finished my final exams at school. I had previously visited Japan as a child; we went to Tokyo and Kyoto, but visiting Okinawa was really different. Located closer to Taiwan than Japan, the climate is more tropical and there is never any snow. The culture also seems to be quite different, despite the people also being Japanese.

We also visited a small island called Ishigaki-jima (jima meaning island in Japanese). We hired a car while we were there and also did some Scuba diving on one of the mornings. The island is known for it's abundance of manta rays that you can dive with, and so we set off, hoping to catch a glimpse of these enigmatic creatures. By the end of our dive we had seen two, and it was the most amazing experience, and definitely something to tick off the bucket list.

Anyways, this post is about film photography, not diving! Here are some of my favourite film photos from the trip.

I had a wonderful time in Okinawa, and would definitely love to go back to Japan at some point in the future. There are definitely more places on the mainland of Japan that I would love to visit, but I don't know when I will next be in Asia!

Out of all of these photographs, I would say my favourite is the second one, of the man with the white shorts on. There is something interesting about seeing a photograph of someone without their face captured. It led me to ask some questions. What does he look like? What expression is he pulling? Does he seem content? There is something both satisfying and irritating about the notion that we will never find out.