Will Robb Photography

A Happy New Year!

Usually I like to end the year with a review of that year in photos of some of the work we have done, but a combination of working up until the 29th and having my best friend from Scotland and his fiancee over to visit has slightly delayed things a bit this time round. As with most years, 2011 came and went in what seems like no time, but in the last few years it was probably 2011 that impacted our lives most. The events of March 11th gave us a lot to think about and after a years of good times and bad, am really grateful that my friends and family are all happy and healthy, you can’t really ask for anything else.

2011 got off to a good start. In January Sue quit her job working for an architects firm and started helping me more, I had landed a job as chief photographer at Whisky Mag Japan, work was flowing in nicely, I did my first product shoots and the year was off to a good start:

In February, things continued to go well. Lots of assignments for Whisky Mag Japan, once again we were chief photographers for Asia’s biggest Whisky event, Whisky Live Tokyo 2011, we had some great fun private hires, work from one of our UK trend forecasting clients was regular, things were really going well and the cold of Spring wasn’t getting us down:

March changed our lives. It started off wonderfully, we covered Tokyo Girls Collection for Tokyofashion.com, had our first wedding anniversary, had a great assignment to Hokkaido, we were supposed to be there from March 8th-12th, with the 11th being a day for us out at sea photographing ice-bergs, but unfortunately (I thought at the time) we couldn’t get a boat to take us near the ice-bergs and we returned home early on March 10th. The next day March 11th and huge earthquake and tsunami killed more than 20′000 people. In a year which had started off so well for so many people changed in an instant. We were in a shopping center when the quake struck, it felt like the place was going to fall down around us and the ground shook so much it felt like we were running drunk when we tried to get out. Once outside and safe we could barely stand for the temors.The trains had stopped and there were no buses or taxis so we had to walk home. I remember getting in expecting the worst, but our place was thankfully barely damaged. I remember backing up my photos from Hokkaido as the TV showed images of the tsunami damaged areas burning. With the nuclear power plant in Fukushima exploding and the threat of radiation it was a very scary time, trains stopped running, phones didn’t work, panic buying emptied the stores and despite some very financially tempting offers to get up north as soon as possible from some newspapers, I stayed put with Sue as I didn’t want to leave her alone. Family comes first, always. Since March 11th there have been a total of 6757 aftershocks as of today, still not an ideal situation and the fear remains. When the situation in Japan just seemed to get worse and all our work for the next two months got cancelled, so we left for a month and went to the UK where luckily we managed to pick up work:

We returned to Japan mid April. We had already decided that we were going to move back to Scotland. It had been on our mind for a few years, but the events of March and a lot of soul searching led us to decide that our best option for the future was to leave Japan. A day after we got back to Japan we had a decent work offer for the UK. Had it been 2 days earlier, we may not have come back. It was a hard time, in April and May we only had one small assignment and at times I really did wonder if we had made the right decision in coming back. However, the one assignment, a store review for Tokyofashion.com was interesting in that the owner of the store really was the kind of person who had come up with a concept she loved for her store, she designed it around the theme of the “Wizard of Oz” and offered “English, Japanese and Furbish” (Furbies are animal/aline things…I think?) language services on her website, perhaps 99% of people wouldn’t think it was a good idea, but she stuck to her guns, opened a business and kept it going with her passion and for me that struck a chord. Also, we’d started to arrange plenty of work from June, so our spirits were good from May despite lack of actual hands on work:

June saw the work load come back and we were much more relieved. We traveled to Kanazawa on assignment for Whisky Magazine Japan and I had lots of assignments for them in and around Tokyo. It felt really good to be working again and as always, we got to meet lots of great people whilst on assignment. There was even a wedding thrown in for good measure:

July saw things continue to go well, there wasn’t a whole pile of work to do as we were getting ready to go to Korea near the end of the month and I was also spending time sorting out a Lonely Planet submission. Still, we had some show reviews which were nice:

Whilst in Korea in August I did some work for various clients and I got a nice offer to cover some corporate events for the biggest Casino’s in Asia and they flew me back to Japan earlier than I had planned, but I managed to double up the jobs in Tokyo and Osaka with other work, so it all worked out well. All the while Sue was still in Korea (for a further 5 weeks) to get her driving license so she can convert it to a British license once we get there:

September rolled around and there were more fashion shows to cover for Tokyofashion.com with Tokyo Girls Collection, some more exhibition reviews for Stylus, a really good live music gig with Rafven for Whisky Mag Japan and I continued to have fun with work. Luckily Sue got back as well, driving license in hands and the world is now a slightly less safe place to be:

October was a busy month, our first baby shoot, Mercedes Benz fashion week for Tokyofashion.com, work on a Living Japan Guide to Tokyo, so plenty to keep us busy:

November saw us busy again, more fashion shows and live acts to cover for Tokyofashion.com at the Tokyo Girls Award, a family portrait, more work on the Living Japan Guide and a trip to Kyoto for Sue’s work, for me a time to relax:

December was about winding down a bit and getting more and more ready for our move to Scotland (in 81 days from now), packing boxes, preparing Sue’s visa application, seeing friends, but we squeezed in a bit of work for the wonderful people at Tokyofashion.com who I am very grateful to for giving us so much work and so much fun for yet another year, the Grimoire Xmas party I previously blogged about and the Harajuku Kawaii fashion show:

So, 2011 was a big year for us, we did lots work wise, we were lucky to stay healthy despite all that happened in Japan and our thoughts really do go out to those who suffered in Japan and in other disasters and wars around the world. Every year brings hardship to the world and I feel truly lucky that Sue, myself and our friends and families managed to be happy and have fun doing what we do, we were lucky to have avoided hardships, we got to travel lots of amazing places, meet some great people we have become friends with through work and spend great times with our old friends as well.

I really am grateful for all our good fortune in 2011 and we feel ready for the challenges of 2012. I know this is going to be a hard year, moving country will see a big drop in work for a while, but I am sure that over time we’ll build something better.