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Photography by Julia Miho Nakamura

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  • 3/30/17 ~ Final edit of one of my favorite shots from earlier this week for my friend Adrien's birthday! We had very little space in my room for it all, but we made it work somehow. I've had this image in my head for a while now; so fun to make it reality! Hair/ makeup/ henna/ photography/ edit: Julia Miho Nakamura Model: Adrien Burch
  • March 24 '20 ~ Some thoughts from my couch here at home: New beginnings. The primordial and infinite story of the simultaneous process of death & rebirth. Disguised within confusion and disarray; I'm trying to stay hopeful within it all. Let's see what this next chapter holds.
  • Nov. 20 '15 ~ These are the final edits from the photo shoot yesterday with my friend Tana. For this series, I put the camera on a tripod for use with long-exposure (around 4-5 seconds). After the strobes went off, I had her move into another position and try to hold that pose for another couple seconds, creating the "ghostly" effect and blurred colors. I accentuated the colors a bit more in post-processing (especially the pinks) to give more contrast & interest to the photos.
  • Sept 8 '16 ~ Second edit from the shoot last month. This took around 10 hours to completion, maybe even a bit more, not counting the photo shoot itself. The effects were created using various smoke brushes, and lots of color correction work. The hardest part (as usual) was cutting all my hair out of the background. Photoshop + hair = nightmare. Fortunately Photoshop CC makes it easier with the refine edge tool when working with layer masks. I probably could have done this in less time, yet a lot of it was spent looking for the perfect brushes online, trying those out & tossing those in favor of others. Even more time was spent perfecting all the colors until I was completely satisfied~
  • 7-31-17 ~ Here's the final edit to a self-portrait photoshoot from last week. It's a combination of a cut-out of myself and layering with textures and a photo I took of a design on a kimono I had bought on my trip last year to Japan. (I had found a store in Osaka that was selling these amazing fabrics for $10 each!! I bought enough to last me for photoshoots for the next few years lol). The smoke was created by playing around with various photoshop brushes. My camera (Sonya7ii) makes it super easy for self-portrait work; it has a wireless connection to my phone, and through my phone I can see exactly what the camera sees and push the shutter button all through an app. I had an Einstein strobe connected to a large softbox to create a soft light source. This light was connected to my camera through a wireless radio flash trigger i.e. a Pocketwizard. I did this all in my room with some seriously limited space, but somehow made it work in the end. The behind-the-scenes is always the fun part. It's the part that few people see but also the most important. The final image is just the very end of the road~
  • Dec 18 '15 ~ Edit from a shoot a couple days ago taken @ Highland Park in Ben Lomond. I've been wanting to use this place as a backdrop for a long time now & finally got the chance! I used a 47" octobox and put a grid on it as I wanted the light to be even more directed to create more of a spotlight feel. A lot was done in post-processing to make the water & branches "pop", to make the fabric a uniform color (it was a clashing red and magenta in the original), and to color tone the rest of the photograph to help the red stand out even more~ Model & amazing voice artist: Katherine Factor Art piece and help behind the scenes: Telopa Treloky Taken by: Sony a7ii 28-70 @ 28mm f/5.6
  • Standing at the gate of imagination... Hair/ makeup/ photography/ edit: Julia Miho Nakamura Model & amazing voice artist: Marya Stark Dec 26 '15 ~ This composite edit is from two main images, one of which was shot against a white backdrop a couple months ago in my living room (Marya), the other, a photo I took a year ago in Mandalay, Myanmar of an entrance into the Kuthodaw Pagoda temple complex. The sky and the birds were from images found online. This edit took approx. 9 hours, plus a 3 hour composite photography video tutorial, which I had to watch twice for the information to really sink in. So approx. 15 hours total, most of which was done on Christmas day. So much has to be taken into consideration when cutting images out and pasting them together. The lighting has to match as well as all the color. More knowledge than just photoshop is required, as its essential to understand the basics of how light works. There is just so much to learn. I only feel like a beginner with the knowledge needed to make a successful composite. I choose these two images as they seemed like they would work together as far as lighting and perspective is concerned. The umbrella is from Myanmar as well, so seemed like the images would blend well. I'm planning a potential trip to Japan in the spring, to visit family, but also to take more images to use for composite photography in the future. Asian art and architecture, to me, is beyond exquisite; to be lucky enough to work with it and to experience it brings me all the joy in the world. www.juliamihophotography.com
  • 4/5/17 ~ This is the second edit to the shoot last week with Adrien. This was a super intensive edit that made my head spin and make me feel like I was about to go crazy. (Which seems to be the norm lately when deep in Photoshop-land). What made it so tricky was the many duplicates of the exact same layer (cherry blossoms) with the same exact cut-out layer mask (cut-out of Adrien's image). This made it super difficult to keep track of what part of which layer I was working on as each layer at first glance looked almost identical. This final image was the 5th try as I wasn't completely satisfied with the 4 other edits leading up to this one. I still feel like this one isn't 100% perfect. But if I keep going, I'll go crazy for sure.. To make it even more difficult was the search to find the exact cherry tree blossoms I wanted to use. It's a very specific tree; the one that I grew up with in the front yard of my childhood home. I have so many fond memories of the beauty of its petals each spring. I remember my Mom always admiring its full bloom every year, and since it's coming up on the 10th year anniversary of her passing, it was really important for me to use these exact petals in this piece. Lucky I found the tree of my DREAMS in FULL bloom on my way to work a few days ago. Yet since I was in such a rush, I took as many quick photos as I could yet only later did I realize there was no SD card in my camera. So all the amazing stock images I thought I had never even existed in the first place. It was a rush against time to find another of the same type of tree in full bloom. I frantically drove around my neighborhood and hit the jackpot only a few blocks from my home (thank gawd!) There's just so much that goes on behind the scenes for any type of art. For just one edit from a shoot, hours pass in no time. I'm guessing this edit took around 7.5 hours, not including any of the time for the actual shoot, nor the time taken watching countless photoshop tutorial videos online, nor the time taken for the previous four mistake edits or the time spent looking for the perfect tree. But, this is the work that speaks from my heart and brings me true joy, and at this point, I can't even begin to imagine my life without it~ Hair/ makeup/ henna/ photography/ edit: Julia Miho Nakamura Model: Adrien Burch
  • Self~portrait, July 26 '16
  • Nov. 18 '15 ~ The third edit from yesterday's shoot with my friend Ash ~ I took the white balance way down into the cool tones as after the first two edits I was tired of staring at red & yellow! The green light to the sides was focused and directed by adding honeycomb grids to the strobes. At first I disregarded this original as there were others I thought turned out better. But after reviewing them the next day, I saw its potential & decided to see what would come out of it. Many times the end result ends up being far from what I would have expected it to be.
  • Self-portrait April 28 '16 ~ My camera has a super awesome feature that allows me to sync it to my phone through wi-fi. Once connected, I can see everything my camera sees through my phone, as well as being able to press the shutter button, and scan all the previous photos on an app. Soooo helpful when it comes to self-portraits! (I was probably looking at my phone in this pic). Lighting: To camera right I had an Einstein strobe with a 40 degree honeycomb grid attached. Attached to the grid was a yellow gel. I took black aluminum foil and made a make-shift snoot to really direct the light to a very small and specific area. To camera left I had another Einstein strobe unit with a 20 degree honeycomb grid and blue gel attached. I used a tu-tu I found at the thrift store for a couple bucks as this type of fabric really reflects the light in a way other fabrics don't. Self-portraits are never easy, this one was more of the "mistake" photo, at least at first I thought. When reviewing them later, it ended up being one of my favorites..
  • May '16 ~ Cover image for my beautiful friend Ixchel's new album. Check out her music at https://ixchelprisma.bandcamp.com
  • Art Portrait Photography San Francisco Bay Area Santa Cruz
  • Apr. 5 '16 ~ Test shot with a Lensbaby sweet 50. This is such a FUN lens to use even though its THE most difficult lens I've ever worked with. It creates a blurred effect except for a small focal point in the photograph. You can direct where this focal point will be by maneuvering the ball & socket lens. Its manual only which adds to the difficultly. A steep learning curve but well worth the time & effort!
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