So much for writing even once a month! Seems the time just flies and I don’t know what happened. Also, it seems to be a rather quiet time in my life in terms of events or announcements. I’ll just share a few items of news and maybe a couple reminders!

Martial News

The Women’s Self Protection workshop was held earlier this month and we had a good turn out, nice space and great assistants. It was a long, intense, fun, active day full of learning and physical training. We covered a lot of physical skills from standing and on the ground, and learned some psychological concepts that we practiced in scenarios and with partners. The end of the day was putting it all together in the form of dialog and self protection. I am always inspired by the hard work, the self introspection and determination of the women participants. I had 3 male assistants all day which was of great help to me.

I haven’t had this course yet here since moving back to the states, so it was good for me as well to review, practice and get down with the women in it. Thank you to all of you for being there, and a big thank you to the men for your great assistance.

Previous to this month, was the Taikai USA hosted by Roy Wilkinson in Atlanta, GA. 2 1/2 days of fun training with many instructors. Here us a link to the page for more information and short bios on the instructors. I love having many instructors, each with an hour of so of sharing their perspective on some aspect of Bujinkan. It inspires me to see things in a different way, and for participants to hear the same thing in a new way. Along with the camaraderie and joking we always do, we also share news and experiences from Japan. It’s true a buyu feeling! Thanks Roy for getting us together.

I will be going to Japan for my usual end of the year, happy birthday Soke trip,  November 25 to December 9. Once again, if anyone would like me to bring the Hatsumi photo book, this is your opportunity to save in shipping costs, and also to have Soke sign it! So please take advantage of this, and email if you would like one. There are only a few I can bring because of weight, so let me know right away! You can read more details and a description of this book in the Store.

Photography News!

Coming up….a photo shoot in Scotland for 2 weeks in October!! I am very excited about that and I will share what I bring home with me. Considering I have lived in Germany for 7 years and traveled to a lot of european countries, this is one I never made it to, but was always on my list. Yay! I know it will be great.

In the meantime, my photography here locally is now shooting sports. I have been accepted as a national sports photographer for MaxPreps, shooting high school sporting events. I am having fun with it, and enjoy, as some of you know, shooting anything that moves ;-). It’s a challenge, and is really honing my eye for capturing quick and fast movements. If anyone is interested, you can view some of my sports albums here. And all my other albums are available here. I am just branching out and doing what I love! Once winter comes to Florida, so do the migrating birds and wildlife, so I’ll be out photographing, and the weather is cooler :).

And here are a couple of long exposure images from the summer. Thanks for looking and reading! I welcome comments!