Trip down memory lane.

This photograph was taken in 2010, just six years after the portrait I shared earlier of Shigeru Miyamoto. And looking at it now, I can already see how much had changed.

This time, the subject was Ryota Niitsuma, former Capcom developer, producer, and one of the people behind several of the company’s fighting game titles, including parts of the Street Fighter legacy.

The difference with my earlier work is striking. Better composition. Better understanding of light. A more thoughtful moment. It was shot on a Canon EOS 350D with a fairly standard Sigma zoom lens—nothing fancy, just a simple tool and a growing eye behind it.

At the time, I was running my own media company with a staff of 27 people. Life moved fast. Deadlines, interviews, events, constant decisions. Photography was never my main role, but when my team needed me to step in, I did.

And somewhere in that chaos, I started to fall in love with the craft.

What I notice most now is not just the technical growth, but something else: even back then, I was already teaching. Showing younger photographers simple things—where to stand, how to use the light, how to frame a subject. The same small lessons I would later share with others in nature and beyond.

Funny how some paths reveal themselves only when you look back.

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A portrait: Thunder Ravenstoker (yes, that's his name) some time in 2006.

Canon 350D, 18-55mm

#portrait #friends #2006 #canon350d #goth #postpunk #london