Aika Taguchi (she/her/hers)
- Born on November 10th, 2002, in Hokkaido, Japan
- Lived in Japan until 18 years old, then moved to LA in 2021
- Attended Santa Monica College, Film Production major
- Currently in California State University, Northridge, Film Production major
- Speaks Japanese and English
- Photographer, Cinematographer
Greetings,
Hi all, thank you for visiting my website!
I hope you all enjoy my photos and videos here! Most of the Photos were taken by Nikon Z6 that I bought in June 2023. Since then, my Nikon has been my love and a great company.
I found my passion in photography and cinematography when I took photo classes at SMC. I came to LA because I loved watching movies since I was a kid and wanted to make something that could make people happy and excited. However, I had no experience or knowledge in filmmaking, so I started learning a lot of components of filmmaking step by step. Those photo classes were just a part of my requirements in college, but it sparked inside me.
I realized I love looking at beautiful images. So, I kept capturing whatever, whenever and wherever. That made me aware of the beautifulness of my surroundings.
I'm still in the middle of my journey. I will keep capturing beautiful scenes, so please stay tuned in!
Ps. my top favorite movies are Harry Potter, the Theory of Everything, Now You See Me, Ready Player one, Avatar, Rurouni Kenshin and so much more... what are yours?
Motto
Visual "Kei"
"Rock music styles, visual kei musicians incorporate varying levels of make-up, elaborate hairstyles and costumes." (Wikipedia says)
I'm heavily a visual person. I love all of visual arts. I do photography and cinematography as you may know. And from even before I start them, I am into illustration and 3DCG Animation (I'm still not that good at them, but hopefully I can share my works someday). Also, I've been experiencing graphic design recently.
And I like rock music. My best artist is ONE OK ROCK and MAN WITH A MISSION. Going to live rock performances excites me a lot!
Actually, those rock musicians are not categorized as visual kei, but anyways I thought it's fun to combine them together to symbolize my loves in visual art and rock.
Realistic Illusion
Are my photos look real? They might.
But I hereby declare, they are NOT "real". I usually do post coloring for my photos and videos to make it look "better", adjusting contrast, color and composition. This is because camera cannot capture things as I see and feel. I sometimes even add styles to them. Cinematography is more extreme. It's a complete creation by setting up light and making the scene shine with human effort.
It is true that there was a moment as I see in pictures, but those pictures are not always how it was. I try to be as real as possible, and I try to do post coloring so I can just restore what I saw and felt which the original raw photos couldn't convey. But I can't deny that it still contains some sort of illusion.
So, I encourage myself, and would like to encourage my audience, to look around with my/your naked eyes. That is the only real.