I am a award winning landscape and portrait photographer resided in Calgary. "Wide Bright" is named after my first name. My first name consists of two kanji (Chinese characters); "Hiro" means wide or broad, and "Aki" means light or bright. Japanese use honorific suffixes for addressing people. "-san" is one them. So I added "Sun" to my first name 'Wide Brigt", insted of "-san" as a joke. Wide Bright Sun means simply Hiroaki-san.
I first grabbed a camera when I was 22 years old (How many years ago?) and moved to Canada in 2000. In 2008, I bought a digital camera since my beloved cameras including one made in 1955 were stolen.
Ever since I have lived in Calgary, I have been drawn to the Canadian Rockies and visit them whenever I have a chance. My approach is to spend a lot of time wandering around an area and then look for the things that inspire me, rather than planning ahead and photographing the iconic spots. It has not been easy to find the perfect time and exact location to tell the photographic story I want to capture and share. Since I discovered surreal impression of infrared and long exposure photography, they have been an important part of my photographic expressions. Print sales are available for most of the images showcased in this site.
In addition, I am still attracted to film and I continue to take my wooden 4x5 field view camera on trips as shown in the photo above.
Awards
- Awards received for my photographic artistry include:
2011
- Western Landscape and wild life competition by Calgary Stampede
- Honorable mention in WOW photo contest
2013
- ‘Best in Class’, Pictorial category in Image salon competition by Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC) Alberta
2014
- ‘Best in Class’, Animal wild/ domestic category in Image salon competition by PPOC Alberta
- 'Best in Show' – Pat Eisenbarth Award in Image salon competition by PPOC Alberta
- 'Judges Choice' x2 in Image salon competition by PPOC Alberta
- 'Photographic Artist of the Year' in Image salon competition by PPOC National
- 'Judges Choice Ribbons', in Image salon competition by PPOC National