Before any koi is purchased and brought to the USA we photograph it several times. The first pictures are taken either when I buy the koi in Japan or when I see it for the first time in Japan. I might take several pictures over a few days, Koi-seasons or even years. Sometimes I refer to these pictures as "Field Photos" and while I'm in Japan I post them on a daily basis to the website at either "The Best of Japan" pages and also "The Japan Daily " pages. It is tough enough to take a good picture in the comfort of your own home but sometimes getting a good picture while in Japan is a major feat in itself.
The second time I take the koi's picture is when it arrives here in the USA. When a shipment arrives every box of koi is photographed, as it is un-bagged. This is not the glamour shot you see on the website at the New Koi For Sale link but rather a way for me to make sure I receive what I bought and provide a way for me to track which koi were shipped with which koi and so on. These pictures aren't pretty to look at and are purely for my identification purposes.
This is a good photo history of how it goes, the first picture was taken in Japan, the second picture is the first glamour shot that was taken for the website and it was updated twice after that. When I bought this koi it was supposed to be a Doitsu Kohaku for my general stock and I had no idea that the Sumi was going to come up. Like I said it was a kohaku when I bought it.
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Doitsu Kohaku
Purchased from Hiroi
10/30/02 |
11/21/02 |
03/03/03 |
04/23/03 |
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Doitsu Showa
Purchased from Maruju Tanaka 10/22/03 |
11/01/03 |
01/30/04 |
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Gin Rin Showa
Purchased from Miyatora 10/15/03 |
10/30/03 |
11/22/03 |
1/28/04 |
These are just a few examples of how koi can change and how fast they can change. -Mark
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