Finally did a little purposeful shooting the other day.
Blog
Tōjinbō
From the old website. This place is amazing. I'd like to go back near winter and shoot it again. Actually the whole area is pretty interesting.
Bar code
Unusual is Shibuya’s normal.
Don’t go...
Shinjuku Station
email check
Priorities!
Shinjuku Station
One of my first pictures with the Leica M10 and the Super Elmar 21mm f/3.4.
Mystery Road
Trying to figure out where this road starts from. Took a stab at finding it today on the bike but with no luck. This happens to be the same road I shot more than a year ago albetit with a lot more colour and different personality.
Mihama Cape
Back again to the same location in Izu about a year later I guess. Nothing special to report. Best approach is from over the mountain. Great road to drive on. Oh and Don't get the EbiDon unless you are really hungry.
Kyōdō Awa Odori
Awa Odori at Kyōdō in Tokyo. It's a small, local event with a great local atmosphere. This is used by the team (Tensyouren) to practice for the event in Koenji at the end of August. It's also a chance for new members to experience what it's like to perform in front of a crowd. I tagged along for the event in an unofficial capacity which limited my access but it was worth the effort. Driving there for the first time was more of an ordeal than dodging rain and people while shooting. Google maps just does not work right now and the trip to and from the event took way longer than expected.
hmmm. Guess I should add something about the pictures - shot a load. This is a super quick edit. Mixed white balance because I am lazy and processed in VSCO film using the tried and true Provia 400x - which is my favorite film in the real world also (I heard they stopped making the 120 version. crap!!).
German Contrails
It's been a while since I wrote anything. Work seems to have absorbed any creativity I have / had. Went to Germany for work and managed to grab a series of contrails with the phone. Europe always gets me with these contrails. I think people there must not think twice about them but when you hardly see them they become a bit of a novelty. First shot is from Schiphol in the Netherlands, the rest are from either landing in Frankfurt, walking around in Bonn, training from Hamburg or flying to or from Dresden.
Adventures of Mountain Man and Pale Rider
Outing with Mr. Ellis late last year. A drive to Izu via almost the opposite side of the world thanks to a Google maps bug. Must have been a gale force 9 out there the day we went. The wind really accentuated the whole mountain man look Jon was sporting. Made it all the way down to a little place called Heda where we stopped at the only restaurant open in town.
A place I'm going to visit again once the roads are less icy.
Urban Landscape
More pics via mobile workflow.
Mobile tools
This post is a test of a few mobile tools I've been trialling.
The workflow is as follows:
Shoot with the Canon to an eyefi 2 card.
Upload pics to phone.
Edit pics on phone in VSCO cam then use the SquareSpace blog tool on the phone to upload the pics and write the post.
The photo workflow seems to work quite well. The idea of not having to sit in front of a computer to edit and adjust is quite appealing. I suppose this approach is not only normal to some but the only way of working.
I'll be interested to see how this post turns out when viewing the site. There doesn't seem to be a lot of control with this blog tool.
UPDATE:
After posting I discovered a few thing's. First issue was that I edited an old post from the days of Wordpress which happened to have a load of code injected into the body which could not been seen using the SquareSpace app. So I removed that once I checked the post using the computer.
2nd issue was that I could not enable the Lightbox function for the pictures using the SquareSpace app so I subsequently tweaked each image. Other than that the workflow seemed to work quite well.
Downside to all of this, however, is that the images being edited are jpg's not RAW and, I have no ability to apply any editing settings to the RAW files if I so choose at a later date.
Barista from Florida - email needed - again.
I just received an email from someone from Florida who asked if they could meet up with me while they were in Tokyo.
Unfortunately due to my clumsiness I managed to delete the email (twice!!!) before I had a chance to read it properly or reply. I also failed in trying to recover it from my providers backup.
So, if you are the individual who sent me the email, may I ask that you send another so I am able to make contact.
Cheers!
Kōenji Awa Odori 2014
So this post is about a month late. The reason for this is I have a somewhat complicated arrangement with the tensyouren (天翔連) team re the publication of the pictures. Now a set of around a thousand images has been handed over and the book finally sent to print I can share a few pics of more than a month ago.
Otaba
If you happen to be around the Okutama area and are looking for a very quiet and out of the way place to have a BBQ or a spot of lunch (provided you have brought your own) I recommend visiting the Otaba area. The river is also perfect in thew summer for swimming.
Note that you'll likely only be able to reach it by bike or car.
Lockheed C-130 Hercules Panels
More from the Yokota airbase open day.
Aircraft Typography
Yokota airbase at the open day.
The Little Road - part 2
I'm sitting on a little set of images I seem to have grown quite fond of over the last week. The title says it all. I could end up making parts through to 19 or thereabouts but I might hold off a bit. I'm always unsure if the images are all too the same to be a little series or they are different enough. I've managed to break to usual habits so far. One is to not sit on these for half a year and procrastinate. And the other being I may end up calling this a set and moving on for fear of never completing the series.
I think the blog might just be a good place to think out aloud and let new ideas form.
The little road
I'm sure this little series I've just made will appear in B+W but for the moment I'm releasing maybe a single colour image.
Venturing to the mountains again I happened upon a little road I did not know existed. Followed it quite a way before the rain caused me to turn back (that's what happens when you carry three cameras and no umbrella on your journey :-)
I will be visiting this area again but hopefully next time it will be by bike and I will see where the rest of it leads.
The weather, if you have not guessed by the picture was wet and foggy with the whole mountain covered in cloud. At points you couldn't see beyond 15 feet in front of you (that's 4.5 metres for the modern world).
I also shot Holga and Horizon Perfekt. Will be interesting to see how the film turns out.
As usual click the image for a larger version.