If you search hard enough around the back streets of Omotesando you'll find this cool little studio space with this great stairway. No idea what the company is but I like their style.
Blog
The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)
Otsuki mountains
[gallery link="file" columns="1" ids="1851"]I finally managed to take my Hasselblad for a ride on the weekend. 100km and a very sore back later I had finished about 2 rolls. My late start and being not as fit as I would have liked clearly affected the number of shots I could get but despite this round of pain I think the area deserves at least a second look. I'll just have to train for it.
Tunnels
Tiny station just outside of Okutama
There is a interesting little walk to be had around Okutama area. One day last year (or was it the year before?) I took the train out with a load of camera gear to take a few pictures. Ended up walking through someones yard to get to a road and to the above station called Shiromaru which you'll find is the stop just before Okutama. There is quite a lot of walking involved if you are searching for something of interest so I suggest doing a bit of research before you embark to save your legs for the interesting stuff.
Drunken Friday's
Yurakucho on a Friday night. You have to know where to look but there is some entertainment to be had watching the salary men return home at the end of the week.
Days past
The wait
Another archive shot. Shot it way too dark but love the effect the developer had on the neg. These people look almost posed waiting for the train.
A dream?
This picture was shot quite a while ago in Shibuya with Jon. This girl happen to be standing in just the right place and I happen to have my Rolleiflex and a Rollinar at the ready. I can't begin to describe the soft yet sharp quality of the Rollei f/2.8 lens. If you have the chance to use one I highly recommend it.
Blossoms in rain
It's an old shot that I guess I'm re posting. Shot late afternoon near my house at the park with a Rolleiflex and a Rollinar 2. I ended up trading that camera in. It was a mistake of sorts to do that but I think I'm better for it. Less focus on cameras more focus on picture making. Still, the Rolleiflex had an amazing balance between sharpness and softness. If you have a chance to use one (f/2.8) I recommend it. But don't go taking candid street photos at night with it. It's even harder to use in that situation than the Hasselblad.
Tokyo tower part 2
This is what I love about old cameras and film. You can't plan this type of old feeling you get from this type of combination. The random combination of film age, film type, developer, fix, fix age, fix duration, developer duration etc. etc. all add up to a look that makes film special. You can photoshop all you want but you're not going to get the same happy accidents you do when you play with the real thing.
wasting film
Too busy to go out and make an effort to shoot anything.
Sinister
Sometimes you point your camera in a direction and just hope something will fall into the frame. You don't expect to feel like your about to get killed (in Tokyo anyway) in the process. This could have been one of these times :-)
Stress and good times
Sometimes when a perfect moment occurs, thing's go horribly wrong. In the case of this shot I was disappointed at the time but after not viewing it for several months I've come back to it and had a laugh. Some shots you can't plan :-)
Masked salary man
Sometimes being a foreigner with a Hasselblad at 7:30am near Tokyo station means you're not going to blend in the with the rest of the crowd hence the look I've managed to capture on the mans face. This doesn't usually happen. Most of the time I'm ignored (and not just in this country!) but it seems, in this instance, it makes the shot with him looking down. Aahh the time (and film) you can waste on a weekday morning near the station.
Getting the temperature right
So there I was, packs of ice in hand, Rodinal at the ready and the cold water running at 24c. hmm. I figured I had this problem solved by putting my container of rodinal into a container of ice water to drop the temp. Seems that I was a little off with that theory. Next I tired putting the ice into the water the rodial was to go in. Not sure which batch came out better but I definately got a few dodgy negs out of it. Moral of the story...be super careful in summer when developing and always have ice on hand. The image above might be a bit small but the shot starts to break up in the dark tones towards the top. Bummer.
Used and abused
47 minutes
Jim O’Connell. The man seems to have a knowledge on photography that knows no bounds.I've been trying different developers for a while and have found the process a huge time sink. Half of me enjoys it and the other half just can't stand sitting around Agitating every minute. So, over a flickr on the Magnum group (no, the other one) where we seem to have all kinds of crazy discussions, the question came up about Rodinal by Jon about how long to develop for. Jim answers "For that, mix 1/100 with tap water, mix well, pour it in, shake it like a martini for 5-10 seconds and then let it sit for an hour before fixing and washing." but I remember hearing from either him or second hand that 1 hour didn't cut it when he changed to a new batch of chemical so he dropped the time to 47 minutes. So I tried it on 2 rolls of TMax 400 @400 and they "look" like they came out fine. Also tried it on 2 rolls of TMax 400 @800 and THEY look like they are ok too. The real test was to see if I could do a roll of TMax 100 and Tmax 400 at the same time. Result! I can't confirm this 100% until they dry and I've done a few scans but it's looking promising. I think the moral of the story is, if you have a question about B+W film dev just ask Jim. Stay tuned for results.