Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

Scouting locations

The other day Curtis took me on a little scouting trip to a building he found not too far from where we work.This place is going to need a revisit soon with a film camera and a tripod. I've been quite poor at posting for the last year or two so I thought I'd better post SOMETHING. Even if it is from an iphone for now.

Choices

I went out for a bit of practice on Friday. Need to brush up the skills for the upcoming Awa Odori event in Koenji in August. This also gave me a chance to try out a few Ai servo modes to find what worked and what didn't. Kind of impressed with the iso on this shot. Difficult to tell because of the size but at 2000 iso this is pretty clean. I'd suggest looking at the tags below for details about what was used to practice with.

You so big hardy colt!! Come striking me like crazy animal with doggy style.

About 4 years ago in what seemed like another world and another time a group of us came across this bike parked innocently in the back streets of Shibuya. A normal bike until we took a closer look. The reaction of everyone reading is a classic.

Salaried man

This has to be one of the best shot's I've taken in a long while. I'd developed it a few months ago and had left it jammed in my Annie Leibovitz book to flatten out (you gotta maximize the value from those expensive books). I'd finally managed to get a few new rolls developed over the weekend and discovered several sleeves in the book I'd forgotten about.This shot popped right off the neg. It seems to have a timeless quality to it I'd like to explore more of.

Gathering

I have not shot a lot of candid street images for a long time. I've needed a break and a steady income to be able to have time to spend for this part time. This shot literally fell between the cracks. I missed scanning the whole roll and it's about 2 years old. Nothing else really worth keeping. I think I'm posting this for nostalgic purposes more than it being a shot of any substance. I might have to make a regular attempt to shoot a bit more of this once my other series' are done.

Shibuya back streets

In the recent past I have had a bit of a discussion with a follower of the blog. Conversations through the comments system that I have enjoyed have culminated in him sending me reference pictures of what he has suggested I shoot or post. This image is a reply to his recent mail.

I'm hoping (but not sure) that this shot hit's the mark. I might have to go digging in my archives a bit to find some more (or just go shoot a few new ones).

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.

Death by developer

Vending machine death by developer

Don't ask what went wrong. I'm not sure. I've had this in the archive for a while (along with countless other images - Adrian and Jon can attest to this) and I like it a lot.  Not so much the blown out huge white bit but the vending machine part. The way the light from the machine is blown out and the developer has stained the neg and run down to where the light is making it spill out. I must be in happy accident mode because everything I'm working on has loads of grain, light leaks and other imperfections that just seem to make the image. This is probably why you see so little of the pin sharp digital stuff I shoot (not very interesting).

Tokyo Big Scooters

I had met this bunch a week before. They had these amazing bikes. And at the time I had B+W film in my camera. I rewound it and stuck in some colour (still yet to be developed!) and shot some frames. I thought these guy's would be a great story for my mate Skorj so I asked them if they were around the area much. They said they were in Shibuya every Friday so I said casually that I would be back next week with my mate. He usually shoots for a few foreign bike magazines and I figured it would be a good match. In the process of trying to reach Skorj and arrange him to shoot these bike guy's I discovered I had somehow given them the impression that this would be a full blown shoot for a big magazine (There was definitely a good bit of imagination being used by the bike guy's at this point). The next Friday came around and Skorj was busy. I sent a mail to them explaining it was off and they called me up and got all pissed off. Joy! So, rather than giving up and making enemies of them I explained that while my mate could not make it, I could shoot them then try to get them onto a CNN site. At worst they would have a set of nice pics and at best they would appear on an international website.That night, the usual bunch of photographer friends were turning up to the usual drinking hole about the time I was due to shoot the bikes and I was loathed to meet up with them because I knew I would have to explain my early exit and all the gear I was carrying and I know these guy's are all like Vultures when it comes a shoot and would basically take over and claim the entire plan as their own. Lucky for me everyone was feeling semi respectful and didn't completely take over what I had organized. And, as it happens it was good thing a few of them came along. Brian and Eiichi were there to lend a hand with interviewing the guy's which was really lucky cause had they not done that and also been kind enough to send me the recordings / notes I could not have written the little story for CNNGO.

So, all the drama kind of paid off in the end.

Shibuya panoramic reflections

pano-reflection-3.jpg

Inspired by one of Jon's shots (You always give credit. I hate the way people take an idea from somewhere and pretend it's theirs).I thought I'd see what happens when you put your panoramic camera in a puddle while it's raining. I'm going to claim the colour version now before someone rips me off and does it before I've developed my film (like it hasn't already been done a millions times). More to follow at some stage when the film is ready.