Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

Summer excitement

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Daytime photography. Something I really don't do much of in Tokyo. Tokyo by day is ugly. Real ugly. Ugly enough to have to shoot in black and white. So, being a night shooter I've always got my camera loaded with 1600 asa (iso to you post film people). During the day this means f/16 and hope like hell the shutter speed is fast enough. The magic thing about f/16 is no focus! Which is why I can point the camera behind me, hope like hell and take the shot. I think the strap adds a level of genuineness to the picture :-)

The XpanII

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This is another shot taken with Jon's XpanII camera. The fun thing is that it's a rangefinder not unlike my Bessa R2a or Brian's Leica M6 albeit a lot wider and slightly harder to focus. Having said that it makes taking panoramic or wide shots much easier than say the Horizon Perfekt and you tend to get a MUCH nicer, more cinematic feel from the shots than a regular rangefinder (likely the format of the shot and the lack of distortion (horizon problem)). The only downside, and it's a biggy, is the price. Be sure to pick yours up when you have a few thousand dollars spare ;-)

Masked salary man

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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.

Sunrise at Enoshima

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Woke at 4am to arrive on the island at around 4:45am. After checking the perimeter I spotted a fisherman heading up a path. Follow the local knowledge. Sure enough I found the spot I was looking for although the sun was rising from behind the island. Unfortunately there was no way to get around and the view from that point is not as good anyway. Still, it was surprisingly busy with fishermen for 4:45am (I'm betting most of them get there at 4 or so).

Enoshima, Pan F and Diafine

Click the image to start the slideshow (2 slides)

On my little adventure to Enoshima last weekend at 4am, not only did I manage to get sick but I tried a Film / Developer combination I hadn't seen before.

I've used Ilford Pan F on occasion and, while expensive, have liked the results I've gotten so far. My trip to Enoshima was finally a chance to shoot something at ISO100 (developing with Diafine pushes it a stop to 100) so I thought I'd try it developed in Diafine.

Well, as you can see by the results, it's pretty damn dark. But, looking at the shot of the old man (second slide), I couldn't have really exposed it more or the shirt would have been blown. The background at the time was not at all dark and the day was overcast so there were no shadows so in theory more of the background should be visible.

If you are going to use this combination, make sure you don't have any dark area's in your shot or you're likely to get blacks.