Spent on afternoon earlier this year at Koga san's cafe. He wasn't around at the time and no one knew who I was but that was the beauty of it. This great little space in the middle of nowhere I'd been before. The light in the late afternoon is magic and the food is excellent. I'm hoping to go again with a few friends next time for some food and beer to kill a late afternoon / early evening. Recommend you check it out if you get a chance.
Blog
The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)
Walled shadows of Nara
In an effort to keep a balance between a holiday and taking photos I too my digital camera and a Holga to Nara. Using Brett's trusty 1000 year old Velvia (that apparently had a speed range between 100 - 1000) I managed to squeeze about 3 semi usable shots out of the roll (not the films fault. Bloody f8 at 100 ASA!)I'm happy with the result. For some reason I value this a lot more than the 500+ digital shots I took that I have not posted.
Industrial nowhere
As an escape from obligations looming, I packed my messenger back with about 10kg of camera gear including a tripod and set off for an industrial area of Tokyo. I'd been close to the same place a week before trying to figure out the best way to get there. Most of the evening was spent tracking down interesting scenes to shoot. No doubt I'll be going again at some point in the near future to capitalize on an evening spent cycling a good 50km trying to get pictures. I took the Hasselblad and the Canon in an attempt to capture atmosphere and get instant gratification and while I'm ok at holding a shot at 4th of a second I didn't want to do a 50km round trip and risk a shot being blurry, hence the tripod. While riding around I found myself at the end of a very long walled road with only the guarded entrance to an industrial complex and a very lonely bus stop. With not a soul in sight (except the guard at the end of the road) I set up my tripod in the middle of the road to take a few pictures. Out of the walls came people to the bus stop. By chance I'd picked probably the only moment in the evening when the bus would arrive. I'm interested to see how the Hasselblad image turn out. I leave you with a few more pictures from the outing.
Spring in Tokyo
Izu
Urban Tokyo
Drunken smiles
Another Friday night at the station
Kawasaki
Shibuya panoramic reflections
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.
Clément
Here he is on flickr
Station life
A wasted evening wasting film. C41 shot in Shinjuku station through a rangefinder and a 50mm lens. This could have been shot yesterday or 3 years ago. It's now all the same to me.
Under a bridge
This was shot quite a while ago. Not a flattering shot of the model but I like the atmosphere in the shot all the same.
Tokyo streets and stations
Random collection of old shots from around Shinjuku and a few stations.
Station stress
Sometimes the strangest elements all come together in a shot when you least expect them to.
Public housing
Fragments of Tokyo
Watanebe san, Koga san, Thomas and Jon looking his usual self at the front
So I managed to visit the Fragments of Tokyo exhibition at M Place in Shinjuku Gyoenmae and have to say I was impressed. Four very different styles of photography and each with a wonderful and different perspective of Tokyo.
If you missed it you'll have to bug them to put on another show. Below is each members flickr stream although to really do any of these pictures justice you need to see them printed. It was really a different and exciting experience to see them printed and presented as a series. Congratulations to the four of you.
Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi exhibition
I've kept this exhibition pretty close to my chest thus far. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. It's a very large group art selling festival (for want of a better description) which I've somehow managed to get myself involved in.Despite it having a very department store like feel I have to say I'm enjoying the experience. The range of people that travel past the exhibits every day is staggering. The other thing that has completely knocked my socks off is the price of some of the work on display. The most expensive piece I found was over $500,000US so there is quite a price range to be had. I have been lucky enough to be included as one of only 2 photographers to be exhibiting and Mitsukoshi is, for the first time, including photography in their art exhibition (so I guess I should be feeling privileged).
If you have any interest the event is on till the 18th located on the 7th floor of the main Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi store (Mitsukoshimae station on the Ginza line).
The Bogey hole
Shot at about 5:55am on the 1st Jan 2010 in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Managed to wake up at 4 and leave at 4:20am. Never actually saw the sun but was lucky enough to get a bit of colour in the clouds before everything went a flat bright colour.My next trip back there will be with a view to achieve something very different.
Edit: July 3 2010.
Click the picture for a bigger version.
For all of you searching for the location click here for the map
Tips: If you go early enough in the morning, ignore the no entry sign and drive right down to the hole. Otherwise it's a real hike. Especially if you are trying to catch the sun. You should be in and out before anyone can catch you. Go during a week day early. The locals like to turn up super early and swim or actually make it the last point of call after a night out. You won't get any pictures then. Be careful. The whole place is really slippery so take your time walking around. The boats on the horizon you can't do anything about. It's a pain but if you don't want them in your shot you're going to have to pick your angles carefully. If you want your picture to have any depth to it like the one above you should use film. Even if you have a pro DSLR (I own a canon 1d mark 3) you won't get the depth and colour. And anyone who says "HDR" as a solution should be shot. If you think you've taken a winner picture post a link to your shot in the comments. I'd love to take a look. Someone should do a great B+W long exposure. But I bet I end up doing this before anyone else (no one likes B+W any more).
When everything goes wrong
Words of advice from the inexperienced. Wash your negatives thoroughly and DON'T change the type of film you shoot unless you have experience with the new film you plan to use.I'm a bit disappointed that I traveled thousands of kilometers to meet up with the family (which is hard considering everyone lives in a different state) and manage to destroy all my black and white film in an afternoon. I shall, from this point, revert to my tried and trusted film stock and developers. Not that there is anything wrong with what I've just ruined. Just that I don't want to have to spend more money learning the in's and out's of another stock when the current one already serves me well.
2 million years ago
It's nice to know some things take a long time to change.Posting this while waiting for my film to be developed. Picture from a small part of the biggest island in the world.