Polada

This past weekend I was invited to an exhibition of Riku Wada san and Sayako Ishida san. They had both travelled to different places in the world (iceland, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina to name a few) and used Polaroid cameras to take pictures of their travels. By plan or by accident they managed to create a really amazing series of images. Because of the nature of the medium, the colours were all very consistant right across the world and the subdued yellowish tones suited the subject matter. In fact, had they used any other type of camera they would not have achieved close to the quality, consistency or look that they got with the polaroid.I'm hoping they make a book of the shots. They are too good to waste on just a one time viewing. The shot above was taken at the exhibition and is a globe they make with pins stuck into the places they travelled to. This was taken with a Hasselblad with a polaroid back and Fuji 100c film. And, as fate would have it, I got a happy accident. The resulting blue spots is a result of the film not being able to handle the overexposure of the light.

Nara blossoms

The second shot of the roll that I took with the Holga when I went to Nara. This was the only other shot that worked.I have to say, I do enjoy the Holga's randomness when it comes to focus, colours, tones etc. You've usually either got an instant hit or a complete failure. This, I think was shot with Velvia 100.

Tokyo stations at night - cont.

Taking a break for medium format I went back to shoot with the rangefinder for a while. These shots are a mix of 35mm and 50mm all shot at night in various locations but on the subway and the JR.

Kawasaki on film

So I finally finished the roll and got the film shots I took at Kawasaki developed. Here is the film vs digital. I'm not sure if you can see it here (even at a large size) but the film appears to have more depth than the digital shot which just seems flat. In any case I like the square format a lot more.

JR staff portrait

This past weekend I spent the day changing all my chemicals to new ones. My fix has now changed back to Kodak and is slightly more concentrated than before. The jars that hold the 1 gallon A and B solution needed to be scrubbed and chiseled at to remove the years of build up of gunk at the bottom.As a result of all this work my negatives look amazingly clear. It's easy to let quality slip as chemicals start to slowly die and it's difficult to notice until it's too late (or not at all in my case for a while).

Waiting for the train

Shooting with the Rollei 35 is very hit and miss. The focus is all based on distance. There is a finder but you cannot see the focus through it. And shooting at f/2.8 at night and candid photos at that makes this task even more difficult. So I was surprised to see this shot turn out so sharp.

Late afternoon

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.

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.