Blog

The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

Blind man

This is almost the depth of field that I feel can give an image a movie like atmosphere. There is this sweet spot with different lenses used and finding that sweet spot (the distance between the subject, the camera and the f stop) is always that challenge. Especially when you have no control over the subject. In the previous post I speak about colour pallettes. While this shot is lacking what goes a way to helping is the film used to achieve or at least shift the temperature of the shot. Is this shot feeling warm or cool to you?

Scene from a film

The difficult part about these shots is the colour pallette. I don't particularly like the pallette in this shot but you need to start with something and finding a minimal pallette on the street is not an easy task let alone hoping the right subject matter will enter the frame with the right attitude. I'm interested to know if anyone who reads / looks at this blog considers such thing's.

Tunnels

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.

Ride on time

Another from a very large collection I seem to have.

End of summer

Sometimes you have to take this kind of shot just to get it out of your system. Well, I've done it now so I can finally move on. This was shot with a 50mm and an extension tube for those that care for these things. If you are looking for a relaxing escape from the usual over crowded parks of Tokyo you might want to take a look at this one.

Days past

Salary man

I was about to post a similar but lesser image and realized that this shot was not in my main 50mm.jp collection. What an omission! Shot using a Voigtlander Bessa R2A I have tried to repeat this shot countless times with other cameras with no success. This image really describes how Tokyo can feel sometimes or at least feel to the locals.

Alien eye

Shots on a roll

If you have an monitor running 1920x1200 then open your browser to max and view th slide show. Rather than cut these sequence of shots up I've left them how I've scanned them. When scanning 35mm I usually scan the whole strip to see what I've got and then go back and scan the ones I like at a higher resolution. The last part I never get round to doing. I just scan the strip and forget about it. I don't think any of these shots (maybe 1) have seen the light of day. I have a crap load of these. Figured this sequence was not a bad one in terms of quality vs number of shots taken.

Questions, comments and feedback are always welcome.

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.

Urban landscape

Still up for it

From the archive

Dazed

This really sums up the life of people in Toyko. "I'm living here but would rather be somewhere else".

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

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).

Morning coffee

I've become obsessed with this Fuji instant film of late. No development needed. Instant atmosphere, predictable (to an extent) results, I just wish it wasn't so expensive and messy. And the other annoying thing is trying to carry the pictures around with you after you've shot them. I have developed a practical method for this - a plastic hard disk case. Keeps the dust out and prevents the photos from sticking to your bag . The trick is just to ensure you dry the photo long enough before putting it in the case. Scanning these instant photos is a whole other challenge. If you don't like touching out dust, don't think about shooting these because regardless of how careful you are you'll be dust busting for hours. You can always leave the dust in for effect :-)

Behind oxford street

Sydney back alley on a Saturday afternoon. Slightly different to the previous Sydney post but I like both. This one fir the lines and the person in the frame.

Public housing

So around Tokyo you can find these public housing projects. Some of these are new and some are quite old. I've tried to say out of these out of respect to the people who live here but the up the road from me proved too tempting. Seems that most of the people are out growing their spaces.

The old house is no more

An old man around the corner from me used to live in this house. I took this shot right next to his house and this one right outside. Actually while I was taking that shot the old guy came out and at first wondered what the hell I was doing outside his front gate but he soon figured it out, gave me a big smile and road off down the street. A few months back I was walking passed, hoping there were more plants to shoot and discovered his bike missing and some of the plants he once had outside gone. I have no idea if he died or just moved but I knew that the house would vanish quickly. This photo and a few others I took will be all that remain of what once used to be here. It's now an empty lot, waiting for some large corporation to buy it, split it in three and sell each one for a million dollars. Just one of the idiosyncrasies of Tokyo life.