Author: travel67

E161-403F ?

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Turn on printer, insert new yellow ink cartridge (one of twelve). Printer mocks me with blinking orange light. Slow realization that this will be a frustrating and expensive experience. Must make cup of tea….

Inside the Matrix

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I really should wander around with my camera more often. Rather than planning exactly what I want to photograph, I should explore and see what’s out there. It’s both liberating and challenging. As I no longer have to pay for film and processing on each shot, I should use the opportunity to go out and shoot more (or even a lot more). I tend to notice  repetition and geometric patterns quite easily (This may have something to do with my father) which is why I took this shot. I think I read somewhere that people vary in their affinity for shapes and colors. So my question is…. what catches your eye, shapes or colors?  

C.S.I. Luna

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Spent a couple of hours on Saturday with fellow photographer Luna testing out colored gels. I have a feeling that this blue back lighting is pretty standard in the laboratory scenes of C.S.I. Las Vegas. (I think they also tend to put a green or yellow gel on the main light.) The above image was desaturated slightly in Photoshop.  

Rise of the Vending Machines – 8 years on

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Here’s a piece I wrote for the Asahi Weekly Newspaper on February 2, 2003 Rise of the Vending Machines The drink machine at my British secondary school seemed to have three settings: 1) You put in your money and nothing happened. 2) You put in your money and it gave the wrong drink. 3) The machine dispensed the correct drink but did not dispense the plastic cup. If you got the third of these options, it usually meant you’d be spending the rest of the day walking around in wet shoes. Japan seems to have a love for, if not an obsession, with vending machines. It’s not just the number of them (over 5 million) but also the variety. There are machines for rice, hot meals, toothbrushes, hairnets, certain genres of videos, and even underwear. Drinks machines are by far the most popular. They seem to be on every street corner offering Coke and Fanta along with Japanese tea, sports drinks and juices. My personal favorites are the hot drinks available in the winter. There …

Winter in Niigata

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I spent the first 6 months of my time in Japan living in Niigata. It’s a busy port city, famed for its excellent rice and heavy winter snow falls. This shot really reminds me of the paintings by L. S. Lowry. It has the same grey, industrial bleakness as my hometown of Manchester. The factory with the red and white towers is the paper mill. (This bleakness is not a permanent state, both cities do have some lovely sunny days.)

Lucky Cranes

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I spotted this Red-crowned Crane on the back of a bridal kimono while wandering around Niigata. The Red-crowned Crane is thought to bring luck, longevity and fidelity which is why it’s often found on wedding kimono. Hopefully I will get to see some real Red-crowned Cranes (Grus japonensis) later this winter in Hokkaido.

Snow Monkey Portraits

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I didn’t spend that much time with the monkeys this year, but came away with a few good shots. Really pleased with the detail I was getting in the eyes and fur, then a nice drop off into creamy bokeh. Weather proofing of the body and lens was useful as it was snowing at the time, and the monkeys tended to splash when they were getting in and out of the water.

Dosojin Fire Fesitval, Nozawa Onsen

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Dosojin Fire Fesitval is held on January 15th each year in Nozawa Onsen, Nagano Prefecture. A “shaden” or temporary shrine is built of beach wood and then the town’s 42 year old men (an unlucky age) sit on the top. The town’s 25 year old men (another unlucky age), drunk with sake, stand at the base of the shrine. Local men and boys carrying flaming torches try to set fire to the shaden while the drunken 25 year olds must protect them by hitting the torches with pine branches. The battle goes on until flames take hold of the shaden and the 42 year old men quickly descend by ladder to safety. The shaden is then engulfed by flames, and everyone staggers home.

Up in the air

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Last Friday I arrived at sunny Naha airport with a ticket to Niigata. Unfortunately, the flight was cancelled due to heavy snow up on the mainland. They told me the next flight to Niigata was the following day, when things would probably be back to normal. The problem was I needed to be in Niigata that night, so that I could get to Nagano the following day. ANA allowed me to change my ticket and get on a flight to Haneda. I then got the monorail and local train to Tokyo Station, and finally jumped on the bullet train to Niigata. I arrived in Niigata 4 hours later and 11,000 yen poorer than I’d expected, but at least I’d made it. Let the adventures begin.