All posts filed under: Japan

Kishiwada Castle, Osaka

Published by travel67

Before we get onto the mayhem of the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival I thought I’d post a mellow “postcard” image of Kishiwada Castle.

The Rapi:t are express trains running from Kansai International Airport to Namba Station in Osaka. I’d describe their design as retro-futuristic as they look like they were thought up in the 50’s as “trains of the future”. I wonder if the architect actually did aerodynamic testing or based his design on something else…. Depending on the number of stops, the train is the named either rapi:t α and rapi:t β. A quick tip for anyone naming products (or indeed children) – please stick with your basic letters A to Z. Otherwise hardly anyone can spell your product or find it on Google. (Even Pentax made this mistake naming its first digital SLR the unpronounceable *ist )

Gate Tower Building, Osaka

Published by travel67

The Gate Tower Building in Osaka. A fine example of what happens when you can’t decide whether you should build an expressway to the left or to the right of an office block. I believe the road does not actually make contact with the building but squeezes through the hole. Odd, very odd.

Rooftop Shrine

Published by travel67

I happened to spot this scene from my hotel window. It says so much about life in modern Japan. Concrete and steel fill the scene, but a small patch of greenery and spirituality remains. Not sure if this image is tragic or uplifting.

Umeda Sky Building, Osaka

Published by travel67

Umeda Sky Building is one of my favorite examples of exciting modern architecture. Hopefully from these shots you can see why the night image in the previous post (no matter how detailed) doesn’t really do justice to the building. These were both shot with the 645 35mm lens, an extremely impressive piece of glass.

The Best of Kumamoto & The Best of Nagoya

Published by travel67

A couple of updates have been made to my website. There’s now a small icon taking people to my Facebook page, and more excitingly two new travel articles in the features section. Next time you’re surfing the web, take a look at The Best of Kumamoto and The Best of Nagoya. A big thanks to my good friend Nick Fraenkel for making the updates even though he now lives on the other side of the world. 🙂

Low light test – Pentax 645D

Published by travel67

I’d received several requests to see images taken with the Pentax 645D in low light conditions. (You can check out my Traveling Photographer article about shooting in low light here) On my latest trip to Osaka I hoped to get a night shot of the Umeda Sky Tower. I chose the hotel and then the room (on one of the upper floors facing North) so that I had a chance at a good shot. As with other best laid plans (and I’m sure many mice will agree with me) things didn’t quite work out. Although I had a good view of the building the angle meant that I couldn’t look through the gap between the two vertical towers. I still took the shot as I realized that this was exactly the kind of long exposure night shot that some photographers had been interested in seeing. So here’s the photo. Taken on a tripod at ISO 200 f11 30 seconds with the 105mm lens from the Pentax 67 camera. I have also put the full size …

Pentax 645D on sale in Europe in December

Published by travel67

The British Journal of Photography has reported that the Pentax 645D will go on sale in Europe in December. The list price in the UK is stated to be £9,000 for the body or £10,000 with the new 55mm lens. I am really pleased that Pentax has decided to release the camera to a wider market. I’ve been really impressed with the 645D, and I am sure there are many people in Europe who are eagerly awaiting its arrival. A larger number of users will hopefully mean that Pentax will continue to develop the system with more lenses. It will also be nice to have an English manual available! For those outside of Europe and Japan, the wait continues. I know this will frustrate many but I am sure that this photographic Godzilla will one day reach your shores.

Kayaking in Okinawa (on film)

Published by travel67

Finally picked up and scanned the film from the afternoon kayaking with Heiko. Just goes to show that with film although it may take some time, you’ll get the results eventually.