The image above is of Mount Ogi, Beppu during the fire festival. It was quite a challenge to take this shot. The fire is lit at the top of this triangle and flames slowly creep down the sides and then burn inwards over the course of around an hour. If you were to take a single photo for a few seconds you get an unimpressive thin line of fire on a large mountainside. The secret is to use a long shutter speed or shoot multiple exposures on the same roll of film. Both techniques are tricky but as I had forgotten to pack a shutter release I opted for the second method. I shot a 4 second exposure then without winding the film onto the next frame I cocked the shutter. (How to do this varies between cameras. With the Pentax 67II you hold the multi-exposure lever while turning the wind lever.) I repeated this 4 second exposure on the same piece of film every 4 minutes until the fire had finished. There were a …

On my last trip I found my iPhone to be a fantastic companion. Although it did struggle to  make phone calls (possibly due to the fact that it uses the Softbank network) it was filled with many other great features. Of course I could listen to music, watch videos and check emails, but there are several applications out there that are particularly useful for photographers. The first one comes as standard on the phone: the compass. While walking around at night scouting locations, I could check where the sun would be the next day. Also it  stopped me walking a couple of kilometers in the wrong direction when confused by Japanese street signs. The Simple Depth of Field Calculator is a useful learning tool and field tool that allows you to calculate which parts of your photograph will be in focus for a given film/sensor size, lens length, f-stop, and focus point.  Use it to check you will have front to back sharpness when shooting landscapes or calculate just how shallow your depth of field …

Just started scanning the images from my trip. Here’s a couple of shots from the sand baths of Beppu. I tried the sand baths myself, and although it was  an interesting experience, the sensation of the heavy sand pressing down on your chest while your arms are pinned to your sides was more unnerving than relaxing. One great part of the day was that I met a few fellow sand bathers who didn’t mind me taking a few photos of them while they were buried alive.