All posts filed under: Photography

Photographer Ben Simmons

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Last week photographer Ben Simmons visited Okinawa and dropped by my house for coffee and a chat before exploring the island. It was fantastic to meet Ben and have a good discussion about photography, living in Japan, and the changes in both camera technology and the photography industry as a whole.       I also got some advice on places to shoot when I am in Tokyo for a few days later this month. Ben has published several books including Tokyo and Japanscapes: Three Cameras, Three Journeys.           What pleased me most of all was that after many decades of working as a professional photographer Ben still loves taking photographs. I think it is all to common for the realities of work to erode away the passion you have for something. I know SCUBA diving instructors who found that their dream career rapidly became more and more like a regular job. It gives me confidence that I will still love taking photographs for decades to come.      

Around the World with TPN

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The Travel Photographers Network is a community of travel photographers that aims to improve and promote the art of travel photography. A community only thrives through the actions of its members, and luckily TPN is packed with talented people who are willing to share their ideas, their experiences and their dreams with others. Over the last year TPN has put together a book showcasing fantastic images by the community’s members. The book has just been published through Blurb and is available for purchase here. Two of my photographs were selected for the book: Rising Sun and Monkey Hug. It is an honor to be part of a book created by  a group of individuals with a shared passion for travel photography.

Mount Asama Eruption

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Mount Asama, one of the volcanoes in central Japan erupted yesterday. Eruptions are not a rare event in Japan. Mount Sakurajima near Kagoshima regularly has a column of smoke rising from it. Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain, is quite literally a time bomb waiting to explode. At the start of 2000 I was living in Otaru, Hokkaido. On March 31st,  the morning TV news showed that the local volcano, Mount Usu, was smoking. (Note I saw the pictures on the screen, but didn’t understand what the newscaster was saying.) A couple of friends and I had the day off so we decided to go and have a look. We drove from Otaru to Lake Toya, but got a little lost on the way and ended up taking little back roads rather than the main highway. We arrived at Lake Toya to find it was very quiet and there was only a single news photographer standing  at the lake edge. I took a few photographs of the Mount Usu erupting in front of us. The news …

On the bookshelf – Night & Low-Light Photography

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In my recent blog about tripods I mentioned that one of the uses of a tripod was for night shots. In reality most “night” shots are actually taken during twilight. The reds and purples or the sunset add some visual interest to the background, while the slightly lighter sky allows the building to be silhouettes rather than disappearing into the night. Lee Frost (a fellow Pentax 67 shooter ) gives a good introduction to shooting at night, dawn and twilight in his book The Complete Guide to Night and Low-Light Photography This is the book I have on my bookshelf, but there are numerous similar books available and many of the more recent ones are slanted far more toward digital users. There is always the exception to the rule. Jason Hawkes doesn’t use a tripod for his night shots but as an aerial photographer prefers to use a giro-stabilizer attached to a helicopter. The results are fantastic, my favorite of which is this one here.

Baraka

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A couple of years ago I met up with Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, a Tokyo based photographer who produces fantastic images for clients ranging from The Guardian to Greenpeace. During our conversation he asked which photographers I was inspired by. There was a rather embarrassing pause, followed by me admitting that I had always been inspired more by TV and movies than photographers.  The truth is it was the images from documentaries like The Trials of Life and movies such as Dances with Wolves and Braveheart that were truly awe-inspiring. There is one film above all others that really affected me  – Baraka. Baraka is a fantastic journey through 24 countries with breathtaking cinematography.  I was amazed when I saw it 14 years ago as a university student, and it still inspires me. One wonderful thing is that I have now been to some of the places captured in the film. I have witnessed snow monkeys relaxing in their hot spring pools, and thousands of commuters surge through Tokyo’s stations. In a previous post I talked about film size and the tradeoff between film size( …

Do you use a tripod?

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Short answer: Yes, most of the time. Longer answer: As mentioned before the Pentax 67II is a big heavy camera. You can use it handheld, but it is both tiring and you don’t get the same level of sharpness you would with a steady base. I don’t use a tripod when I am moving around at festivals, as I am usually shooting portraits with a fast shutter speed. 90% of the time, however, when I fire the shutter I have the camera firmly mounted on the tripod. This is essential when you are taking night scenes, you are working in low light, or when you are shooting a landscape and want both the foreground and background in focus. Even longer answer: There are several factors that determine what is a good tripod, but the importance of these individual factors will depend on the needs of the photographer so there is no one perfect tripod for all photographers, you have to find which works best for you. There are several factors you should consider. Weight: A …

Tokyo Intersections

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Tokyo has several iconic intersections. They turn up again and again in movies whenever cinematographers want to show a dazzling display of neon lights, traffic, pedestrians and undecipherable kanji. You’ve probably seen them in Lost in Translation, The Fast and the Furious – Tokyo Drift and most recently in Jumper I’ve taken photographs at the same intersections. Here’s one of Ginza yon-chome and one of Shinjuku Perhaps the most famous intersection is the one in Shibuya known as Hachiko Square Crossing (named for the nearby statue of the dog Hachiko) Akihabara intersection is at the heart of the electronics district but rather than show a photo I thought I would post a video by fellow Japan blogger Danny Choo who likes to spend his time free time bringing a smile to the faces of tired salarymen and office ladies.

The joys of a “waterproof” camera.

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The photograph of Pudding and I playing fetch the stick reminded me about the joys of a “waterproof” camera. A few years ago Pentax came out with a point and shoot digital camera called the w10 that was waterproof to 1.5 meters. My girlfriend, Seiko, got one thinking it would be a great thing to take to the beach or even snorkeling and it has been really fun to use.    Of course the picture quality is not as good as a larger digital SLR (or higher-end compact digital cameras), however, it’s a camera you simply don’t have to worry about. Use it and abuse it. Leave it in you jacket pocket when it rains, let the dog slobber on it, throw it in the bag full of sandy wet clothes, or simply forget to take it out of your pocket when you jump in the ocean.  I recommended the camera  first to my sister and later my dad so we now have a range of models and colors in my family.  The latest model the Pentax …

Why the “67” in Travel 67?

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The short answer: 67  refers to the frame size of the film my Pentax 67II camera uses. The much longer answer:  Just as digital cameras have different sizes of sensor, film cameras use varying sizes of film. The vast majority of film cameras use 35mm film. One step larger than 35mm are the medium format cameras that use roll film. Roll film always has the same width (56mm), but different medium format cameras vary in how much of the roll they use in each frame. The most popular medium format cameras are 6×4.5, 6×6 and 6×7. The image below shows how the frame sizes compare.       35mm     24x36mm    864 sq.mm             6×4.5           56x42mm         2352 sq.mm    (2.7x as large as 35mm         format)                6×7            56x67mm         3752 sq. mm.  (4.3x as large as 35mm format;            1.6x larger than 6×4.5)   …

Shuri Castle New Year Festival

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From the 1st to the 3rd of January you can see the Shuri Castle New Year Festival in Naha, Okinawa. Shuri Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an interesting place to visit on a normal day, but it is spectacular with hundreds of people dressed in traditional costumes. Here are some photographs from previous years. The second photograph of the Ryukyu Queen was taken backstage when I was one of the events official photographers.