All posts filed under: Photography

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.         

Grumpy Bear

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  Another of the idiosyncrasies of still using film (especially professional side film) is that once you put a roll in the camera you need to use the entire roll and process it in a short amount of time. Shoot half a roll of film one day and the other half a few weeks later and your images start to get strange colour shifts. Although I only get 10 shots on a 120 roll of film and 21 shots on a 220 roll of film I am still often left with a few frames left on the camera when I get back home. Rather than waste the film, I usually take a few photographs of the dogs as they are always available and work for dog treats. Bear, however, does not smile for the camera. In fact, Bear only seems to stare grumpily at me until she gets her snack. The perils of being a photographer’s dog.

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

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Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is the second largest aquarium in the world, and has the world’s largest aquarium window measuring 8.2 by 22.5 meters. I have been many times but usually without my camera as I was showing friends or relatives around the island. (The issue of being a good photographer versus a good travel companion will have to wait for a future post.) What this meant was that I didn’t have any really good images of the main tank which is a real oversight when the aquarium is one of Japan’s top tourist attractions. So a few weeks ago I went along and took some shots with my main Pentax 67II camera. I used Fuji Provia 100F film and pushed it two stops to ISO 400 as it is so dark inside. The film was processed but there was still too much motion blur in the shots from the slow shutter speeds. I ordered some faster film on-line and last week went back again and shot a second roll. This time I used Fuji Provia …

New York Times assignment

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  In early September I took photographs of the Okinawan home of Japanese theater producer Amon Miyamoto for The New York Times. It was the first time I had worked for them and both a fascinating but challenging experience. Normally when doing travel photography I am happily working at my own pace and I can wait until the conditions are perfect. On this assignment I had only a couple of hours to shoot five rolls of 220 film and get a decent selection of shots of the house’s interior, exterior and some portraits of Amon Miyamoto. The house was constructed from concrete and had a minimalist design. The photos are now online at the New York Times website you can see them here:   The New York Times – In Okinawa, Staging the View

Connect Magazine assignment

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Most of the articles I have written about Japan have been based on a particular city or region. However recently I did a feature titled “Ultimate Guide: Japan” for CONNECT the business travel magazine of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. It was interesting trying to condense a whole county into just a few pages, but it meant that many great places to visit had to be left unmentioned.  You can see the article here: Ultimate Guide: Japan I also wrote the city guides for Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto and Fukuoka that are later on in the magazine. One of the interesting things I learned while writing the piece was that since my last visit a year ago Osaka’s most famous restaurant Kuiadore has closed down however Kuidaore’s iconic clown figure that used to stand outside the restaurant will continue to live on albeit at a new location outside the C’est la vie SQUARE Nakaza Building.