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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.)

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.

Studio Shoot – Nina

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The final couple of images from my studio shoots make up this final post of the year. The model is Nina, Kim Clay did makeup and hair. Nina’s done a lot of modeling around Asia, so it was a great opportunity to work with her while she was back home visiting Okinawa. So that’s it for 2010. Happy New Year everyone and see you in 2011.

A little moment of calm

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No posts for an entire week. Things have been a little hectic with various shoots, an exhibition to prepare for, a sick dog and a keyboard that would only let me use the backslash key. I am slowly getting back on top of things. There are now a thousand or so new images on my hard drive, the exhibition is up and starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11AM, the dog is on heart medication, and I have a new keyboard that allows me to type prose more complicated than /////////////////////////////////////////. And why the photo of a stone on the beach? Because it’s a nice stone, on a nice beach. Time for a much needed cup of tea.

On the Bookshelf: Faces by Jane Bown

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Faces: The Creative Process Behind Great Portraits by Jane Bown is back to basics portrait photography. She used black and white film (Kodak Tri X),  a simple manual camera (Olympus OM1), natural light and a whole lot of talent. For 50 years she worked as a photographer for the Observer newspaper. Turning the pages of her book takes you on a journey through modern history. You start with the likes of Margot Fonteyn and Orson Welles, and finish with modern lumineries including the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. The book is well worth checking out. It has left me inspired to put some black and white film in my camera.

Studio Shoot – Tomoko

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Here’s the first image from the latest studio shoot. A big thank you to the model Tomoko Peters, and Kim Clay for makeup. The main light was a gridded beauty dish over my right shoulder. A second light behind the  model was used as a hair/rim light. I shot with both the 645D and the 67II. The above image was taken using the 645D and a 67 100m macro lens. You can see a slightly larger version of the image on Flickr. And here’s another image from the shoot. In this one Kim did a peacock/amphibian eye which looks very cool. Using the macro lens allowed me to get in close for this shot, but I did find that the maximum aperture of f4 on this lens means that focusing is more difficult compared to the f2.4 105mm.  

Naha Tug of War – The Kids

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On Sunday I went to the annual Tug of war in Naha. This is one of the biggest events of the year in Okinawa, and the rope is humongous. Before the tug of war there is a procession down Kokusai-dori. I had my camera with me and got a few shots. I like these  two shots, but my favorite of the three is the third. There is something really cool at the way such a young kid stares fearlessly straight back into the camera.

Rapi:t Train, Osaka

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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 )

Hakodate, Hokkaido (Day 2)

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Hakodate is also famous for its warehouses made of red brick.  This is of great interest if you live in a country where most buildings are concrete. If you’re from England, it’s a little strange to see people oohing and aahing over a brick wall. ( I shall resist starting a rant about the ugliness of most modern Japanese buildings.) Another building of note in Hakodate is the Goryokaku Tower. Constructing a new tower in Hakodate had seemed to me a little redundant as there is a mountain if you want night views of the city. However, the reason for the tower, and it’s pentagonal design is that it overlooks the Goryokaku Park and Fort. The fort is surrounded by a moat in the shape of a five pointed star (although it does have an extra mini point at the entry). The building at the centre of the star is a reconstruction of the Hakodate Magistrate’s Office. After visiting Goryokaku Park I decided to head up Hakodate mountain again to see if I could get the …