11 days of wandering Japan

Dear Reader,

In this post I will discuss my wanderings through springtime Japan in April, and share some of my favourite images taken throughout the trip.

Briefly my plan was to start in Osaka, to participate in the Takayama Festival, traverse the Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route, with the finale in Tokyo.

Osaka – Grittier than Tokyo, with a laid back feel, the characters in Osaka often present unique visuals to a lurking photographer, making it a street photography paradise. Unfortunately I only had a short stay before rushing off to Takayama.

Crossing in Osaka

HEP5 Skyline

Midosuji Subway

Umeda skyline

One of Osaka’s many arcades

Okayama – I managed a short day trip to Okayama (cherry blossoms were falling) and regretted not staying longer.

Okayama’s tram

Korakuen

Bokeh and flowers make a great couple

Japanese couple having a photoshoot, it was a beautiful day with perfect conditions

Okayama, near Korakuen

 

Takayama – The 2 Takayama Festivals are acclaimed as being among the best Matsuris (Summer festivals) in Japan, with centuries-old wooden floats displayed during the day and paraded through the streets at night with much fanfare. The town was packed to the brim on arrival (which would explain the immense difficulty finding lodging), and never have I seen such a concentration of high-end photography gear in a single place, plausibly an attraction unto itself. The weather was mostly perfect, and the pictures speak for themselves. Definitely worth the hype.

Working on one of Takayama’s 11 floats

It’s not a festival if it’s only work

“Downtown” Takayama

Night parade begins

Taken on the Olympus XA2

 

Takayama Jinya

Toyama and Kanazawa – Toyama and Kanazawa were small cities that I visited while en route to the Alpine Route, and the cherry blossoms happened to be in full bloom in Kanazawa. Was thankful I stocked up on the colour negative film prior to leaving Osaka.

The crowds admiring the cherry blossoms in Kenrokuen

Kanazawa Castle – taken with Fuji 400h

Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route – Another highlight of the trip, the route connects Toyama and Nagano through the scenic Japanese Alps. The highest point of the route, Murodo, boasts a snow-wall, where visitors walk between 7-10m high walls of snow, as well as an extremely scenic hiking trail. Unfortunately it was too crowded and too cold at the top; I did not manage to spend much time on the top.

View of the Japanese Alps

End of the route

Tokyo – The Japanese Mecca of photography, with a high concentration of camera shops (rare film stocks!) and a higher concentration of residents, there’s never a dull moment for a keen-eyed photographer with a fat wallet (unfortunately not me).

Shinkansen en route to Tokyo

Shibuya station – taken with Kodak Portra 400

Near Shimokitazawa – taken with Fuji Acros Neopan 100

Ginza

Gotokuji Temple

I would also like to follow up on my previous blog post on shooting film; this was a long haul trip with only my film cameras, and I appreciated the versatility afforded by film. Switching between various film stocks gave me creative latitude while reducing the processing time required to create the desired image.

Side note – This website may soon take on more of a Nordic flavour, as I’m moving to Sweden for graduate school. I hope to have more time to delve on photography and writing over the next couple of years.

DbMonochrome

On one year in photography

Dear Reader,

In this post I’d like to reflect upon my first year in photography.

First monochrome image

Gear

Within a year I’ve gone from mirrorless (Sony A6000), to mirrorless (Fujifilm X100s), to digital rangefinder (Epson RD1s), to rangefinder (LEICA M6TTL) and mirrorless as a backup (Fujifilm XE2). Lesson learnt? Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) is a real problem, there’s always newer and better gear out there to enhance your shooting experience!

Taken with A6000

Taken with X100s

Technical knowledge

The automation embedded in the latest generation of cameras are a great tool for any photographer, allowing him/her to concentrate solely on image making without having to worry about technical details. However it can be a crutch as well, an impediment to learning technical details like the exposure triangle, depth of field and so on. Shooting film with a non-automated camera is a great way to get more involved with your image-making. After several months of solely shooting film I now appreciate, yet not take for granted the convenience granted by modern cameras.

Transition from digital to analogue

Like any new photographer, I was eager for as much sharpness, megapixels, and dynamic range that my money could buy, no thanks to being bombarded by media designed to sell the latest and best. While initially impressed by the technical superiority of the Sony A6000 the photos out of camera required substantial post processing to taste. I was looking for black blacks, lifted shadows, and gritty grain, à la Daido Moriyama; I was also looking for a more manual experience, manual aperture rings and focus. Attempting to adapt M mount lenses to the camera didn’t deliver a satisfactory user experience.  Enter the Fujifilm X100s, with its retro good looks and retro controls. The camera with its optical viewfinder and contrasty lens produced consistently good results, but only made me lust after a genuine “rangefinder experience”.

I next used an Epson R1Ds for an extremely short time, while it produced gorgeous colours, the crop sensor meant I was not able to shoot at my preferred wide angles of 28 and 35. After lusting after a LEICA for several months, I finally took the plunge and have yet to look back! Using the camera is utter simplicity; ISO is predetermined by your film selection, you merely have to set your aperture and shutter speed. Shooting at a small aperture negates the need for careful focusing due to the large depth of fields when shooting wider lenses. Shutter speed should be ideally set to freeze motion, unless shooting in low light conditions. As a bonus, shooting analogue gave me the high contrast and grain due to pushing of film! The rangefinder window and focusing patch allows the photographer to be more intimate with the scene unfolding before him.

Taken with LEICA M6

Evolution of photo style

I believe I have found my ideal focal length, the 28mm; it gives context to an image, and the perspective creates a certain tension to the photo, giving it a sense of drama. The depth of field of such a wide lens is large too, an aperture of F8 to F11 is sufficient to have everything from 1.5m to infinity in focus. The only disadvantage of such a wide angle is the unnerving experience of having to get closer to the subject, but Robert Capa would argue otherwise. Using 35mm allows me to maintain a slightly further distance from the subject, but requires more careful composition to leave the viewer more visual clues.

Visual tension created when shooting 28mm

Conclusion

My first year in photography has been an enriching experience, learning of the deep history of photography and its giants, as well as shooting street. I’m learning to view the world from different perspectives, seeking that decisive moment. What awaits in the future?

 

DbMonochrome

To film or not to film

So my first Bikkuri film case from Japan Camera Hunter (JCH) has arrived in the mail. In it were 10 rolls of Black and White films of different formulations from various manufacturers, including Rollei (400RPX, 400s Retro), Fujifilm, and JCH’s very own Streetpan 400. As I reviewed the contents of the box I had my own bag of mixed feelings; excitement at the prospect of shooting such a varied collection of film while worrying about the development process. I also worried about the possible lack of consistency between my photos, after all (while wonderful) film is a means to an end. –Thoughts of as Aug 7 2016.

After several months of shooting film, and 30-something rolls of B&W development, I can safely say that the my journey with film is not a passing fad and is here to stay. The first lesson learnt was that B&W film is extremely forgiving; despite numerous rookie mistakes while both shooting and developing, I was almost always extract an image from the negative during the post-process after scanning. Now granted auto-exposure modes on modern digital cameras have pretty much eliminated this problem, but extracting an image from an almost non-existent negative is almost as fun as prowling the streets! Second takeaway is that shooting film trains the photographer to be more economical with shutter-tripping. It costs more than money per shot; developing a roll for every 36 photos, followed by scanning and post-processing is, while satisfying, tedious. I have reduced the number of photos to be review while increasing the number of keepers!

The last advantage is slightly insidious, a film camera is the perfect disguise for a street photographer, after all there’s no way “this silly hipster” could be a serious photographer!

This blog will serve as a literary reflection to my urban reflections, and I’m optimistic that it will be clear, concise, yet entertaining.

DbMonochrome