Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

Thanks for the info on the moon shot. I'm going to give that a try in a moment.

Hmm, looking on Yahoo for the Sigma I found this one that says can reach 1.4f Now that is pretty good and it's under 30'000 yen. What do you think of this lens - http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k155245166

 

So much for the moon shots. It was hiding behind the clouds for a good 40 minutes so I gave up. I did grab a few shots though while I was out.


Night City by Yakum01975, on Flickr


shoes of sorrow 1 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


shoes of sorrow 2 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


all at once, typical by Yakum01975, on Flickr

 

The problem w/ the moon shot is you're camera is most likely using a metering that takes into account the whole picture, and not a single dot. You can try to use spot metering (usually the center point) which might help, but if you want to do it right:

1: Put on panties and take a deep breath
2: Put camera in full manual mode (but get an idea of what the camera thinks you should do)
3: Double the shutter speed (making it faster, and the picture less exposed).
4: Rinse and repeat adjusting the shutter speed until you find what you want.

Your metering will tell you you're WAY under exposed if you get it to the level where you can see features of the surface of the moon. This is b/c (probably) the camera is taking into account all that black that space offers. Gotta remember at night that all "auto" bets are off. You can easily take the shot in 2.8... even 3.5 or 4.0 I would guess. I was able to (hand held) not long ago, but I'll be fucked if I know where the pic is.

The first shot of the trainers is great, btw. Perfect exposure. Perfect processing.

 

Thanks GaijinPunch. I'll try again tomorrow with the moon. Like I said, As I set up the shot I've got loads of detail on the moons surface but it just went ape as soon as I pressed the shutter button. With the info you and Martin have given me I'll be sure to pull off a good shot.

I'm happy to hear your comments about the first trainer photo. That was done in manual mode along with manual focus. The second one was actually under exposed so I messed about with it in Lightroom to get some of the image back.

 

Welcome to the world of photography in the dark! A total pain in the ass sometimes, but rewarding.

 

Oh, you think darkness is your ally, but you merely adopted the dark

Anyway, I concur on that trainer shot. Looks spot-on.

Try point a zoom lens you have at the moon, switching to S or M mode (M is better) and focus at infinity. Then make the shutter speed something like 1/1000 and take a photo, then review it.

I am also really liking those buses

 

Fingers crossed there's a good moon tonight. I'll put all the advice you and GaijinPunch have told me in to practice.

By the way, how did you get the wide fisheye look on that Akihabara shot (Yep, I still know the place after all these years.) Good to see Sega still next to the train track bridge. I have a video I took in Akihabara way back in 1997 and Sega was there then too! Anyway, back to the shot. Did you use software or an actual fisheye lens?

 

Panorama -- stitched (but probably in camera as that's a feature these days).

Wish I had the money, and hobby of taking good photos back then. Would love to have some proof of what Akiba once was.

 

Oh man, Akihabara was so much better in the mid to late 90's. It truly was a gamers paradise back then. No shitty DVD shops, no shitty maid cafes, no shitty corporate big bollocks buildings. Just fantastic gaming and electronic stores with events in the streets as far as the eye could see. If only people who think it's great now could know how great it truly was back then.

 

It's like last of the summer wine in here sometimes /jk

Yeah, as GP said, in-camera stitched panorama. My phone does it too. I don't know if the mighty iPhone can do it yet... no doubt there is an app for that!

However, it's better to actually use either a fisheye (not bothered buying one yet) or to take many shots and stitch them together, even in free software such as a GIMP.

P.S. I would like to have seen AKB in the 90's. I saw it in the little comic books I had... aside from that, I only have what there is now

 

yes, the iPhone has a rather good one made by... wait for it... Microsoft. AFAIK it doesn't have a great cropping tool though, so you'll need one of the other one million apps that do that.

Quick app alert: if you want a good one for the phone, Afterglow is new, and has some great subtle filters. You also get more control. It's a whopping $1. Check it out.

You know all those Liberty stores? 3-4 of them had a huge sections of retro console games, Famicom, Megadrive, PC-Engine, etc, up to 32-bit. Media Land and Trader 2 had premium games in their jewel cases you'd drool over. Non-bootlegged sealed games that didn't always show up on Yahoo. Laserdiscs out the ass, too. There was definitely a lot of luck involved in getting stuff before other people. Maybe not as impressive as Super Potatoes case, but great nonetheless. Prices were way better too. Lots of adult ADD, but as Yakumo said, no maids, no sky scrapers, and no tourist traps. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only place you could have a decent shit was McDonald's until about 2005.

 

yes, the iPhone has a rather good one made by... wait for it... Microsoft. AFAIK it doesn't have a great cropping feature (if at all) so you'll need one of the other one million apps that do that.

Quick app alert: if you want a good one for the phone, Afterglow is new, and has some great subtle filters. You also get more control. It's a whopping $1. Check it out.

You know all those Liberty stores? 3-4 of them had a huge sections of retro console games, Famicom, Megadrive, PC-Engine, etc, up to 32-bit. Media Land and Trader 2 had premium games in their jewel cases you'd drool over. Non-bootlegged sealed games that didn't always show up on Yahoo. Laserdiscs out the ass, too. There was definitely a lot of luck involved in getting stuff before other people. Maybe not as impressive as Super Potatoes case, but great nonetheless. Prices were way better too. Lots of adult ADD, but as Yakumo said, no maids, no sky scrapers, and no tourist traps. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only place you could have a decent shit was McDonald's until about 2005.

 

A real shame. Nowadays its 90% idol shops and stuff like that

Only Superpotato had a decent amount of interesting games, but those had prices that the staff obviously had pulled out their asses.

And Trader was also rather disappointing. I did find a cheap Waku Waku 7 though.

 

Has anyone come across another cities "electric town" to be more akin to the Akihabara of the 90s? Or has the whole nation succumbed to otaku culture?

 

The only other real one is Den Den Town in Osaka but I've never been there. I don't really like Osaka that much. It's the Japanese equivalent of Birmingham. I find going to the massive Mangasoko to be much more fun than Akihabara these days.

It is true that there was adult DVDs and so on in the 90's but they were easily overrun by games.

 

Oh Yakumo, you haven't been to Birmingham in a while, have you? You'd think you were not in the UK at all mate.

On a photo related note, you should buy this lens

 

Oh man, just reading that page now. For sure that Olympus lens would look bloody stupid on my GH2 BUT man, what a lens for the size. This what I need for night street work and portraits while I'll use my other lens for video and shots that require a good zoom. Thanks for the link, Martin.

By the way, we had no moon again last night but I did try out the methods of shooting as described by you and GaijinPunch with some good results. Just waiting for the moon to come back.

 

Keep howling

 

hehe, yeah, I may have to. By the way, that olympus lens goes for under 20'000 yen. I'm bidding on one now over at Yahoo Auctions.

 

Married life, eh?