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

Nice shots. I'm going leaf hunting this weekend (hope the weather holds). Last Saturday was balls.

 

Sunday was great though. Went to Kamakura. Leaves not that red, but still got some shots I happy with. I need to go back there on the first train instead of arrive at 2:30. :-/ Yoyogi Park is kind of that bullshit orange-ish color at best right now. I'm predicting the very last days of November will be the peak this year, due to global warming if you're a liberal, or due to God hating homosexuals if you're conservative.

 

There's a fantasic spot just up the road that I'm hoping to take pictures of this weekend. It's always too dark by the time I get home. I just hope the weekend won't be too late.

 

Spent this morning photographing some hot ladies in AKB...


Old Lady by martindesu, on Flickr

I rarely do street photography, but it's something I'd like to do more of. GP does a cracking job of it, and inspired me to bring my camera to work this morning. Fanking ya.

 

oh man, that's one hottie you got there Actually, that's a fantastic shot but I can tel the woman was thinkig WTF

I don't have the balls or a long enough lense for street photography. I'm buying a pancake lense next for some nice macro and night shots.

 

Cheers Yakumo, but that was with a 35mm lens! Manual focus, to boot! I set it to focus 5m in front, and managed to pull off this shot. Well chuffed!

 

The best thing about old people is they're easier to hit with manual focus. That and of course the blow jobs being better.

And yes, Yakumo, you don't need a long focal length. In fact, a lot of people frown upon it. Personally I think as long as a you get the shot, who cares. But, for the better part of a year I've been using my 24-70. It's a nice walk around lens, but it only goes to F2.8, and honestly, zooming is sometimes a hindrance. If you get in the mindset of your fixed focal length, you think ahead. Not nearly as hard as you'd imagine.

My latest lens is 100mm, which is nice to have for street, and honestly, it's the best lens I've ever touched. It's also manual focus only. So, I do miss some shots on occasion. But relying on auto focus for street photography is extremely frustrating. Especially in the later hours. Honestly I'd rather have a 35mm or 50mm on my full frame. The latter will give a focal length similar to martin's shot above (which is quite nice, btw). For streets on Tokyo, unless you're in the large spread out areas which are amazingly few, you'll need something short. The only times I feel like more than 100mm would be necessary (for street) is at the various hodousha tengoku spots, which AFAIK are only Ginza, Akihabara, and sometimes Shinjuku (but w/o that much traffic). Even in those times, people will get inbetween your lens and the subject. Maybe not so bad in the sticks, but most people in Tokyo (even the gaijin) have their heads up their asses. Literally. It's amazing how a culture whose country name shares a character with 'harmony', often lives it at home.

 

Case in point. I was walking around, testing out the new lens (w/ no other on me). I'm happy w/ both of these shots, but would rather have had a wider angle, by at least 30mm. Back was against the wall for both.


Cafe Di Espresso by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Keitai at Night by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

 

Considering I was literally pacing it to the office this morning, so at not to be late, I was pleased with these. Camera by the hip, taking shot whilst coughing (to hide the sound).

At the weekend I might try actually going around taking candid photos properly, but this technique served me well this morning.


Brisk Walk by martindesu, on Flickr


Moshi moshi by martindesu, on Flickr


Pinstriped hair by martindesu, on Flickr


Just let me send this... by martindesu, on Flickr


About to turn by martindesu, on Flickr

 

As always, good info in this thread about lenses. I'm currently using A Panasonic : LUMIX G VARIO 14-42mm f/3.5-f/5.6 (micro four thirds) however I want to buy a Panasonic pancake 20mm lens : f/1.7 - f/16. This would be great for low light shooting without a flash, has pretty good Bokeh and a nice field of view. There's also a 14mm pancake lens in the Micro Four Thirds range however that has an aperture of f/2.5 - f/22. Better for videos and it has a much faster auto focus than the 20mm due to it being internal. What do you guys think of pancake lenses? I'm mostly after one for size reasons and cost is pretty reasonable.

Great photos by the way. i see your points on the photos you took gaijinPunch and I'm liking your suggestion of shooting from the hip, Martin. I'll give that a shot this Friday

I was having a play around with aperture today. The following photos were taken with manual focus without flash at 25mm range f/5.6 ISO800 with a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds.







There was no post production done other than resizing the images.

 

The thing with street photography is that I personally always get a bit self conscious about snapping people on the streets, especially in Japan. In China I had a lot less trouble with it, probably since they were always very blatantly taking pictures of me, up to the point where I would get cameras and phones as close as half a meter of my face whilst waiting at the bus stop.

Oh the many times I faked photographing a building, street light or a tree just to get away from the obvious glances of people who realized I was in fact snapping them. Favorite case ever was when I was taking pictures of people crossing at a traffic light, and only later at home did I realize that an old guy crossing was completely onto me and trolled the shit out of the picture, sticking his tongue out to me and making a weird face .

For me it's one of the reasons why I'm considering picking up a Canon 70-200, to get a bit more distance and hopefully make my shots more undercover. I would miss some of the bokeh though.

 

Try by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Super Hangon by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Sega by gaijin_punch, on Flickr

 

Oh man, a Super hang-on cab. It's been years since I've seen on of those.

 

Great pictures GaijinPunch!

And i agree with Yakumo. It's probably 15 years since i've seen one of those.

 

GP, those are going on my wallpaper! They are effin great. I like the 'asian metropoly shitload of lights and dust' effect

 

Sure, no problem. LMK if you want higher res. Been meaning to do an arcades theme for a while . I might follow through on that...especially since it's going to get cold! I went into an old favorite in Taito and it got kinda shitty, so no pics from that.

The Super Hangon wasn't even in a "major" arcade. It was a large Sega one, but obviously not anything to be bragged about on the interwebs.

 

I was out and about today so here come the photos.


What Country by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Autumn Road by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Autumn Leaf - yellow by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Elderly walk by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Autumn Leaves - Red by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Autumn Leaves - Red3 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Elderly walk 2 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Elderly walk 3 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Elderly walk 4 by Yakum01975, on Flickr


Autumn Leaf by Yakum01975, on Flickr


yummy mac by Yakum01975, on Flickr

 

Definitely Fall down there. Strange, no? Isn't it substantially warmer in Fukuoka?

That Mac looks retarded.

 

I live in Honshu but yeah, It's only about 100km from Fukuoka city. It has been pretty cold, so much so t hat there has been frost on the car in the morning but the last two days have been pretty warm. I was out with just a t-shirt and sweater on today. No need for a coat or jacket just yet.

That's my local Mc, my house is just around the corner. In fact all those shots are taken from the area I live in. Pretty nice place to be honest.

 

I'm one of those douche bags that thinks feeding a child Mac is abusive.

In a rare move, here's some stuff that's far less urban than my usual offerings.


Big Buddha (1) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Big Buddha (2) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Drop by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Fall in Kamakura by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Lots of Monks (2) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr


Surfer on the Beach (1) by gaijin_punch, on Flickr