Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

Making of Daguerreotype by Takashi Arai

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Making of Daguerreotype by Takashi Arai from Takashi Arai on Vimeo.

I’ve just returned home from work and I’ve checked Uchujin’s tweet of the making of a Daguerreotype. Started watching it and was really impressed by the amount of work, preparation and tools needed to create one.
And I thought regular development was a challenge.

The focused traveler

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

man with head down 40mm 490x500 The focused traveler

Another shot from the many many yet to be published shots.

Visitor from the other side of the world

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Normally I don’t post these kinds of snap shots but I need an easy way for a few friends to find the odd snaps I take. My mate Oleg was over from the Ukraine and Citt is about to leave our little team where I work as well as Stephan I guess soon too. So I figured I’d better shoot them all together before everyone runs off to new adventures. So I vow to shoot them all again at some stage, just maybe not all at once.

hmm. I just realized that I feature somewhere in here by accident.

Painterly madness

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

curled up flower 495x500 Painterly madness

I was looking at my archive today and found this shot hidden away. Sometimes it take a year or two for me to finally see something in a shot. In this case it was not the foreground at all but the background craziness I had ignored up till now. Shame there is not more interest but still, I quite like the painterly feel.

Blossoms in rain

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

blosson reflection on the rail 500x492 Blossoms in rain

It’s an old shot that I guess I’m re posting. Shot late afternoon near my house at the park with a Rolleiflex and a Rollinar 2. (more…)

Shinjuku darkness

Monday, July 5th, 2010

shinjuku random street shot blury but with mood 500x500 Shinjuku darkness

This is one of my failed kodak T64 shots that needed a LOT of contrast to give it any kind of personality. Not having a lot of luck with these 20+ year old films :-)

Masked reading

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

masked reading 328x500 Masked reading

So the sharp eye will notice that the book is not covered nor is the regular shape of a Japanese novel. The guy reads English! It’s the little thing’s like this that make the train journey interesting (for the most part).

Oncoming darkness

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

on coming darkness 500x500 Oncoming darkness

The almost failed B+W shot on my last adventure to Kawasaki. Gotta go back soon.

Looking for faces

Friday, June 25th, 2010

MG 1058 Edit 500x333 Looking for faces

So I’m looking for faces to shoot. I will be shooting in black and white with film so the image above is not really true to what I am trying to achieve. (more…)

Random street portrait

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

random portrait 500x375 Random street portrait

Asked this guy if I could take his picture. Still like the contax lenses even if it is non square. Shame I can use the lenses on anything else.

Shop windows

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

MG 1130 Edit 2 500x333 Shop windows


MG 1131 Edit 2 333x500 Shop windows

MG 7843 500x333 Shop windows

Clemens in the bar

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

clemes2 366x500 Clemens in the bar

Clemens shot with this camera at THE BAR on Friday within the last year or so.

Afternoon storm

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

out of focus poll 645 500x376 Afternoon storm

Late afternoon down the street.

Make me up

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

its all about the makeup1 500x375 Make me up
The 14 to 35 crowd seems to do it a lot but the over 50′s? Nice to know the subway is stable enough for her to take care of fine details without getting battered around by the moving car.

Returning

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

back ofold lady 500x500 Returning

Opening of scene 4

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

MG 0804 Edit 500x333 Opening of scene 4

Shinjuku station, about 12am. Rain is starting to fall and he’s…

Kodak Autographic Brownie

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

first photo with brownie 387x500 Kodak Autographic Brownie

A recent comment on a Tokyo Tower photo I took a while back prompted me to write this post.
I shot the photo with a early 1900′s Kodak Autographic Brownie no.2 using a Fuji Polaroid back. The camera originally took a different kind of film that is no longer made. After checking the camera I thought I might be able to get away with using 120 film but could not work out a way to modify the original camera back without destroying it. And given the camera is actually not mine and kind of on permanent loan I figured that would not be a good idea.
So I though perhaps I could connect a Polaroid back to it.
After checking the size of my Hasselblad back with the camera it looked like the idea was going to work. But I needed to find a back that did not have a little window (like the Hasselblad or Mamiya) but had the film area fully exposed when the dark slide was out. A trip to the local camera store immediately paid off. I found myself a Fuji back in the junk bin for ¥525 which was quite lucky because I didn’t want this little test to cost me and end in failure.
I figured the easiest way to connect the back to the body would be with electrical tape and that once I had proved it would work I’d figure out a more permanent solution.
After reading on line and discovering that the aperture would be around f/9 at it”s widest I took a shot and hoped for the best. The image you see above is the result I got. I was quite surprised at how the image turned out.
You will see from the other images below how I modified the camera and the controls it offers. F/9, f/19, f/22. T, B, 25th, and 50th of a second shutter. And a viewfinder that is very cool and at the same time very hard to use.
Feel free to share your old camera mod stories in the comments area below.

MG 0881 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0882 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0885 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0886 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0889 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0890 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0894 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0895 333x500 Kodak Autographic Brownie

MG 0899 500x333 Kodak Autographic Brownie

Tokyo Big Scooters

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

tokyo big scooters, custom bikes, cnngo, magnesium photos

I had met this bunch a week before. They had these amazing bikes. And at the time I had B+W film in my camera. I rewound it and stuck in some colour (still yet to be developed!) and shot some frames. I thought these guy’s would be a great story for my mate Skorj so I asked them if they were around the area much. They said they were in Shibuya every Friday so I said casually that I would be back next week with my mate. He usually shoots for a few foreign bike magazines and I figured it would be a good match. In the process of trying to reach Skorj and arrange him to shoot these bike guy’s I discovered I had somehow given them the impression that this would be a full blown shoot for a big magazine (There was definitely a good bit of imagination being used by the bike guy’s at this point). The next Friday came around and Skorj was busy. I sent a mail to them explaining it was off and they called me up and got all pissed off. Joy! So, rather than giving up and making enemies of them I explained that while my mate could not make it, I could shoot them then try to get them onto a CNN site. At worst they would have a set of nice pics and at best they would appear on an international website.
That night, the usual bunch of photographer friends were turning up to the usual drinking hole about the time I was due to shoot the bikes and I was loathed to meet up with them because I knew I would have to explain my early exit and all the gear I was carrying and I know these guy’s are all like Vultures when it comes a shoot and would basically take over and claim the entire plan as their own. Lucky for me everyone was feeling semi respectful and didn’t completely take over what I had organized. And, as it happens it was good thing a few of them came along. Brian and Eiichi were there to lend a hand with interviewing the guy’s which was really lucky cause had they not done that and also been kind enough to send me the recordings / notes I could not have written the little story for CNNGO.

So, all the drama kind of paid off in the end.

Lens fun

Friday, May 28th, 2010

stephan 500x500 Lens fun
MG 9856 500x500 Lens fun

So just for fun I asked several people, including my friend Stephan, for a photo. I usually use the Hasselblad and have tweaked my settings so I can use the 80mm lens to take close-up head shots. I was, however, surprised to see the result when I developed the film. I wasn’t expecting him to look so different. And I always thought that the 80mm lens on the Hasselblad was a 50mm equivalent on a 35mm SLR. What a difference a lens and a bit of fiddling with the settings makes. Stephan prefers the digital shot. Probably because of how different the lens makes his face look. I actually like it more. Most likely because it’s difficult to replicate the look. In any case I’m surprised to see how well the film version turned out when putting it side by side with the digital one. More of these to come.

Omotesando old man

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

old man walking 500x500 Omotesando old man