50mm

Sometimes the strangest elements all come together in a shot when you least expect them to.

So I managed to visit the Fragments of Tokyo exhibition at M Place in Shinjuku Gyoenmae and have to say I was impressed. Four very different styles of photography and each with a wonderful and different perspective of Tokyo.

If you missed it you’ll have to bug them to put on another show. Below is each members flickr stream although to really do any of these pictures justice you need to see them printed. It was really a different and exciting experience to see them printed and presented as a series. Congratulations to the four of you.

Toshiya Watanabe
Dairou Koga
Thomas Orand
Jon Ellis

Shot at about 5:55am on the 1st Jan 2010 in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Managed to wake up at 4 and leave at 4:20am. Never actually saw the sun but was lucky enough to get a bit of colour in the clouds before everything went a flat bright colour.
My next trip back there will be with a view to achieve something very different.

Edit: July 3 2010.

Click the picture for a bigger version.

For all of you searching for the location click here for the map

Tips: If you go early enough in the morning, ignore the no entry sign and drive right down to the hole. Otherwise it’s a real hike. Especially if you are trying to catch the sun. You should be in and out before anyone can catch you.
Go during a week day early. The locals like to turn up super early and swim or actually make it the last point of call after a night out. You won’t get any pictures then.
Be careful. The whole place is really slippery so take your time walking around.
The boats on the horizon you can’t do anything about. It’s a pain but if you don’t want them in your shot you’re going to have to pick your angles carefully.
If you want your picture to have any depth to it like the one above you should use film. Even if you have a pro DSLR (I own a canon 1d mark 3) you won’t get the depth and colour. And anyone who says “HDR” as a solution should be shot.
If you think you’ve taken a winner picture post a link to your shot in the comments. I’d love to take a look.
Someone should do a great B+W long exposure. But I bet I end up doing this before anyone else (no one likes B+W any more).

Words of advice from the inexperienced. Wash your negatives thoroughly and DON’T change the type of film you shoot unless you have experience with the new film you plan to use.
I’m a bit disappointed that I traveled thousands of kilometers to meet up with the family (which is hard considering everyone lives in a different state) and manage to destroy all my black and white film in an afternoon.
I shall, from this point, revert to my tried and trusted film stock and developers. Not that there is anything wrong with what I’ve just ruined. Just that I don’t want to have to spend more money learning the in’s and out’s of another stock when the current one already serves me well.

As so this is about where I am at the moment. The end of something and the beginning of something else. Here is hoping your journey from one thing to the next is an enriching one.

This shot is one I dug up from the archives again. To be featured in the upcoming update of the 50mm web site which hopefully should launch before the end of the year.

I tell you I’m a bit hacked off with this Ektar 100 film. This is the 2nd roll I’ve shot of the stuff and this time I pushed it 2 stops. Should be no issues given I push another neg film and have never had problems. I have, however, had issues with getting Ektar developed at Horiuchi Color before. SO, this time I figured I’d go to the source and get it done at Kodak. Well, the bloody neg has blotches all over it. Spend a good 20 mins touching the crap out of it to make it look half ok. The OTHER issue is that they decided to charge me 1449 for ONE roll! And this is development only. I must say, I do like the colours I managed to squeeze out of the film but not if I’m going to get bent over a table on the price and they do a shoddy job of it to boot (the development not bending you over a table. That they are good at).
I think I’ll have to give Ektar a miss from this point on. Shame.

See his genius at work here -> Uchujin
While I was in the film archives the other day I found a few shots I forgot to scan. A case that so often happens to me “ah, not bad, I’ll do that one last”. As usual, I forget or run out of time.
Figured it would be nice to add to the rest of the shots considering everyone else got a look-in a while back on the blog.

Another archive shot while I work my way very slowly through a roll of film.