Yukata Girls

Finally, I decided to go with B&W. I guess I just like B&W photography more.

This series of photos is taken during Tenjin Matsuri (天神祭), one of the biggest summer festival here in Osaka. But I won't write in details about the festival, because I am not a big fan for it. Been there twice, both end up with too many people and too little to see. And this time, my camera end up hunting for yukata girls. Din't make any good photos though. You can imagine, without a fast lens, all I can depend on is high ISO. Push it to the limit, 6400, tight-up my shoulder, and all I pray for is luck.

What I did was pure street photography - point and shoot. No asking for permission. The idea is to get the most natural shot, simple and fast. The results, out of hundreds, only this 3 can be called usable.

Yukata Girls. You will find a lot of them during summer festival in Japan. Typically you can divide them into 2 groups. Modern Gyaru (ギャル), and traditional type.

Gyaru. Straight translation of English term - gal, is refer to young girls in their teens in general, but also used to refer to group of girls with special choice of fashion, usually with overly bleached hair. You can google for the term and you will get a lot of images hits as well, but I think the photo below is enough to tell the story.

On the other hand, traditional type. Judged by the name, without further explanation, you can get the idea, right?

Finally, a group of High School girls, I guess, were happily posed for me, when they noticed a big lens was pointing at them. Say PEACE!!

Shooting from different angle

Thanks to the power of internet, all the blogs and free resources on it. I have been picking up a lot of photography technique a little bit from here and there. I'm running a blog also, and I think I can also contribute something to the community, so here you are a little tip to help make an interesting photograph.

Here is a series of 3 photos. Can you tell what they have in common?

From a restaurant in Hiroshima during lunch time

Apple Store in Ginza, before the launching of iPad. If not the store will be much more crowded.

Inside Midtown in Roppongi. Just like the reflection, make it an interesting symmetrical view.

Easy to tell right? They all have been shot from the same angle - 90 degree form the top. Ya, is that simple!! You know what make photography interesting? Is the power of us, the photographer to present a scene in different viewpoint. How many of us will spent time looking down on something? fairly few. So present your photos, not each of them but once in a while, and that will sure attract a lot of attention. :)

Smile

Went to a candle night event called “10000000人のキャンドルナイト＠Osaka City” last week, a Japanese own version of Earth Hour. The city was light off with candle art lining along the street. I like the theme this year – “少し笑ったら，また何かできるんだ” (Something you can do with a simple smile).

Smile, something simple but people tend to forget. The economy downturn, fast living pace in modern city, all this had taken over our life, keep pressuring us to move forward and what is missing is a simple smile on our face. A smile that would always give us the strength to overcome obstacles in life.

Hope you enjoy the photo here and smile always!!!

Run Away

Exhausted. The perfect word to express my state of mind. I know I shouldn’t complain, but I really need a space to hide, to run away to. And maybe this digital world of mine is the best option.

Tonight I ran away. From all the course works, all the reading materials and turn myself to photoshop, working on this piece of photo which coincidently fit the title of this blog post.

Here is another 2 photos from the same series - my personal photo project on self-portrait, posted in my flickr page few weeks ago before I can finish up this last piece.

Maybe it will take me another few weeks before I can update this blog, the camera has been resting in the dry box for a long time. Anyway, is time for me to go back to reality. Good night :)

The Kitchen

Sitting near to the kitchen in a packed bar. A totally different world under the same roof.

People hate noise in digital photography using high ISO. But for these series, I love the noise. The gains and blurs added depth into the pictures, I just like the feeling of them.