Scenic Places in Black and White - Tokyo, Shibuya Station

wraiths - jdx (flickr)

One of the most frequented train stations on earth is Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Japan. Most known is the big crossroads on top of the station where every two minutes thousands of people cross the roads from five directions.

Funny are days like the ones shown in the two pictures. When it's raining Japanese are all carrying white umbrellas which gives a very special look to that scenery. Especially when captured in black and white.

The composition of white zebra crossing with white umbrellas and black clothing of people gives interesting texture and strong graphical elements.

Tokyo - Shibuya Crossing - Tanya Nagar (flickr)

last night in tokyo, shibuya at night - (mar cusp) (flickr)

Shibuya is a very colourful place. All the constantly moving billboards.
At night this is a bouquet of electronic fireworks.

Captured in black and white this slows down and adds an atmosphere of calm.

Camera Shopping in Japan

Japan offers a lot of opportunities for camera gear addicts. With respect to price - even given the fact that many camera manufacturers are Japanese - there might be more attractive places on earth, but in terms of selection and variety Japan is one of the most attractive places.

Read the blog post by Cameron Kline on Film Shooters Collective: http://www.filmshooterscollective.com/analog-film-photography-blog/camera-shopping-in-japan--2-3#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=57656d0c18c1fb60&at_ab=per-2&at_pos=0&at_tot=1

Finding great photo locations

Ever struggled finding a great photo location?

Today finding inspiring photo locations is easy. Internet offers an endless resource of hints, tips, and examples.

While in big cities obviously good photo locations can be found by just screening travel guides the more special photo locations can rather be found in blogs or image repositories in the internet.

I recently visited Tokyo. And picking two to three touristic hot spots already gave me a series of very good and interesting locations. - See my gallery at: link

A great resource of photography ideas and inspiration when visiting Toky is the shoottokyo.com blog by Dave Powell.
The page offers a blog, an inspiring portfolio, a book, and many more.

Explore just one example, which is Dave's blog post about "Analog Sunday", a series of Hasselblad 501 cm images on film: link

Or in preparation of your next Tokyo trip. The post about "Shooting Tokyo". A series of inspirational images opening your eyes for the unusual.

Nikon Museum in Tokyo

The Nikon Museum, Tokyo located close to Shinagawa Station seems to be an interesting place for everybody interested in photography and photography equipment.

I never visited this museum so far, but from what I've read it must give an excellent overview on the history of Nikon cameras and lenses.

Definitely worth thinking of visiting when in Tokyo.

Shibuya, Tokyo - Urban Photography

One of the most impressive locations of my recent Tokyo trip was the large crossing at Shibuya station.

The traffic lights at Shibuya crossing change every 2 minutes and thousands of people from five directions are crossing. There is approximately a number of 100'000 persons passing through this crossing per hour. This makes the Shibuya crossing the busiest crossing in the world.

 My search on 500px.com for "Shibuya crossing" yielded a number of very exceptional images of that place.

Tokyo - Street Photography

Crossroads at Shibuya station

Tokyo (東京) is both the capital and largest city of Japan. The greater Tokyo area exhibits one of the highest population densities in the world.

However, a visit to Tokyo offers a great and special experience in contrasting city life. 

Sensō-ji temple, Asakusa

Urban centres with heavy visual and noise imission are next to calm spiritual centres. Modern city architecture is next to traditional well preserved buildings. Huge crowds of people, next to lonely alleys. 

For a photographer it offers endless motives, subjects, and sceneries.

Tokyo - Images by Andreas Mueller

Black and White Tokyo Photography

Alone - Arts Chien (flickr)

Tokyo subway scene - Piero Damiani (flickr)

Alley - Satoshi Inagaki (500px)

Yakitori - Marco Patella (500px)

Black Tea - Olivier Cruciata (500px)

Camera shopping in Tokyo pt. 1 - Shinjuku - Japan Camera Hunter

With Japan being home to a significant number of the most prominent camera manufacturers Tokyo seems to be a paradise for camera shopping.

Japanese camera makers (link).

Here some shopping advice:
Camera shopping in Tokyo pt. 1 - Shinjuku - Japan Camera Hunter

One Roll of Film project

A very interesting project, four Tokyo-based photographers taking the challenge of shooting one roll of 120 film on a old Hasselblad analog camera.

A fantastic idea, documenting the process of taking exceptional pictures. Compared to digital the photographers start to think much more about composition of the image, about the light, about the camera setting, they develop patience, they develop a vision of what they are going to shoot first.

Learning about this project on YouTube and watching the documentary, I became much more aware of what it means to take exceptional pictures, about how to deal with all the details in the process.
It's about really developing the handcraft of the art of photography.

Have a look at the documentary:



Links to respective photographers website:
Mattias Westfalk
Richard Atrero de Guzman, Bahag
Yoshiki Suzuki
Paul del Rosario