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Tokyo – Time Unknown

By on September 3, 2011 in japan, Photography

I don’t usually do too much with textures, but I was organizing my computer desktop files and found this (which I processed quite a long time ago) and thought I’d post it (click on the image for a MUCH larger version).

Contemporary Tokyo looking rather aged...

This shot was taken from the “Sky Lounge” in our building, which is basically a big common lounge area with a view of the bay, the Rainbow Bridge, and the city.

The water in the immediate foreground is the mouth of the Sumida river and the green space on the right is Hamarikyu Gardens (浜離宮 – はまりきゅう), which is the site of a 17thC Tokugawa family villa that was opened as a public garden in the early 1950s. You can see the tidal pond (salt-water pond) which is within the park and quite famous.

Tokyo Tower is also visible (half obscured by a building near JR Hamamatsucho station) and behind it is the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills.

As for the image itself, it is 3 shots layered (-2/0/+2 exposure), tonemapped with Photomatix, desaturated in Lightroom, imported into Photoshop, and blended with a layer of craquelure texture (opacity reduced to about 20%).

 

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A Local Bon-Odori

By on August 24, 2011 in japan, Photography

I’ll readily confess that I am a matsuri otaku, so it’s no surprise that August is a great time of year for me. Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a few years knows that August in Tokyo is festival time and I’ve blogged about Bon Odori a few times here and here (thankfully I have better video equipment these days).

This upcoming weekend (August 26 & 27) is the awesome Oedo Matsuri Bon Odori taikai (大江戸まつり盆おどり大会), so, if you’re around Tokyo, you should definitely check it out. (Japanese info is here). I shot the video below two years ago, if you’d like an idea of what it’s like (after the intro still shots, there’s live video):

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Anyway, although the Oedo matsuri is “local” (I live in Chuo-ku), our truly local (as in neighbourhood) Bon Odori was last week, so I popped over to shoot a bit and have a few drinks while listening to the music and watching the dancers and, below, are some shots from that evening. It’s always so much fun to go to your local Bon Odori and see the same people over the years (and I’m now getting quite a collection of portraits of some of the real regulars who dance at all the local ones, including the Oedo one).

 

 

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