Continuing from Part 1 of my recent photographic trip to Tokyo, Japan.
The one day we went out of the city was the one day it kept drizzling. Instead of being disappointed though, I wondered if I could take advantage of the rainy weather. Sure enough, I realized that there were many beautiful colors and patterns in the umbrellas that people were carrying. In this shot, I love how the color of the umbrella complements the color of the temple in the background.
There was a price to shooting in the rain though. I realized very soon that I couldn’t shoot holding both an umbrella and a Canon 7D DSLR at the same time, so I abandoned the umbrella and walked around in the drizzle, tucking the camera into my jacket whenever I wasn’t shooting. Although it got really cold with the rain and the wind (around 10 degrees Celsius), I was more worried about the rain getting onto my DSLR than getting onto me! The Canon people assured me that the 7D was weather-proof, but I kept wiping raindrops off as fast as I could.
This is one of my favorite shots taken during the trip. I was wandering around the temple grounds when I noticed a spot where a few white birds were hanging around. I parked myself there and waited for them to start flying around, which they were quite happy to do every once in a while.
I wanted to achieve two things with these shots; one was to try and photograph an illustration of an idea, instead of simply photographing a pretty picture. Since my subject was birds, I tried to illustrate the idea of freedom with this series. The second thing I wanted to do was to catch the birds against the small temple in the background, so it could provide context to the picture.
I shot a lot of photos at this spot, and I could have happily stayed there for the rest of the day just shooting away, trying to catch as many decisive moments as I could. But unfortunately I only had 15 minutes before I had to leave. I got quite a few usable shots in those 15 minutes though, and I remain convinced that I wouldn’t have gotten as many without the quick 8 frames per second ability of the Canon EOS 7D and a fast Sandisk Extreme Pro CF card, both of which I was lucky to get on loan. It really made me understand how important good gear is when you need to place high demands on it.
Most of the shots I took in Japan the previous year were of inanimate objects; architecture, interiors and still life. I wanted to challenge myself to shoot photos with more emotion and life this time round, as well as a more human sense of Japan, so I started to shoot street candids. This was something I’d never done before I went on this trip, so it was a real stretch for me!
We were waiting for the bus and I noticed the pedestrian crossing ahead would release streams of people our way every once in a while, so I stood right in the middle of the street, pointed my camera forward and started shooting away. I was part nervous, afraid someone would scream at me, part embarrassed, not sure if I was being rude, and part excited, because I was getting some really good shots. This was one happy accident that happened (see what I mean by those umbrellas?).
I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing, but I noticed that Japanese people weren’t as adverse to having their photos taken by random photographers as Singaporeans, in fact some of them were quite game and posed for my camera. Maybe looking like a tourist helped! In either case, I realized that the ins and outs of being a street photographer was something I was only beginning to learn.
This is another shot I particularly like, and I have to thank Paul-Henri Cahier for the inspiration behind it. Before I saw his beautiful impressionistic photographs of the F1 night races, I thought all photographs had to be picture-perfect sharp. The moment I saw this car at the crossing, I knew I wanted to try my hand at making the same effect.
By then, I’d missed too many shots and learned it was much better to travel with the camera in my hands, even if it was cumbersome and made me look like a snap-happy tourist. Which was lucky for me, because I probably had 3 to 5 seconds from the moment I saw this car to when it drove away.
That’s it for Part 2. Look for Part 3 coming soon, where I really start exploring street photography in the streets of Tokyo, Japan.
