My Current Insanities

You’re supposed to make like every photo you take was an intentional exercise of your superior skill. For the most part, artist confidence is horseshit done to make you, the viewer, feel like you’re in the presence of someone better than you at this stuff so you’ll give them money.

While I’d like your money, I won’t horseshit you. I was shooting randomly into the crowd. The auto-focus locked on to her just as she was making what I feel to be an interesting expression. I didn’t see it until I was reviewing the memory card.

The only skill I displayed was making sure the camera was on the right settings, pointed in the right direction, and pushing the shutter at the right time. This is more common than you know.

I’ve posted this up a million times on the million sites I’ve had, but I still think it’s a good one.

A Japan (And if I recall correctly Korea and Taiwan) Thang;

Most neighborhoods with a bar/pub/restaurant/ladies-of-negotiable-affection district will have these small rooms with ads of all of the local establishments on them. Some times it’s just for the businesses in the building. Sometimes just for the street.

Down the street from this shot and around the corner is one of these places which is focused on just the host and hostess clubs. The bar area was quite thick with them which is a bit surprising in a small city like Miyazaki.

Miyazaki city at night. You will note that the auto-focus was really good at finding the least interesting parts to lock on to. It can be a good friend most of the time, but it will betray you when you need it the most.

Another Bill, who we will call Tokyo Bill because it sounds sexy, took me to the Yanaka area of Tokyo to visit the famous graveyard kitties and the Ginza. That’s where I ran into the young photographer a few posts down.

There is a skill to photographing people in a crowd that I have yet to develop fully. And one of the problems I found while trying to do it in Halifax is the lack of crowds. With a crowd you can at least make like you’re photographing something else when you get unpleasant looks. With everyone in Halifax being afraid (Of being mocked, insulted, of not being seen as cool nor special, etc…) pointing your camera at people gets you nothing but glares. I’ll try again next time I’m down. Maybe after I get through with the medical probing and prodding to find out what’s wrong with my guts.

I converted the shot to B&W because the Pen was set to “vivid” in it’s color balance and her shirt turned everything into a sickly orange. It’s a handy little camera, but since a lot is tucked away in a menu I find I need to be far more mindful than with a film camera.

Speaking of film cameras: My beautiful Konica III has had its rangefinder knocked off focus during my travels. Mostly it’s off on the vertical axis, but there’s a bit of deviation from the horizontal as well. There might be someone who can fix it up for me, but I’m assuming it’ll cost me more to fix it than I paid for it to begin with.

He caught me pointing my camera at him and flashed a gang sign. This is what he looked like one second after he stopped doing that.

Can you feel the groove?

No, you can’t. Because he took all the groove for himself. He, the Michael Jackson of Miyakonojo. Only the cows and scarecrows tend to bear witness, but this night he brought his light feet to the streets.

I was struck by how dedicated the would be cruiser was to following the contour of the stall’s lock. Shinjuku is a pretty busy station and I can’t imagine the line up of grimacing and sad-eyed salarymen he was causing while he dedicated himself to the task.

I suspect the stall graffiti will be a lot more aggressive now that I’m back in Canada. I have a lot to do here and a lot of photos and memories to process while I do it.

But let tell you one thing I learned while staying in Shinjuku: Pretty, young, and cool people are generally too wrapped up in being pretty, young, and cool to make for interesting street photography subjects. I think that’s why you typically only see photos of them standing around and showing off their clothing instead.

This was a Hipstamatic shot that got trimmed and straightened in Photoforge2.