Arran Salerno | Photography - Blog » Japan

A few from Japan

Arran — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:31:44 +0000

Getting a little worried now. Still cant find a roll from my trip. It’s always the one you’re most looking forward to developing that you loose or ruin.
Anyway…
I quite like the first shot. As everyone started to cross the road, i took a quick look behind me and saw this girl standing there whilst everyone moved past. I guessed the distance and got a quick shot before she disappeared into the crowd. It’s out of focus as you can probably tell, but without trying to sound too “wanky”, i think it reflects the moment for me.

Snapshots pt3

Arran — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:24:25 +0000

Here are a few random shots from Roppongi Tower in Tokyo.

Tokyo pictorial book

Arran — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:14:50 +0000

I bought this pretty interesting book for $3 the other day.
Its just called “Tokyo” and was published by The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, printed in 1970. It seems to just be a tourist souvenir book, or something sent out to encourage travel to Japan, im not quite sure actually.
What i do know is that it’s full of some really interesting photography. Mostly comprising of black and white images (with the occasional colour slide shot), Its full of street photos and what appear to be pretty candid daily scenes.
It’s quite interesting in that it’s bit of a time capsule as you can see lots of old cars and buildings that have completely changed (by the time i visited last year). I really like old photographs of daily life.
Another thing i noticed, is that amongst all of the “material” changes in Tokyo such as buildings and cars and technology etc, the b&w photos of people dont look all that dated, i dont know if thats a good thing or not, quite interesting though. There’s also a couple of photos of protests and general civil unrest which seems a bit strange to put in a tourist book, its referred to as “explosion of the student power” in the captions.
I just realised how hard it is to take photos of books (cameras are alot easier Tim :p ), but heres a few shots anyway. Oh, i almost forgot, there appears to be no credit given to the photographer/s of these photos. Nothing at all, which seems strange.

That guy on the right looks way too happy.

Tokyo Print

Arran — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:34:56 +0000

Last year i won a photo comp on an Australian Photography forum. The prize was an A1 sized print of one of my photos. It took me ages to send in the photo i wanted printed out (mainly because my hard drive died. Plus the fact that i was quite lazy over the Christmas break).
I finally got around to sending the printer a pic last week and received the finished product in the mail yesterday. I was really happy with the result. The printing was terrific so that was never an issue, i was just concerned about the post processing work i’d done to the photo. It was bit of a gamble, but turned out looking really good in the “flesh”.
I’ve made prints of my photos before, but never at A1 size. It’s pretty impressive.
I took a quick picture of it below. I haven’t mounted it yet on the wall, so will hopefully sort that out today. Oh, and the print doesn’t look all flat like it does in the photo below.

Stay Connected in Osaka

Arran — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:59:09 +0000

Just reworked an older picture of mine… Didnt take any photos this week. Too many other things happening.

Some “B” Sides

Arran — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 03:53:21 +0000

Been going through the restored files on my old hard drive today and found some pictures i had totally forgotten about. They are all from my Asia trip last year, mostly in Japan though.
Its a nice finding old pictures you’d forgotten about

08

Arran — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:48:14 +0000

Well yep, it’s 2008 now… Where did 2007 go?
I hope everyone had a good time over the Christmas/New Year period. Mine was really good, and i’m now looking forward to all the surprises and challenges the new year will bring. I have quite a few personal goals that i hope i get though. I also hope this new year can allow me to take more/better photos. I have a few little projects i will be pursuing, so hopefully they turn out ok!
Oh, and i had a good end to 2007 when i found out one of my photos won a monthly challenge at Australian Photography.net
It was a really big surprise for me as i’ve never won anything (big or small) when it comes to photography. What was also more of a surprise was the fact my picture actually had the highest votes. As usually the most popular photographic subjects on the forum are landscapes and wildlife. Street photography isn’t very abundant.
Well below is the photo that won the November challenge for “slow shutter speed”. For a prize i’ll be getting an A1 photo print of my choice, just have to figure out what i want printed though!

Yet Another Shinjuku Streetscape

Arran — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:07:53 +0000

Did this when i found my Kyoto photos the other day.. Similar style to my Shibuya street series.

Revisiting Kyoto

Arran — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:50:41 +0000

Just stumbled on some pics i took when i was in Kyoto so thought i’d muck around with them a bit. I quite like how they turned out.

Cross Processing Shibuya

Arran — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:13:32 +0000

I still have heaps of photos from my asia trip i havent really gone through yet.
These are some i took in Shibuya in Tokyo. Its a crazy place, so many aspects of it seem like you’re in the movie Bladerunner. There is so much activity goign on. People everywhere, TV screen flashing at you, the sound of seizure inducing Pachinko Parlors, and the alleys filled with “Love hotels”. Its a sensory overload and i thought it was fantastic

I tried out a Cross Processed effect with these. I found a Cross Processing action which worked ok, but i still did a fair bit of my own fine tuning..
I quite like how they turned out, hope you like some of them too.
I think they look considerably better in a larger size, but i just used the automated flickr resizing to post them up here.

These first 2 photos were taken from Starbucks above the intersection. It has the best view, but unfortunately alot of people bumping the bench i was resting the camera on!

EDIT : I’ve uploaded bigger versions now, and will do so with all of my future posts.