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18 Nov 09
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the queen of hearts the queen of heartsOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyI went back to the original HDR image I made of this building and used nik silver efx to create this more dramatic looking image. |
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17 Nov 09
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What is the light way? Natural Light The burnt interior of a wedding hall in rural Japan. It would be difficult to tell what this was due to a lack of fixtures and fittings, but one thing stood out the flood of light from the hole in the ceiling. Would really have liked something to sit in... |
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16 Nov 09
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The light way part three: Natural Light with a twist of mist There was bang, the chandilier began to swing and rattle and so did my heart, the wind outside had picked up and began to whip along the corridor, at the far end at curtain blew at the window, and I raced to shoot it before the wind died down. As soon as... |
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15 Nov 09
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the light way 2: make your own light A forgotten wine glass the only remains from ill-gotten gains. This time the glass was lit by a SB600 flash held above the glass. I have made what is amusingly called a "drink straw snoot grid" to fit over the top of the flash that will centre the light... |
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14 Nov 09
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What is the light way? What is the best way to capture light in an image? The debate rages over HDR in images and so I thought I would try and focus my next haikyo project on using different elements of light, artificial (flash), natural or diffused and HDR, what can I... |
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13 Nov 09
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Some images of Okinawa Some of the best things of Okinawa (excluding the diving) is the food and drink, wander of the main street of Naha and you can find some great little bars were the locals are friendly, however one bar I walked in the owner told us "sorry all the seats... |
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09 Nov 09
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The Stalin The Stalin top 1980's Japanese punk band, managed to get my hands on a copy of their album "Stop Jap" after watching a 1980 movie called "Crazy Thunder Road" directed by Sogo Ishii. The movie follows the story of biker gang whose leader decides to hang up... |
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05 Nov 09
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the haunting the hauntingOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyHDR created in photomatix and de-saturated. Trying to learn how to use the colour range selector in photoshop to grab the red parts of the stairs from the most overexposed shots and then layer them over... |
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04 Nov 09
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lockers lockersOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyLacking fixtures and fittings these pink lockers were the only thing of interest in the upstairs lobby. Saturation of the walls which were yellow to the rear has been lowered to allow the only bit of colour... |
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03 Nov 09
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hotel corridor hotel corridorOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyThe corridors of the hotel lay bare, never carpeted, never complete, never feeling the footsteps of customers. Below the concrete structure ancient tombs and the curse of the ghosts within them struck... |
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03 Nov 09
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reception receptionOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey"When we take one step towards the gods, the gods take ten steps towards us" reads the sign in the reception of an uncompleted resort hotel in tropical Japan. The first step into one of these places always... |
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27 Oct 09
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self selfOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyI haven't had much luck when I have tried self potraits but I thought I would try one more time to express my monday feelings after consuming too much alcohol over the weekend. This shot was taken in my... |
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26 Oct 09
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joyful joyfulOriginally uploaded by Ginger Jive TurkeyAttempting to link flickr and blogger to make posting little easier. This September I was asked to photograph at my Secondary Schools Sports Day, these kids just won the tug of war and were clearly jumping... |
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21 Apr 09
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Gothic Hands House Who would live in a house like this? Stumbled across this place while wandering around Ikebukuro yesterday afternoon. Half of it was owned by a liquor delivery company and the rest was an apartment block, the outside reminded me of someone trying to... |
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16 Apr 09
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Nezu Shrine Azelea Matsuri I took a trip this week to Nezu Shrine which is surprisingly in Nezu (tokyo) to try out my macro lens on an Azalea festival that is happening over the next few weeks. It was my first visit to the shrine, I had been trying to go for a while to look at the... |
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06 Apr 09
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Kawamura Fertility Festival One of the most unique festivals in Japan was held last weekend in Kawasaki-daishi. My third time of attending this festival and in all honesty probably my last, there is only so much giant cock one man can take, but I had friends in town and wanted to... |
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20 Mar 09
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Starting Photography - Macro Wave Part One It has been a while since I got my camera out and had some time to take shots. One reason is the result of a little argument with the lady about taking my camera when we went out, wasn't happy she was, as our date in Yokohama turned into me waxing lyrical... |
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03 Mar 09
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Starting Photography - Street Photography There have been a couple of related posts about street photography over on JapanSoc recently debating the role of the photographer when shooting people in the street. About two months ago I bought a Nikkor 85mm 1.8D primarily for the purpose of street... |
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24 Feb 09
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Starting Photography - Movement Movement, what is it, well I have one every morning, you know the push and rush of the people on the train system, in fact the whole of the morning rush would make an interesting project, maybe something for the future. In fact movement is something big... |
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17 Feb 09
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Starting Photography - Triptychs and Diptychs A project which was set up by Alfie Goodrich on his Japanorama website to make combined images called triptychs (with three images) or diptychs. I have to admit I have never used photoshop before as I tend to use Adobes other programme Lightroom (which... |
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12 Feb 09
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Starting Photography: Daily Life Following on from the idea of a previous post, I was on the way back from a job interview the other day when I spotted this monk outside Omiya Station. I was looking for a project with the theme of "Daily Life" for the Flickr D40 Challenge Group and the... |
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05 Feb 09
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Photography: The Metabolists In 1959 a group of Japanese architects and city planners joined forces to create a group called the Metabolists. Not that these people were fat but they had a vision to create a post war Japan based on buildings that could be expanded through plug in... |
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30 Jan 09
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Saitama Super Structures Part Two: Asaka Water Gate So continuing with my long walk around Asaka City I headed down to the river to find the huge Asaka water gate. This was actually built in 1995 to help deal with flooding from the Arakawa river. The gate measures 17m high by 20m wide and is the largest... |
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27 Jan 09
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Saitama Super Structures Part One: Toｙo University Gym I went for a walk the other day around the area I live in Saitama. The objective for the walk was to photograph a huge water gate which lies in Asaka City, close to the elementary school where I live. I regularly take shots for a D40 competition on... |
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23 Jan 09
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Haikyo Photography: Tools of the Trade The final post from a recent haikyo visit which began with chairs and will end with the implements. I have been to about eight or nine abandoned places in Japan now, and this by far is one that contained some of the most interesting tools and machines. A... |
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21 Jan 09
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Haikyo Photography:The power of depth Of field The third project of my recent Haikyo trip will focus on depth of field. I don't want to go into technical details about depth of field so if you want to find out more here is a little video that gives you more information.I think using a shallow depth of... |
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17 Jan 09
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Haikyo Photography: Minimal Colour. On the trail of more projects within a haikyo, the theme of this post is 'colours' or lack of them. The challenge would be to find compositions with three colours or less in them. The obvious thing to do would be to take a shot and photoshop it to show... |
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15 Jan 09
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Haikyo Photography: The chairs First up I would like to thank Lee over at Tokyo Times for helping me with a map of the location of this abandoned location in the place I have lived for the last four years. It was on this trip that I decided that naming these places as part of my blog... |
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08 Jan 09
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Yamanakako Haikyo: The Extra Shots A few extra shots from the Yamanakako Haikyo I visited the other day. |
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07 Jan 09
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Yamanako Haikyo Yamanakako lies within Yamanashi prefecture and within a stones throw of Mt Fuji and is testimony to the bubble age development of Japan. Not having the rail head benefits of its sister lake at Kawaguchi-ko homes and businesses around the lake have fallen... |
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05 Jan 09
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HDR - Haikyo Defintely Rocks I tried a couple of HDR pictures last time I was up in Yamanashi, but a day before the new year started I returned only this time I wanted to try and get some HDR inside a haikyo. I am still new to the game so still a bit unsure about all this tone... |
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03 Jan 09
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Xmas in Korea: The Comfort Women Whether you know your history or not, or whether you choose to accept a version of history contrary to the rest of the world is up to you, but one thing cannot be escaped and that is the scars of the second world war still run deep in Asia (and indeed all... |
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29 Dec 08
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Xmas in Korea : DMZ I thought I would take advantage of the feeble British sterling and book a cheap flight to Korea for a week, and get away from the shopping frenzy and romantic claptrap of Japan. So I arrived to the voice of the Korean Air Pilot chuckling about the -6... |
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21 Dec 08
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Starting Photography - Contrasts As you may know I have been following projects in a book called starting photography by langford which has dominated these posts for the last couple of weeks, actually I kind of like the fact that this book has given my photography some direction and this... |
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14 Dec 08
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Starting Photography - A Static Man I am experimenting with a new way of putting pictures on here to save space and scrolling around (this slide show is courtesy of pictobrowser). So onto my next project following the langfords book, in fact I am still in the projects in Chapter One and so... |
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13 Dec 08
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Abandoned Cars in Asakadai It is has been a while since I managed to get out and about and see some Haikyo, the last time I stumbled across one and this time was the same too. Actually I don't know if this qualifies as Haikyo, the word Haikyo (廃虚) in Japanese translates at r... |
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10 Dec 08
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Starting Photography - Translucent Rush The next project in the photography book I am reading calls for me to,"photograph four translucent objects"which is a bit abstract I think, when I think of translucent I think of slug trails on a cold morning and I have to admit I was a bit stumped for... |
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08 Dec 08
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Starting Photography - The Shadows The more I work through the projects in this book the more difficult they become, in fact that's not true they started off difficult and are becoming, for a want of a better word bastardingly difficult. Now I made that word up which is easy to do. I hope... |
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06 Dec 08
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Starting Photography - on my knees Third post in less than a week, under the grip of Langford, and now the almighty has brought me to my knees, his next project commanded me to"take six pictures from below waist height or above head height"that's not so difficult I guess but I wanted to... |
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04 Dec 08
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Starting Photograph: The alphabet So onto my next project from the Langfords Book of Starting Photography. Actually this book is a really good way of focusing your eye to your surroundings especially about the shape and structure and how interpret things in a different way. Todays project... |
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01 Dec 08
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Starting Photography Projects - Wheels A year after starting photography,I started to follow a book called Starting Photography this weekend. The book is one of several I have been reading which is supposed to improve my eye for composition, but this one contains project which are supposed to... |
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25 Nov 08
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A picture says a thousand words or in this case two Had a couple of hours to kill yesterday while I was waiting for someone so took a wander around kabukicho in shinjuku, it was still a little early for all the main sleaze to start happening, but I found this panty bar down one back street, the irony of... |
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22 Nov 08
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Heirinji Temple Hell A few months ago I discovered a big temple called Heirinji near to where I live. One of the best times to visit this temple is when the leaves begin to change, as it is surrounded by dozens of maple trees. If you clicked on the link to see the last photos... |
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21 Nov 08
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Inside a Japanese Newspaper I bought my first Japanese newspaper today, four years and five months it has taken me, but I finally got up the nerve to buy one, and take a peek inside. Actually I usually try to read the Japanese paper on the net, its easier that way, I can look up... |
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19 Nov 08
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What I am reading now - Lalapipo Never judge a book by its cover, well thats what the bloke across from me on the train did. He took one look at the cover of this book and scowled at me. What was his problem I thought, this is Japan, look up on the train and see any number of scantily... |
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16 Nov 08
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Higashi Matsuyama Haikyo Went out on another Haikyo (abadoned buildings) trip yesterday. This one is fairly close to where my girlfriend lives in Higashi Matsuyama so we were able to reach it by car. The site promised to be interesting according the guidebook as it was a hotel... |
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03 Nov 08
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Kawaguchi Ko Haikyo I had been looking through my haikyo book to try and find another local place where to practise my photography for the long weekend. There are a couple of haikyo mentioned around Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi prefecture which is about a three hour train... |
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16 Oct 08
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Hachijojima Kokusai Hotel Haikyo After my slightly unsuccessful haikyo during the day, I visited a local bar at night and broached the subject with the landlord there, actually they are called masters in Japan, which is kind of cool, but they need some beasts or something to justify the... |
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16 Oct 08
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Hachijojima Imperial Hotel Haikyo It was a long weekend last week and so I decided to take the 10 hour boat journey down to hachijoma which is part of the Izu chain of Islands. I had been looking through my book of abandoned buildings and saw that there three on this island, as well as a... |
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09 Sep 08
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Japan Photo of the Day 6th September 2008 Went drinking until the wee hours in Ikebukuro and then had to drag my ass out of bed at 7am as I had arranged to go to Kamakura and the beach, was in a fair old state I tell ya. Kamakura is about an hour and half away from where I live, and it was a good... |
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