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22,935 Miles Later

22,935 Miles Later

I am in Tokyo for the weekend after 3 weeks of travel to Palm Springs, San Francisco, Tampa and Sydney.  Sadly I am catching the red eye at mid-night tonight out of Haneda heading to Singapore for the week.  I am back to Sydney the second half of next week as well.   The first half of the year is always a lot of travel for me but this has been more than usual and 22,935 miles later I am getting ready to leave again.  Aside from my trips to Singapore and Sydney mentioned above I have another trip to San Francisco and Singapore as well as a personal to Kyoto - finally! Travel at this pace can be exhausting.   A lot of people who don't travel heavy for a living really don't understand the toll it takes on you and that you really have very little free time to yourself while you are traveling.   Sydney was a last minute extension on my trip and I took it at the last minute and ended up with middle seats on all three of my flights.  Just over 24 hours door to door in the middle seat.  Yuck!

I have been shooting a lot of film lately so you will be seeing some less than real time posts here.   I am really enjoying shooting it.    I just turned in 5 rolls to get developed.   I am excited to see what I get back next weekend.  I really enjoy the anticipation and surprise when I am reminded of what I captured.  Often I get back images that you didn't think would turn out well but actually do.   I love seeing images again that I forgot I took.  All of this is the really enjoyable part of shooting film for me.  I think I have a self imposed amount of pressure to shoot so I have images to post here on ShootTokyo and shooting film removes at lot of that for me as I know process will take a least a week.  Well at least B&W takes a week.  I can usually get color back the same day in Tokyo.

When I was in San Francisco over the weekend I met up with a colleague and his family and shot some family portraits for him around Yerba Buena Garden Park.  It is small but beautiful park in downtown San Francisco.

Today's configuration:  Leica M Monochrom with various Leica lenses

Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco
Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco
Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco
Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco

I am amazed at the amount of construction going on in San Francisco.  It is booming!

Construction in San Francisco
Construction in San Francisco

I was lucky to catch up with my friend Richard and his lovely wife Marcia for dim sum while in San Francisco.  I took my favorite photograph the day after the Jay Maisel Workshop from Richard's apartment in San Francisco.  I love catching up with Richard.   Seeing how successful he has been in life just reminds me that I need to work harder.

Richard and Marcia Kashnow
Richard and Marcia Kashnow

Richard wanted to try out my M-Monochrom and snapped this photo of me.   Thanks!

Dave Powell
Dave Powell

Another colleague of mine and fellow photographer was traveling in San Francisco and we decided to catch up one evening for a short photowalk...

San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco

It was during Chinese New Year and I was staying fairly close so we headed over to Chinatown to see what was going on...

Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco

We wanted to be respectful and celebrate the local traditions so we picked up a pile of fireworks!

Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco

I don't think I have played with fireworks in 25 years but it was so much fun...

Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco

Lots of people starting to watch...

Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco

From all sides... it was a ton of fun and $25 dollars well spent.

Chinatown in San Francisco
Chinatown in San Francisco

I ordered a bunch of new ShootTokyo buttons and stickers while in the US.    I give them away when I bump into other photographers while out shooting.  As I get asked this question a lot: Yes I will mail them to you.  If you send me $15 via PayPal to dave [at] shoottokyo.com to cover the shipping costs from Japan I'll drop a fist full in the mail to you or find me on the streets of Tokyo!

ShootTokyo Buttons
ShootTokyo Buttons

Thanks for stopping by today...

Waiting for departure

Waiting for departure

On a Mission

On a Mission

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