Welcome to 2019! I hope everyone had a restful year end. I really appreciate that Japan shuts down at year end and everyone has time to take a break and spend at home with their family. I was able to take off from just after Christmas until January 7th. It was nice to have 9 straight days at home.
My blog turned 8 years old a few weeks back. I’m really happy I started this site. While I can’t always maintain the pace I did when I first started ShootTokyo, it’s something I always love to return to and update.
I feel like I’ve been in a constant state of transit for the past few months. I’ve been to Sydney three times, Singapore twice and Melbourne once. I was in the US three weeks ago. I was there again last week only landing at 5AM yesterday but I’m off to Sydney night. That will make three red eye flights in a week.
Tokyo's summer has been brutally hot. Endless heat and endless humidity. Tokyo has hit highs this summer of 41 degrees (105 for those of you in the US). I don't agree with this type of weather. I prefer mid-fall weather. Cool enough to wear a jacket but not so much that you need one. Summer isn't for me.
I decided to shoot M10 for a few weeks with the intention of converting the images to black and white to see if this is a suitable replacement for my Leica Monochrom. I left my display in color which was probably a mistake I realized later. When I was shooting my Monochrom I often found myself searching for shadows, textures, and contrast.
A big part of what got me started with photography was the desire to slow down and explore the world around me. It was this desire that got me interested in photography initially, then carrying a camera with me everywhere I go. It helped me to slow down and really enjoy the places I am traveling to.
I have the pleasure of knowing and meeting a lot of interesting people in my life. The international community in Tokyo is full of fascinating people. I'm lucky enough to meet many more as I travel around the world. I have also gotten away from photographing people I am interacting with. it is something I have always liked doing.
This is one of my favorite times of the year. Spring has finally arrived in Tokyo. The cherry blossoms bloomed about a week early with peak bloom hitting last weekend. Pink trees popping up everywhere and now it's snowing pink leaves across Tokyo. Spring made a few attempts of arriving but then it turned cold again. The weather has been weird. It was snowing less than 2 weeks ago in Tokyo and many parts of the world.
I took out my 50mm f/1.4 lens for the 1st time in a few months. The great thing about shooting primes is how it changes your perspective and gives you all new images to see and shoot in the same places you have been. The trick to getting used to shooting primes is stick to one lens for a week or two and learn to 'see' at that focal length.
I love the turn of the year. It's a great moment to pause and take stock of what's working well and what needs adjustment. Last year I wrote a post called Staying Balanced and think it's a good time of year to bring up this conversation again. I had a good conversation with my friend John about the post. We are all busy and sometimes one of these projects needs to take a much bigger priority.
As I mentioned, my Leica M9 and Leica Monochrom have finally met their maker, quite literally since I traded them back in at Leica Ginza. Those cameras have treated me extremely well over the past 7 and 5 years, respectively, and will be missed. I've been shooting with the Leica M10 for a few weeks now. The short answer: I love it.
This is the final post with my Leica M Monochrom. This camera has served me well for the past 5 years. It has traveled the world with me. But, I'm really enjoying shooting the Leica M10 and ready to move on. I'll start posting some M10 images soon. More on why I'm changing in my last post.
I've been noticing a lot of spots on my images when I am shooting at f/11+. I could really notice it when I am looking at the images large. I brought in both my Leica Monochrom and my Leica M9-P to Leica Ginza to have the sensors cleaned. My long time Leica customer service rep Naoki came out looking a bit concerned.
Amazingly Japan has 17 public holidays. The way the holidays fall this year I end up with 6 three day weekends this fall. They have arranged them in such a way that you get a lot of long weekends. This weekend happens to be one of them; 文化の日, or Culture Day was on Friday.
I looked at the images I've collected on my Monochrom after the past few weeks and they were all more or less of modes or places of transportation; Trains, Subways, Airplanes, Train Stations and Airports with very little scattered in between. It's understandable given the amount of travel I have been doing.
I just got back from recent trips to Ho Chi Minh City and Melbourne Australia. Both are places I haven't been to in a really long time. I was last in Ho Chi MInh was on a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with my dad. It has changed and developed so much since that time. It has been even longer since I have been to Melbourne.
I have been reading Angel by Jason Calacanis this past week. It is a book I have been waiting to be released for a long time. Jason is a well know Silicon Valley Investor who turned $100K USD in investments into $100M USD. He was an early investor in Uber, Thumbtack, Wealthfront and a few hundred other companies.
My wife says I'm like a little mouse that can't sit still. When I'm not physically moving my mind is moving a million miles an hour. This year has been no different. I've had a lot of travel so far this year with trips to London, Mumbai, Osaka, Seoul, Manila, Bangkok, LA and Singapore twice.
