Coming out to play

Over 40% of my photolibrary this year was captured using the Zeiss 24/1.8 for Sony E-mount (which translates to a focal length of 35mm on a camera with a "full-frame" sensor). Personally, I felt that figure should have been more like 95% - but if I look back at "keepers" rather than total shots, the figure is closer to 80%.

I liked the Zeiss rendering. I liked the bokeh  afforded by f/1.8. I liked the 35mm (equivalent) field of view. There wasn't much not to like. In fact, I think it's the best lens for the NEX system. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat.

I sold the lens on Sunday afternoon. Why? Well, this post marks the start of photos taken with my new camera, the Sony RX1. The Sony DSC-RX1 is a camera with a "full frame" sensor, and a fixed length 35mm Zeiss lens, in an ultraportable package. It's far smaller than the NEX-7, and that's saying something. I'm learning all about the camera, but managed to get away at lunch time to the nearby lake, and saw this exuvia attached to a nearby tree. The cicadas are deafening now. Like me with my new camera, they're all coming out to play. 

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Heavily-cropped photo of a duck

Full-summer is just around the corner. Once these evening storms abide, temperatures won't fall below 30°C until September...

Waffles

Waffles | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/125s, f/2.2, ISO100 , RAW Not exactly the most healthy of afternoon snacks, but perhaps one of the most tasty! This cute little waffle-shop in shimokitazawa specialises in waffles and coffee... so that's what we had! I went for the healthy option of strawberries and custard, topped with oodles of maple syrup, and a strong black coffee with which to wash it down. Lovely!

Purple

Purple | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/640s, f/3.2, ISO100, RAW This purple umbrella really caught the later-afternoon light in shimokitazawa yesterday afternoon.

Itsukushima Shrine/Miyajima [Hiroshima Pt. 3]

Shika | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/3200s, f/2.0, ISO100, RAW

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There's more to Hiroshima than the Atomic Bomb Dome, and its fantastic cuisine. Hiroshima's home to one of the three Nihon-sankei (日本三景三景 - meaning  literally "Three Views of Japan"), with the Itsukushima Shrine on "Miyajima".

The island itself is technically Itsukushima, but the centrepiece of the island really is its shrine, and it's been lovingly nicknamed "The Shrine Island", or Miyajima, which is thankfully much easier for foreigners to pronounce! The Shrine itself is beautiful, and is made all the more impressive with the enormous, floating, Torii gate in the bay.

The island itself is technically Itsukushima, but the centrepiece of the island really is its shrine, and it's been lovingly nicknamed "The Shrine Island", or Miyajima, which is thankfully much easier for foreigners to pronounce! The Shrine itself is beautiful, and is made all the more impressive with the enormous, floating, Torii gate in the bay.

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Deer, shika, roam freely on Miyajima. In the Japanese Shinto religion, they're a messenger of the Gods. They were extremely docile and plodded around the island, occasionally sniffing the odd tourist.  I managed to find one under some trees, with his head in the sunlight, completely at peace. I took quite a few photos of him, and ran over to my girlfriend afterwards, with a huge smile on my face. I'm not quite sure I've ever been as excited about taking a photograph as the one below!

Shika

After chilling out near the temple, watching the oodles of tourists (mostly Japanese) having their photo taken in front of the Torii, we headed towards the shrine itself. The shrine is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site, and monks perform traditional Japanese weddings on the island. Goodness knows how much that costs, but it looked absolutely stunning, as if we'd been thrown back a few hundred years.

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After feasting on Oysters (I mentioned in Part 2 of this photodiary that I'd eaten Oysters for the first time; it was on this very island. Quite a memorable experience!), we headed up the winding streets, towards Mt. Misen (the peak of the island). Turning back, I saw an Egret (not the first one I've seen in Japan) hunting for crabs. I fired off a few quick snaps with my SEL18200LE:

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I then looked up towards the mountain, only to see an Eagle soaring above us!

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This was turning into quite the adventure! On the way up to the cable car (ropeway, in Japanese), which was included in our 2000 yen/2-day ticket, I noticed these momiji (Japanese Maple). They're very famous in Japan, and I've photographed some before, in Tokyo. They're even more famous on Miyajima, where one can purchase cake-sweets made in the shapes of the leaves. They taste even better than they look!

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We'd taken the cable car to the highest point, but didn't have time to walk to the very summit of Mt. Misen, as the last return cable car was only 40-odd minutes away (17:30). We didn't really fancy the 2-hour walk down to the shore, as I wanted to get some nice low-angled light shots.

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After being dropped off at the base-station, we took the shuttle bus back to the main town. As we were walking along, my girlfriend noticed that we could see the giant Torii from this level. I, being a little taller, could see over the stone wall and was amazed. Blossoms, shrine, Torii... all in view!

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The light rapidly fades in Japan, but we're often treated to clear skies and gorgeous sunsets. The tide was just on its way out, and I hopped onto the beach, got down low, and snapped away.

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With this post, I'll bring to a close this holiday photodiary of Hiroshima. I sincerely hope it's been interesting, and encourages you to visit this beautiful area of Japan. Stay tuned for more!

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Food in Hiroshima [Hiroshima Pt. 2]

Okonomiyaki | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/25s, f/2, ISO100, RAW

Each and every prefecture of Japan has its own regional dish. Sometimes specific areas within a city might be famous for a certain type of cuisine. Hiroshima's no different.

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It's possible to get the bullet train from Tokyo to Hiroshima in just under 4 hours, which is quite impressive (~800km). This time, however, we flew to Hiroshima directly from Tokyo's domestic Haneda Airport (though it does have a few international flights), with Japanese airline ANA. Haneda airport is something else. It's like being in a quiet museum. The atmosphere is so calming. We checked in the bags using just our mileage cards (didn't show any ID for the entire journey), and went to have some breakfast to start the day.

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The toasted panini and double espresso went down a treat, in the ground floor café... with a live pianist. Rather lovely. We headed back upstairs to departures, bought some food and drink for the flight (you can bring drinks onto Japanese domestic flights), and went through security.

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Panini's are not what Japan's famous for. It's probably most famous for... sushi? I've been here so long that I've forgotten what I used to think of Japan before living here! Anyway, Hiroshima is famous for its take on the Japanese "pancake" called "oko-nomi-yaki". In the top left of the sign above, you'll see the characters 広島名物 which essentially says "Hiroshima's Speciality". On the right of that, we find 元祖 which means "original". OK, so we've found somewhere pretty good! The bottom left characters are お好み焼き (okonomiyaki), so we know this should be the original speciality pancakes of hiroshima! へんくつや is the name of the shop, which is pretty much in local dialect but means that they're passionate about what they do. Excellent! Let's grab a bite to eat...

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We sat down and I promptly ordered some hot sake 「熱燗」which was warmed in the boiling tub of soba noodles which would make up our "pancake". We ordered a local speciality (in Japanese, much to the surprise of the owners), and he got cooking (main picture, at the top). I'll not describe the process, for fears of getting it wrong, but it's essentially a case of breaking an egg onto the teppan (hot plate) to make a thin omelette/pancake, frying pre-boiled noodles on the teppan, adding cabbage, pork, squid, oysters... whatever, and then stacking it all together, topping it with a sweet sauce and green sprinklings (seaweed?). However it's made, it's delicious.

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Oysters may seem like an odd ingredient into this pancake medley, but they're probably Hiroshima's most famous food. They find their way into everything. The next day, we made a special trip to a famous island (separate post on that to follow), and I really fancied some of the local oysters. I'd never had oysters before. I think there's an episode of Mr. Bean, which really put me off. Yes, there is. Here. I think that put me off, when I was a child. They just never looked appetising  These ones, however, very much did.

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I bought myself a local beer, designed especially to be eaten with oysters, and waited whilst my oysters were cooked over a set of hot coals. I ordered some with a sprinkling of cheese on top, just in case I didn't like them.

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I loved them! They're kind of like massive scallops... but more meaty. Hard to explain, but I'm now a convert. I ordered some the following night without the cheese.

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Charlie doesn't care for sea-food, so she had one of the local steamed bread rolls with beef inside. They looked lovely, and smelt fantastic. A good substitute!

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For our evening meal, we had another local speciality, 広島つけ麺, pronounced "hiroshima tsu-ke-men". It's a spicy sauce packed full of sesame seeds, into which one drops in the side of noodles and salad, before eating. Simply gorgeous, and very refreshing!

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In the mornings we had huge breakfasts at the hotel, comprising pancakes, mini-bread rolls, fresh orange juice, and a few too many cappuccinos. Well, we were on holiday...

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The view from the hotel was a mixture of dramatic mountains, and modern-day Japanese skyscrapers. We were definitely in Japan, that's for sure.

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Getting around Hiroshima is quite easy. There's no underground, as the city's pretty small. It does have a very quaint tram (road car) system, which is reasonably priced. We bought a ¥2000 (15 EURO) ticket for unlimited 2-day travel, including ferry rides. Not a bad deal at all.

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Earlier, I said we flew to Hiroshima. We did, but the airport is about 45 minutes from the centre of the city, by bus. This is where the total time between flying and bullet-trains diminishes to the point where one chooses by simply cost alone. Having said that, the JR Rail Pass, only available to tourists - and highly recommended, means all bullet train rides are paid for. Our city-airport bus (in the background of the shot) was occupied only by Japanese... and us. We weren't the usual tourists!

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Waiting for our lunchtime flight, we settled down to another bowl of tsukemen noodles (this one is actually tsuke-tan-tan-men, つけ担々麺). Delicious!

That concludes the "Food in Hiroshima" post - stay tuned for the next installment!

Last One

Last One | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO100

Last week, I posted a photograph showing some lilies pointing towards the thin slither of light dissecting our curtains. Clearly searching for the light, I've tried to oblige. Within a couple of days, they'd reached this state:

 

and now, they've been pruned, with the 'Last One' now in full bloom. They're a stunning white. Their smell fills the entire apartment, which is really a very welcome greeting after a long day in a stagnant office.

 

The above shot is a 100% crop showing the NEX-7 & Zeiss combo is really quite a combination. Such a powerful combination in fact, that it's stayed in this state almost entirely throughout our recent trip to Hiroshima, which I will expand upon soon.

I'm beginning to wonder whether I buy flowers for my girlfriend... or for myself!

Down to a T

Down to a T | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, f/2, ISO 400, 1/100, RAW

I've just figured out how to publish an image properly on my blog, keeping its RSS information intact. Sweet.

Later today I'll try something else; editing and posting from my Nexus 7. I'm writing this on my Nexus 7 right now, but this photo was uploaded from my computer last night.

More about the photo... it's one of the many walls of the Tsutaya in Daikanyama. Tsutaya is a book, music, game, and film rental chain in Japan, which is still very much popular in this digital age. Buying goods at other shops with a compatible credit card around Japan, will get you store credit here. The so-called "T-Point" can be found in many shops and coffee places, giving a strong incentive to pay a visit to Tsutaya for your next media fix.

Brickweave

Brickweave │ NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z │ 24mm, ISO 500, f/1.8, 1/60, RAW

Some parts of Tokyo are so spacious, that it's easy to forget all of the winding narrow streets, and how I have to duck to get in and out of trains, rooms, restaurants... almost everywhere.

The above photo was taken close to Tokyo station, which has just finished renovation. Around here, there is lots of space, and almost every single floorspace is made from brickweave, which appears to be less than 24 hours old. Everything is spotless. So clean. You'd eat off it. Well, you wouldn't choose to, but the "5 second rule" would become at least a 30 second rule.

As you can see, there are still "Christmas lights" up and about. Though they're not Christmas lights at all, just a nice illumination for the shopping areas. They'll probably come down as the nights get longer, and the temperature rises. Speaking of which, it's still pretty frosty right now, and sunset is currently 5:30pm. It's time for some dinner... adios!

Let down by Sony

It pains me to type this, it really does. Not because I'm sad for Sony, I am very sad that my 28th birthday present, a Sony NEX-C3 (pictured) has broken, again.

The camera was purchased from Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku, at the end of August 2011, by Charlotte, for me. I couldn't believe my luck when I unwrapped it. It was my first ever "new camera". I'd only ever had used cameras before, and I was like a child at Christmas when I unwrapped my shiny, new, NEX-C3, just one day before our summer holiday trip to Okinawa.

I babied it like nothing else. Unfortunately, after about 6 months, the "up" direction on the circular button at the back, stopped functioning. As any NEX owner knows, this button toggles display settings, but also is the only way to get through the different menus... and to move the focus point. It's critical to camera functionality.

I took it back to Yodobashi, who sent it off to Sony for repair. It was well within the "1 year international warranty" date, stamped on the included card. I received the camera back on around the 26th April 2012, and resumed shooting. The above two photos are not from when I originally received the camera, but they are from the day I received the camera back from Yodobashi & Sony. I was that excited.

I was very impressed with the service from both Yodobashi, and Sony. The camera was back in my hands in under a week, with apparently a completely new rear (screen had a sticky cover on it, buttons all clicked nicely). It was as good as new...

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago... and the button's stopped working, again. The same button. Furthermore, the screen coating has deteriorated like no other screen I've seen. Sony either didn't fix it properly, or the camera has a tendency for this button to fail. Either way, I wasn't exactly thrilled, and took it to Yodobashi again. However, the warranty on the card is valid until August 2012, or thereabouts... and we just entered 2013. I've been told today, that the repair issued by Sony last year was apparently only valid for "3 months". Sony want ¥25,000 (JPY) to repair their repair. No. Way. That's a third of the original retail price, and around the price of an "as new" unit from a second hand shop.

Sounds more like a bodge-job, than a repair. How can original warranty be 12 months, yet warranty on a repair only be for 3 months? If this were the first time I’d experienced this problem with it, then I would be upset… but probably more pragmatic - it has been around 18 months now, and though I expect a camera costing several hundred pounds (or tens of thousands of yen) to last for a few years without fail, it would be out of warranty and that would be that. But to have an identical problem raise its ugly head, 6 months after a repair, and Sony refuse to take responsibility… is simply not acceptable. I am heartbroken. I love this camera. It is more to me than any other camera, because it is a very, very special present.

If I were in the UK, I would be on the phone to Sony and demanding a free repair, as EU regulations for electronics can often overrule the standard "1 year" warranty.

My issue is, that I am here, in Japan, Sony's home... not mine. My only option is to go and see them in their Ginza flagship store, and demand that my camera be repaired. It's just not acceptable. I want it back, working, so I can use it as intended.

Please fix my camera, Sony.

Shinjuku Moon-rise

Shinjuku Moonrise │ NEX-7 & Voigtländer Nokton Classic F1.4 │ 35mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/60, RAW

It seems I'm a bit of a lunatic, this month ;)

Took this shot on Saturday at 5:30pm in Shinjuku, central Tokyo. I'd spent the day walking around the familiar back streets and was feeling quite uninspired, and cold. I felt I'd wasted the afternoon until the sun dropped at around five, and we were greeted with a majestic moon-rise over the city.

I quickly whipped out the camera, and took a few underexposed shots of the moon, knowing I could pull some details out of the NEX-7 raw if I shot with a low enough ISO. Sure enough, There's enough dynamic range here to make out the cars on the road, and people in the bottom left.

Bamboo

竹 │ NEX-7 & Voightländer Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, 1/60, ISO 1600, f/1.4, Lightroom 4.2

Bamboo, or "ta-ke", is native to Japan, and can be found everywhere from gardens and temples, to bowls of ramen (it's quite delicious!). It grows both in the wild and is part of landscape gardens and inner-city planning, to the extent that I don't know if any bamboo in and around Tokyo is actually wild. The same goes for all the trees here, really. Tokyo is breathtakingly huge, and its designation as the largest metropolitan area in the world (source) means that human influence oozes out from every nook and cranny. Having said that, every now and then, we do find areas which, quite obviously, have been left as they are (such as a building with a tree going through it - yes, I need a photo).

After Hours

After Hours│ NEX-C3 & SEL 16mm  F2.8 │ 16mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 1/20, 0EV Sunset's at around 5pm now, so I won't be leaving the office in daylight hours until sometime in 2013. Sunrise is 5:45am, so at least that helps me not feel like a zombie. The sun is extremely bright all the year round here in Japan - even in winter. The temperature's taken a bit of a dive this week, but it's certainly not "cold". The leaves haven't started to turn yet...