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.

Coffee Time

Suntory Coffee │ NEX-7 & Canon nFD 50mm F1.4 │ 50mm, ISO 800, f/2, 1/60, RAW

I love coffee. I'm drinking one right now! I can't get enough of the stuff. This wasn't always the case, however. Since I started writing my Postgraduate Thesis proper, I found that I rather enjoyed a hot cup of coffee by my side. It became part of my daily ritual.

When we moved to Japan, there were a few things I looked forward to in particular. Low down the list, was that one will rarely go thirsty in Japan. There are more vending machines in Tokyo than the whole UK, by quite a considerable margin. In the summer, they supply us with ice cold waters, green tea, and coke. In the winter, you can still get the aforementioned drinks, but the machines are physically swapped to those which heat half of their inventory; which is mostly coffee. Sometimes, there are teas, hot chocolates, and even soups.

I've scaled back on purchasing drinks from vending machines now. When I came here on holiday, it's how I bought most of my drinks. When I first moved here, too. However, they're a little expensive relative to either making your own, or buying elsewhere. Having said that, they aren't much (about £1/1 Euro), so if it's a little chilly when you're out taking photos, make it Suntory Time.

Sigma 30mm NEX E-Mount

Hello Kitty │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 320, f/4.5, 1/60 Unstabilised, but sharp. Oh, it is sharp. I am finding the Sigma 30mm for NEX to be very capable. It's plastic, isn't premium, and the camera is a little slow to start up with it attached, but it delivers. It's exactly as I had expected, after reading so many reviews and words of wisdom from throughout the NEX community.

Take the above photo, for example. Nothing special, but if I select the following area:

Then we can really show off the Sigma and the NEX-7's 24 resident APS-C based megapixels. Of course, we all know that megapixels do not make good photos, but they certainly allow a lot of detail. Some complain about low-light performance from having so many megapixels, but I am yet to see a discernable difference between the NEX-C3 and NEX-7 for my purposes. They are both excellent cameras, and Adobe Lightroom is a good companion.

Anyway, look at this crop...

Amazing! Not an amazing photo, composition, or subject, but the detail on the cat is astounding. This means the lens and camera combination is suitable for some decent-sized prints, should I wish to have any made in the future. An exciting prospect for a future home.

Incidentally, I recommend dropping by the day-by-day photoblog of "trshptr", here. Some of the best photos I've seen from a NEX camera, are uploaded to his site with good frequency (and he put the sigma through its paces for many months).

Edit: as the photo is not full size, but a compressed JPEG export, there is some lossed detail. But the point remains. Decent image quality and sharpness from the NEX-7 and Sigma 30mm combo. This lens is a must for any NEX owner!

Old Lady

Lovely weather again this morning. Walking from Akihabara to Hongo after treating Charlotte to a birthday Starbucks breakfast, the air was crisp and the streets full of life. A bright, crisp morning is a very welcome way to start the day. Must be my British colours showing, as I find this kind of weather absolutely ideal. Speaking of colours - Autumn is in full swing and I intend to get to a park this weekend and take some photos of leaves (probably sounds more boring than it will be).

Apartment hunting. Well, that's stopped. We visited a decent place on Saturday, but as there was no deposit, we were expected to pay a guarantor company a fee equal to one month's rent. That's on top of the one month's rent agent fee, 1 month's rent err.. rent, and insurance. Then come moving costs, and.... time. Lots and lots of time. The weather was utterly insane on Saturday. Huge amounts of rain (one pair of shoes ruined) and generally miserable. I'd woken up feeling as if I had drunk 10 vodkas due to the dryness in the air overnight (I'll be buying a humidifier soon - a departure from the damp Autumn and Winter in the UK!), and then after seeing the apartment, we were in two minds over what to do. After much deliberating and discussions, we decided to stay put and sign the contract to remain where we are, even though Charlotte's commute is almost 2hours one-way (not that uncommon in Tokyo).

Anyway, we'll be staying where we are. That means I'll continue to walk this same path most evenings, seeing the different characters inhabiting this corner of Tokyo. This old lady (no disrespect intended) was walking towards the greengrocers behind me, as I was walking to work. I had my camera at waist height, and set to 5m focus, aperture of f/2. I was amazed at the result. This is a crop of the original photo, as I wasn't holding the camera as level as I thought, and there was an unsightly cone further to the right, but I'm rather pleased with the result. There's something about the older generation - especially in Japan - which makes them extremely photogenic. There's a whole tapestry of life on her face, as she one-eye squints at my camera, wondering what on earth this foreigner is up to.

Rust

Rust │ NEX-7 & Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, ISO 100, f/2, 1/60, 0EV Autumn is definitely on the way, with rainy showers a frequent occurrence. Temperatures have dropped to as low* as 17℃, though it's around 25℃ when stood in the lunchtime sun. Today is a national holiday "Health and Sports day" (体育の日), which commemorates the opening of the 1964 Summer Olympics being held in Tokyo, and exists to promote sports and an active lifestyle (though I'll be finishing my day out with a beer).

Yesterday, we visited Kamakura (鎌倉), mainly to visit the Giant Buddha (大仏). On our way, I saw the rusted old building in the above photo. The rusting, shop sign and corrugated iron really stood out to me, and as I am trying to get more into street photography, I thought I'd take a snap. The shop is URADANA, (website, twitter), specialising in rather funky and cool clothing. If you're in the area, please check it out :)

Of course, I couldn't say I visited the Giant Buddha of Kamakura, and not post a photo of said Buddha.... so here it is (and it's very rusty to boot):

Obligatory Wikipedia information:

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a monumental outdoor bronzestatue of Amitābha Buddha located at the Kōtoku-in Temple in Kamakura,Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The bronze statue probably dates from 1252, in the Kamakura period, according to temple records. It was preceded by a giant wooden Buddha, which was completed in 1243 after ten years of continuous labor, the funds having been raised by Lady Inada (Inada-no-Tsubone) and the Buddhist priest Jōkō of Tōtōmi. That wooden statue was damaged by a storm in 1248, and the hall containing it was destroyed, so Jōkō suggested making another statue of bronze, and the huge amount of money necessary for this and for a new hall was raised for the project. The bronze image was probably cast by Ōno Gorōemon or Tanji Hisatomo, both leading casters of the time. At one time, the statue was gilded. There are still traces of gold leaf near the statue's ears.  It is unclear, however, whether the statue constructed in 1252 is the same statue as the present statue.

Details

• Weight; 121 tonnes (270,000 pounds)
• Height; 13.35 m (43.8 ft)
• Length of Face; 2.35 m (7.7 ft)
• Length of Eye; 1.0 m (3.3 ft)
• Length of Mouth; 0.82 m (2.7 ft)
• Length of Ear; 1.90 m (6.2 ft)
• Length from knee to knee; 9.10 m (29.9 ft)
• Circumference of thumb; 0.85 m (2.8 ft)

The statue is referred to as "The Buddha at Kamakura" in several verses that preface the initial chapters of the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901). The verses were taken from the poem of the same name the author wrote after visiting Kamakura in 1892. The poem appears in its entirety in "The Five Nations" of 1903.

*In the UK, a mid-morning October temperature of 17℃, would never be referred to as low.

Call Me Maybe

Lens: Voigtländer Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 Camera: NEX-C3, ISO 200, f/1.4, 1/125, RAW

The weather in Japan is in that strange transitional phase between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The temperature has dropped by about 10 degrees or so from last week (it's just 21℃ today), and there are frequent heavy showers, lightning and echoing thunder.

I spent the majority of my day off walking to various camera shops around Tokyo, marvelling at the intricate designs and high prices. I took a bit of a detour between shops and thought I would check out the Robert Indiana sculpture I've not visited so far this year. I noticed this old chap reading a mail on his phone, and I rather fancied it was from someone special, and perhaps he'd call them.

Maybe.