Day 4: Kamakura
13th October 2007
From what I read about Kamakura, I could have stopped at the kite Kamakura station instead of the main Kamakura station but there seem to be no reason to do so then.
I read that walking was consider the best way to get around Kamakura so I decided to walk.
Though I wish the weather had been better when I was there, serious case of cloudy overcast which annoyed the hell out of me as I had to switch my WB to shade. I offer this tip to those who are forced to shoot in cloudy overcast days, if you’re using digital you have 2 choices either shoot black and white or set your WB to shade to try and put some saturation back into your pics or else everything going to look washed out.
I did shoot film that day and was using provia along with velvia. The film (3 rolls) I had brought from Malaysia had been sent to be developed at Yodobashi yesterday.
I strolled through the still sleeping town, I then took notice of how Japanese built their towns and how packed everything was, not a square inch was left to waste. I also notice that their road system was very efficient as well as “uncluttered”.
I just love the peace calm and silence, it really is very different from the noisy crap I endure at home. I so hate that and I still do.
It was odd to find that 90% of the people here who are serious into photography use film. But I’ve notice this trend as well with many other countries (from what I read) such as the Singapore, UK, USA, along with Europe where film is still in high demand unlike in Malaysia where everyone seems to switch to digital (just because it’s the latest) and film is perceived as dead and going to film is perceived to being uncool and not keeping with the times. I get a lot of flak for going to film especially from my peers at fotokrazy who keep trying to put me down for using film.
After a while I encounter this little fat fellow. Cute, fat and adorable, I stayed for a while just petting it.
Here I thought I turn it B&W as the original pic was washed out due to the overcast that day.
Played with B&W here along with vignetting. Give it a try you might not know what you’re going to get.
There was actually an easier way to get here, I could have just walked out of the central station and followed along the Komachi-dori
I so love playing with bokeh! Taken using sigma 70-200mm.
I turned to head for the main temple and then I found this little thing waiting for me by the stone bridge.
Note: I should have gotten closer to the bird but sadly I didn’t have enough time to switch lens before it moved away (no, it didn’t fly away, it just walked away). I also had a small accident with a bird, one of the pigeons had landed on my shoulder, thinking it was a good sign initially, I wanted to take a REALLY close pic of it but it flew away and not without leaving a little package on my coat >_< (EEEWWWWWWW!). There would be some washing tonight………. . The tip here? longer lens and keep the birds off your shoulders.
I’m not sure what this is, but I can guess it’s some sort of structure where rituals are carried out? In any event, there was a number of construction going on around and I guess there would be some sort of celebration tonight (no plans to attend).
All the booze for tonight’s celebration I think.
I have a disturbing love for perspectives.
Flowers, I so much like flowers.
I believe this temple is for samurai who committed sepuku, this is what I read from the signs and pamphlets.
When I say this place is a bit rundown. I’m not joking……
Triforce? @_@
Offerings are made to them as well as gifts.
The place offered me a good challenge on getting the right exposure especially the fact that the day was overcast lighting. Tip here, increase ISO to high and spot meter on the darkest portion.
Also try and get the aperture at the sharpest. Let the camera decide on the shutter speed. This would create the soft lights you see here.
Vignetting did not go very well with this one. Maybe I’ll have to redo this some other time.
I spent a while on this picture. I think got it on the 7th try. I was feeling tired from all the walking but I just had to get this pic right.
Though it did have a different take on the usual wooden plates, instead of wooden plates, it would use small porcelain figures where you write your wish and put them on racks.
As you can see here, as usual you need to make a small donation to write one. Which I didn’t sadly.
I then arrived at the station and purchase my ticket back but I was still early so I decided to look around the place. But lo and behold! I actually managed to find some signs of KOYO!
Finally! Although the tree was fenced off….. meh! At least I got the shot then as there would be more later.
Bon appetite!!!!
So with that, I headed back to Tokyo where I then proceeded to Akihabara!
Here are some of the street shots I took
These people have guts, they also had their albums on sale but sadly it sold out >_<
All the bands were pretty good which drew a huge crowd to support them!
I wasn’t the only photographers. Also this shot was taken by accident when for some reason, my lens just wouldn’t focus. I tried to just take randoms shoots just to provoke the autofocus but nothing worked. I then decided to turnoff the camera, take off the lens and plug it back on. The fix worked but I wonder why it wouldn’t work. In any case when I went back this shot was among those taken when I was test shooting the problem.
I decided to take some pic of the huge LCD screen over the entrance of Yodobashi. They have some pretty interesting things.
maids….yes……I like it
dancing skirts….Yes I could see myself living this life ^_^
Bwahaahah my deathnote! (why is it red?)
I tried to do my finance like I always did but the tracking was incredibly hard. So I decided to do this instead, give myself a limited amount to spend a day (in this case 10,000 yen == RM300) which worked pretty well as I managed to keep it less then 5,000 yen a day (Rm150).
Along with my new 50mm ais f/1.2 bwahahahah!
So that’s all for this entry until my next entry on Kyoto, pleasant dreams!
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