christmas in tokyo

Season's Greetings, and Happy Holidays!

umbrellas... people... shibuya

When the lights change, there's always a swarm of people at the intersection in Shibuya. However, it's a bit more picturesque with umbrellas. The fuziness caused by the motion of the people is what I like about this image.

frame within a frame

Yesterday, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see some exhibits around town. The second stop was at a gallery where a beautiful woman called Reisei was showing her calligraphy and art work. I saw a chinese chair and a bird cage out side the window that made a perfect frame for a photograph. It's one of those moments where if I didn't speak out, a beautiful photo opportunity would be lost. Fortunately the guests have left, so I asked the artist if she would like to do a portrait sitting which she was more than happy to do, as she had been a fashion model at one point in her career. I like this picture because of all the frame elements within the frame. Even the green in the back becomes a framed canvas.

Reisei's website: http://www.reisei-art.com

shadows on the wall

Shadows are very cool. It's graphic, symbolic, and leaves the viewer to expand his/her imagination to what may be the story in a picture. This image was shot with a point and shoot digital compact (Lumix LX2) at Haneda airport recently. You can tell from the color that it's late afternoon, and I see what looks like a travelling family. I never bothered to turn around to see if this was indeed what I was shooting, because it didn't matter. I'm just interested in the shadow story, so I shot a dozen frames of various people passing by, and it was quite a satisfying photo moment.
Just today, a fan of this blog had sent me a link to an interesting inteview between Edouard Boubat and Frank Horvat. In this interview, they were discussing about how photography is a process of subtraction where the photo is left with nothing more than what was needed. I think shadows are just that.