Sushicam

Click HERE for today’s photos.

I have a friend who works for NHK producing television programs, and in a classic case of life being all about who you know and not what you know, I was recently asked to be on an NHK television program.  

Called Cool Japan, it is a program that explores what, from a foreigners perspective,  makes Japan cool.  It touches on a wide variety of subjects;  fashion, anime, alcohol, etc., as well as other cultural aspects of Japanese society.

The particular episode that I took part in looked into the aspect of “Mottainai” culture in Japan.  It will air at the following times:

• March 18th (Wed) 19:00-19:44 on NHK BS Hi-vision
• March 29th (Sun) 0:10-0:54 on NHK BS-1

It was my first time in a television studio, and I’m glad I was able to absorb the experience.  It was also a lo of fun.  At first I thought I would be a little bit nervous, but I guess I am too old to get nervous about things like that anymore.

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Most of today’s photos are from Kamakura, and if all goes as planned when you click on the “map this” button within Smugmug you will see a map showing the location where each photo was taken.  More GPS madness.

While I was shooting photos I could not help but notice that of all the other photographers at each of the locations I was stopping at, they all seemed to be shooting the same scenes, usually from the very same vantage point.

It got me thinking about how we all usually see the world.

What I mean by this is that in our haste to digest and understand the world around us with the least amount of effort, we usually rely on those around us to provide clues.  I think this is where a lot of prejudice and bias stems from.  After all, its a lot less mentally taxing to take what someone else says at face value, rather than cogitate on your own and seek your own truths about the world.

And I’m not saying that is all bad.  I can’t image trying to get through event the most mundane of days if I were to have to think everything through on my own, just to make sure I understood what was going on., and that I was doing it in the best manner.  Taken to this extreme, even a simple trip to the local combini could end up being a sojourn of epic proportions: What route should I take, and why?  What is the most effective mode of transport, and what on earth should I buy once I get there?  The choice of say, potato chips alone could cause one to spend eons weighing the merits of one brand versus the other, and lets not even mention serving sizes!

So what am I really blathering about here?

I’m nowhere near arrogant enough to think that I am immune to falling into this trap. But the great thing is that when I am aware of this danger, I do find that I take better pictures.  And, I also happen to enjoy the world around me a bit more when I see it through less filtered eyes.  

It’s kind of like what I was talking with some of the other people that were on the Cool Japan show with me; when you go to a place for the first time (like when I first came to Japan) there are no bounds.  It feels like anything is possible, and you never know what the next day will bring you.  

I think this is what usually makes travel so exciting, it’s the thought that something new could happen.

But invariably, the longer you are in one place, the more artificial bounds you place upon your own existence.  And while these bounds can serve a very useful purpose, and allow you to make a lot of assumptions so as to more smoothly  operate, they also invariably rob you of some of that mystery and wonder that even the most ordinary of circumstances can hold.

Yes, the tightest, most secure prisons are the ones we build for ourselves.

That is why it is so important to remember to not take anything for granted.  Not one single moment of the time we are given will ever come again.   Moments rush towards us and then are gone  in a  flash, never to repeat.

So make the most of it by slowing down to really observe what is going on around you.  Stop just looking at things; categorizing, tagging, and blindly rushing through life with too many preconceived notions.

It’s amazing what you will find if you instead take the time to really “see”.

I hope I am able to do this more than I currently manage.  Life itself is just too interesting and varied for me to want it any other way.

I don’t usually do this, but this update is just the posting of a link.  

But it’s a really cool link.

It shows what Tokyo would look like if all the pavement and asphalt was replaced with grass. 

Kind of like a dream….

All of todays photos were shot on 15 February, ranging from very early (past midnight) to very late (right before midnight).

***CLICK HERE for todays photos***

I had ended Saturday night after attending a live event in Yokosuka where some friends were playing some music at a bar called Moai & Capy, located pretty clsoe to Shioiri station.  Then on Sunday I spent the day up in Nakano shooting pictures with a photo club I belong to.

The D700 continues to amaze me.  The low light shooting at Moai & Capy was an absolute breeze with the incredible autofocus and high ISO capability it has.  The main lens I used was the 50mm f1.4G which oerfomred admirably.  ON Sunday the lens of choice was a Nikkor 20mm f2.8D that I picked up used at Fujiya Camera in nakano, right before the photo club met up to start shooting.  

The theme for the days shooting was “Unusual Perspectives”, thus the large amount of odd angles for most of todays shots.  I really enjoy the photo club as it places some structure on the shooting, and depending on the theme we are using, it can really stretch you and make you think.

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I was woken up this morning by a mild earthquake.  Not enough to really worry about, but enough to remind me that I have not yet set up an earthquake disaster kit.   The contents of a typical kit include things that can get me through the first few days of an emergency in the event of THE BIG ONE and I have the good fortune to live through it.   

So now that I am thinking about it, I guess I’d better get around to building my own kit.  

I think I will add the following to it, and keep it in a  handy place:

• Water – 5 gallons (enough for 5-days)
• Food– ready to eat or requiring minimal water (MREs work great for this, and have the shelf life of a brick)
• Manual can opener and other cooking supplies
• Plates, utensils and other feeding supplies
• First Aid kit & instructions
• A copy of important documents & phone numbers
• Warm clothes, rain gear, sturdy footwear
• Heavy work gloves
• Camera (no problem for me there…) and plenty of charged batteries and empty memory cards
• Unscented liquid household bleach and an eyedropper for water purification
• Personal hygiene items including toilet paper, tooth brush and paste, hand sanitizer and soap
• Plastic sheeting, duct tape and utility knife for covering broken windows
• Tools such as a crowbar, hammer & nails, staple gun, adjustable wrench and bungee cords.
• Blanket and/or sleeping bag
• Large heavy duty plastic bags and a plastic bucket for waste and sanitation
• Beer (preferably Strohs as it is the only beer I know that taste just as bad cold as it does warm)
• Flashlight (hand crank type)
• Radio – hand crank or battery operated
• Whistle
• Pocket knife
• Emergency cash in small denominations
• Permanent marker, paper and MORE duct tape  (You can never have enough duct tape)
• List of emergency points-of -contact phone numbers
• Extra prescription eye glasses
• A few good (long) books 

I think that should about do it.  

Can anyone think of anything I forgot?

Click HERE for todays photos.

The reason for the change in the look of Sushicam is because I just mapped the sushicam.com URL to my 2yen.wordpress.com account.  I did this to try and prevent the continual hacking that I experience from disrupting the site even more.  

I no longer have to worry about keeping my WordPress installation current on my own server anymore.  I can rely on the good people at WordPress.com to take care of that for me.  In doing so I do loose some of the freedom that hosting your own website allows, but I think its a small price to pay to stop the hackers from continualy disrupting the site.

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Well, another weekend has come and gone.   As sit here at my keyboard the clock is sweeping quickly toward 9 p.m. and all too soon I’ll have to head off to bed.

Yesterday I spent some time in Tokyo shooting my new D700.  It was my first  real chance to get out and do some shooting with it since it arrived a little less than a week ago.   So far I can say this coming from the 5D:  The high ISO image quality of the D700 is nothing short of extraordinary.  I set it for auto-iso, ranging up to 6400, and forget about it.  With the 5D I rarely went as high as 1600.  It really is a big step up for me, especially since I love to shoot in “available darkness”.  

I’d say as a baseline the D700 has about a 2-stop advantage compared to the 5D.  But in reality, the quality of the noise from the D700 is much better.  

I’m not sure exactly how the engineers over at Nikon achieved it, but the chroma noise on the D700 is extremely low.  

I mean Really low.  

Think “Danny-Devito-doing-the-Limbo” kind of low and you’ll get an idea of how low I am talking about.

At a given ISO the 5D has much higher chroma noise, and this leads to the greenish-purplish blotches that are so noticable and really degrade the image quality.   In contrast the D700 noise is almost entirely constrained to Luminance, and this allows it to look a lot more like film grain instead of digital nosie. 

I guess the big question is this: will the D700 replace my 5D?

I would have to say no, not entirely.  

I still love to use all of that great manual focus glass I have aquired over the years, and the EOS mount of the 5D is the ultimate in verstaility in this department.

Which one would I choose if I could only have one of them?  

This question is a bit harder.  I’m currently loving the D700.  But the 5D has been a real workhorse over the past 3 years, producing great looking images for me.  I guess I will only really know the answer to that one once I have more time to shoot with the D700.

Click HERE for todays photos

As those of you who have been following Sushicam for a while, you will see that todays photos are a departure from the recent norm, and actually slip back into the style that I first started with: Documentary type shots that show some od things. Not necessarily artistic, or even Good for that matter, but a slice of the real Japan nonetheless.

Enjoy.

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When I first decided to join with the company that offers the Sushicam Friend Finder service I did my own in depth research to make sure it was a genuine value and not a scam.

After checking it out in detail I saw that it was the real thing. I have heard from quite a few Sushicam visitors that they have had succes in finding new friends by using it, so I know it really works. So if you have thought about joining in the past but never really got around to it, this promotion is a great time to try it out.

Just sign up before 15 February and take advantage of this promotional offer.

~*~*~ Valentine’s Day Promotion for Sushicam Friend Finder ~*~*~

Duration: Through 15 Feb 2009

Who: To any new subscription purchased during the promotion period.

What: Members will be given a free upgrade of up to 24 months!

Buy 1 mth VIP -> Get 3 mths VIP

Buy 3 mths VIP -> Get 6 mths VIP

Buy 6 mths VIP -> Get 12 mths VIP

Buy 3 mths OC -> Get 6 mths VIP

Buy 3 mths VIP+OC -> Get 6 mths VIP+OC

Buy 6 mths VIP+OC -> Get 12 mths VIP+OC

Buy 12 mths VIP -> Get 24 mths VIP

Buy 12 mths VIP+OC -> Get 24 mths VIP+OC

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I spent last week in Hawaii on a business trip. (A hardship tour for sure) While it was nice to get a taste of the good old U S of A again, I was kind of surprised about how hard it was to get around. Especially seeing as I am not functionally illiterate there like I am here in Japan.

My coworker was the one doing the driving, and I was the navigator, and I have to admit I failed miserably at the job. It didn’t help that the street signs are effectively the size of postage stamps, and darn near impossible to discern since the hawaiian alphabet ahs only 13 letters, and at first all the street names looked pretty much the same. Just long strings of letters like HALAKUALAKOANAMOA.

Not the easist thing to filter through at 60 mph when you are not familiar with it. “3rd Street” would seem a more logical choice. It’s simpler too, but maybe that’s just me..