2004 My First Travel Photo (for Craig), a photo from Tokyo, Kanto

Photographer's Note

This is a nothing special kind of photo… in a way. People don’t dress like this in the streets of Tokyo. This man’s attire was part of some kind of celebrations. All I managed to find out is that it was a local Nakano quarter festival. Maybe Takero knows what it is all about?

This photo is very special to me because it is the first photo taken on the first day during my first trip outside of Europe. And not just “any trip”. It was the first time I decided to take photos with a view to sharing and selling them afterwards. I had taken holiday snapshots before, but that time was to be different: I had bought 30+ rolls of slide film… that’s over a 1000 frames… out of which only 67 turned up to be of acceptable enough quality. The rest – drastically overexposed, terribly underexposed, generally awful, just name it… How much easier it is these days to review a shot on your LCD and have another go…

My two weeks’ stay in Japan was an unforgettable experience. I learned at least 4 things on that first day:

1. “Kirin” (as in the well-known beer brand) means “dragon. But not all dragons are called kirin. There are many words for a dragon in Japanese, just like there are lots of names for snow in Eskimo language.
2. Not EVERY kind of food is meant to be eaten with chopsticks. Edamame are a good example – you are supposed to pick the pods up with your hands and then suck the beans out.
3. Jetlag is not (as many people think) a made up excuse “for wimps”. It is a condition that makes life difficult (and, as I found out later, it gets much worse when you get back home after the trip…).
4. September, when the weather in Tokyo gets cooler, is still hotter than the hottest summer in Britain.

I have really good friends in Tokyo and try to visit as frequently as possible, which, in the last 14 years has resulted in four trips. I guess, as we are talking journeys from Europe to the Far East, it still counts as “often”. I’ll post the few good photos from those, sometimes quite short trips, to TE.

I dedicate this one to Craig as I promised him that when I had finished posting my Nepal story, I’d upload some shots from Japan.

More photos in WS. All three scanned from Fuji Velvia slides.

pajaran, jemaflor, holmertz, rychem, ChrisJ, macjake, COSTANTINO has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

GyurMaster (24668) 2019-03-05 14:19

Hello Kasia,

Keep practicing and maybe someday you will be a fairly good photographer! ;-) Joking apart, you talent was obvious back then. The man is well placed, the bg being in shadow helps to highlight him and you froze his movement in the right time. The WS showing the man is also a good one.

Best Wishes,
Gy.

lousat (138609) 2019-03-05 14:55

Hi Kasia,3 very nice pics from your first trip out of Europe. I'm smiling reading your adventures with film cameras and you remind me of what was happening to me with regard to overexposure and defects, and even a holiday in Turkey completely skipped with all the black film...eeheh...now we are lucky to be in the digital era! Thanks a lot for your curious views from Japan wating some explication from Takero. Have a good night,Luciano

emka (157280) 2019-03-05 14:57

Witaj kasiu, Byłas aż cztery razy w Japonii? Znowu zapuytam - a gdzie zdjecia? :). Byłas głównie w Tokio, czy podróżowałaś po całej Japoni??
W Japonii maja tyle festiwali i dziwacznych strojów, że ja wątpie czy nawet Takero to ogarnia. Ciekawe zdjęcie mnicha - te buty to ma takie jak nosza Ryksiarze, tylko oni mają czarne. To główne zdjecie tez interesujace, czy to wnętrze jakiejś świątyni?
Ja zaczęłam moje daleki podróże wcześniej. najpierw Egipt i marolo z biurami, ale już w 1999 pojechałam sama (tzn. z koleżankami, ale bez biura) na 5 tygodni do Peru, Boliwii i Ekwadoru. Potem był meksyk, Gwatemala, Belize i Honduras. W 2004 zwiedziłam Indie południowe i miałam juz aparat cyfrowy, ale zdjęcia wyszły marne.
Byłam przeszlo miesiąc w Japonii, a nie nauczyłam sie tych rzeczy, na przykład nie natknęłam sie na :"wlochatą fasolę". Z jetlag kiedys trudniej znosiłam ostatnio nie miałam z tym problemów. Do Nowej Zelandii leciałam 18 godzin bez przerwy, różnica czasu 12 godzin, a po przylocie jeszcze czekałam na autobu 2 godziny i jechałam tym autobusem jeszcze 3 godziny, i bez wrażenia. Podobnie, po przylocie z Bueanos Aires poszłam zwiedzac Madryt.

Oj, rozpisałam sie. Pozdrawiam

Małgorzata

ifege (46951) 2019-03-05 21:33

Hi Kasia
The curse of film - at least with digital we can now take lots without worry (except for battery life and memory space) and then delete the failure.
This was a great first photo and well scanned. A very interesting outfit.
cheers
Ian

abmdsudi (95869) 2019-03-05 22:28

Hi Kasia
Make no bones about this...
From this viewpoint, the walking fig is wearing on what looks like a skeleton outfit after the festival! The placement is fine minus all distraction with good surrounding detail, hence focus is firmly on him with some matching black and white colours.

Contrast between the subject and the background is great. An appealing imaginative shot certainly a very eye catching and the timing is perfect. Well done its nice to see something different. Brill composition, Congrats
Best regards

jemaflor (146280) 2019-03-05 23:29

Hi Kasia,
Good photo about this old trip, good light and composition with all these details and this lonely man walking, interesting note about your experience, tfs.

Tue (91574) 2019-03-06 0:41

Hello Kasia,
A great impression from the streets of Tokyo. The man in his special clothes is well captured in front of this building, which adds many more interesting details. The light was fine as well.
Lars

holmertz (101988) 2019-03-06 1:14

Hello Kasia,
This is a surprising "oldie". Is it perhaps the oldest photo you have posted here? It may not be entirely up to the quality of your recent photos but still shows your talent for composition. The peculiarly dressed man is nicely surrounded by a mixture of traditional looking items and modern aspects of city life, some beautiful - some ugly. Nice WS too, but this is the most original composition, capturing some of the life in the streets of Tokyo. It is a relief to learn that some years ago you actually took a lot of bad photos. It makes me feel more normal... ;-)
Kind regards,
Gert

rychem (72187) 2019-03-07 8:39

Zdjecie ciekawostka i dokument jednoczesnie, ciekawa notatka i ciekawe wnioski :)
pozdrawiam Ryszard

ChrisJ (171222) 2019-03-08 14:10

Hello Kasia,

If you are in Japan long enough you will often see people dressed in traditional costumes or in a street parade or festival. Good daily life scene with the 'Nihongo' text adding place and context. Tfs!

Nicou (193806) 2019-03-09 1:12

Hello

la personne de dos quei son fond avec le tout avec ces habits blancs et noirs et le dessin le blanc sur les marque de la rouge et cette boutique ouverte le blanc et noir sur le tableau à gauche avec les inscriptions sueprbe
Bravo et amitié
Nicou

macjake (98262) 2019-03-15 18:07

Hi Kasia
I'm home now, from my trip to Portugal and Spain :)
I'll post a new drone photo later today. where do I begin here...first off, thanks! I appreciate the photo and dedication. secondly, its always fun to read your notes and hear about your experiences. it's so difficult to imagine travelling with a film camera, now when we have digital. So many ruined shots, so much time to wait and see how they turn out. I'd be SOOOOOO upset if many of my shots are crap, come home, get the film developed and then want to go back and re-shoot everything all over again! Look at all the writing on the wall on the left, thats strange. lots of black and white lines in your shot, and yet its a colour photo haha. Looking forward to more. thanks again
cheers
Craig

COSTANTINO (115539) 2019-04-02 23:14

Hello dear Kasia and have a nice time
we ve been lost for a long long time
but here we are again
a different photo from the usuals
and according to your useful notes
people don t dress like this in the
streets of tokyo
welldone
regards
costantino