Monthly Archives: November 2010

Challenges Fun Photography

Just for fun challenge – “Evanescence”

It’s nearly 3 weeks overdue, but here are the submissions for the “Evanescence” challenge!

Submitted in the order they were received:

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-submitted by mom

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-submitted by J4

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-submitted by JS!

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-submitted by J3

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-submitted by yours truly

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I think I’m the one to come up with the next challenge, so since I already have a fun pic I want to submit, I’m going to make the next theme: “Spooky”! 😉

As usual, please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun!

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Experiences

Run for the Cure 2010

It’s been a while yet again since my last post, for the usual reason (work).  I have a few posts lined up; I just need the time to write them out (and sort through pictures)…

This morning though, I managed to get up (sort of) early to go to the annual Run for the Cure event.  I’ve attended each one for the last 3 years and participated in the 10k runs the last 2 years.  This year, since it’s been so long since I’ve run, I just walked 1 lap (5k) and shot pictures along the way.  Those pictures will be uploaded later after I’ve had a chance to sift through them (took nearly 400 pictures >_<;)

After the run, there were a couple of events, one of which was a series of very cool taiko performances by the Tawoo group.  A couple of the members of the group were survivors of breast cancer themselves, and it was amazing to see the amount of energy they had.

I recorded 2 of the performances, both of which I’ve uploaded to Youtube.  Unfortunately, the recordings are nowhere near as impressive as watching the performances live, but hopefully one can get a sense of their spirit and energy.

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Experiences Photography

FIT 2010 Charity Run

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I know I’m behind on the picture challenges, but I’ve decided to postpone it until brother J3 has finished one of his uni projects and is able to send a submission as well.   In the meantime, I’ve added another gallery to the photo section!

These are pictures taken last weekend, during the annual FIT for Charity run in Tokyo.  I had originally signed up to participate as a runner, but as I was still getting over the bug I picked up in HK I went along with Josh to provide moral support – and take pictures.

I’ve picked up a lot of photography tips from Josh during his stay here (one of which has given me an idea for the next challenge) and on this day I had the opportunity to work with natural lighting.  It’s really cool how sun+clouds make for a fantastic natural diffuser.  Between the two of us, we shot over 1,200 pictures that day alone.

I’ve uploaded the FIT 2010 pictures to the usual shashin.njmatsuya.com.  I know some pictures may seem a little dark, but I didn’t have time to go through and lighten anything – all pictures are straight out of the camera, only resized.  Also, I’ve noticed that monitor quality makes a huge difference – on my glossy laptop screen all pictures seem well-lit, but on one of the older monitors I use at work, most of my pictures seem pretty dark.

I’ve taken pictures at each FIT event since 2008, and I’m pretty happy with how these turned out!

Experiences Food & drinks Photography

Travel pictures

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As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been traveling for work-related duties to Singapore and Hong Kong for the last two and a half weeks in October.  It was an extremely busy period of time (typically 12 hour work days and no weekends off) and I ended up getting hit by a particularly tenacious bug that’s still keeping me coughing over a week later.

Given the long hours I worked, I didn’t take any daytime pictures, but when I could I went out for some night shots.  Both Singapore and Hong Kong are very different culturally compared to Japan, and initially it took some getting used to, but in the end I felt quite comfortable getting around.  I have better memories of Singapore since Hong Kong was where I got sick. 😛

I’ll be posting pictures I took over time, starting with this series of shots taken of Little India, in Singapore.

Since it was late I didn’t get a chance to wander around too much that neighborhood, but my initial reaction when exiting the MRT (Singapore’s equivalent to the Tokyo Metro) was surprise – the place was *crowded* with people, and 99% of them were all men.  I don’t know if there aren’t that many Indian women in Singapore, or if they simply don’t venture out much at night, but it was just a little odd to see crowds of men and no women at all (save in some restaurants).

Little India had some pretty street illuminations going, in preparation for the Deepavali festival.  I also tried some very good fish head curry at a restaurant called Apollo’s (it looks really spicy in the pictures but it’s actually not that hot).

The image above is one that has been adjusted, but all the untouched pictures (including the original of the one above, which exhibited some bad lens distortion) are at the usual shashin.njmatsuya.com .

Challenges Photography

Just for fun challenge – “Mechanical”

This challenge comes VERY late, again travel and illness do not a good combo make. (re-reading that sentence sounds so awkward but I’m sleepy and I’ll let it stand)

Here are the submissions for the “mechanical” theme, submitted in the order they were received:

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no images were found

-submitted by mom

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no images were found

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-submitted by J4

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-submitted by J3

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no images were found

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-submitted by me

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The next challenge’s theme has been chosen by J4 – “Evanescence”

As usual, please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun!

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Photography

Update on photo section (Narita airport)

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I know it’s been a while since my last post, and that I’ve fallen behind on the “challenges”.  Unfortunately it’s just been too busy recently, and the fact that I’ve gotten sick hasn’t helped.

However, I’m back in Tokyo now (though still not able to go back to work) and I’ve had the energy to go through some of the pictures I took before I got sick.  I’ll be uploading them little by little in the order they were taken, starting with the pictures I took while waiting at Narita before takeoff earlier last month.  These are primarily shots of the Origami museum at the airport, where they have a great display on the amazing things they’ve been able to create out of folded paper.  I personally really liked the autumn leaves and found the dinosaur dioramas very cool.

Full gallery as usual can be seen at shashin.njmatsuya.com