Category Archives: Photography

Photography

HDR Image – Trumpeter at twilight

Added another HDR image in the gallery.  This was a three shot merge taken in Ginza back around mid-November.  Yes, the streets were already all full of Christmas decorations and the stores all dressed in the festive best!  I was out with JS, and we were waiting for S so that we could look for a particular piece of jewelry when I suddenly looked up and noticed this trumpeter.  I thought it was rather neat, in an old-fashioned, gritty way and took a quick bracket of shots.

The shot isn’t my best attempt at HDR, but I think it’s interesting enough to post.  All in all, a good day since we found the jewelry for Josh too! 😉

Photography

HDR Image – Art Sculpture in Singapore

I’ve added another HDR image to the photo section.   This was taken late one night on my way back to the hotel, but unfortunately, I don’t quite remember what the name of the station/building was!

It appears to be sculpture of figures either in the performing arts (dancing, ballet), or athletes.  I took this picture from the side instead of the front since I didn’t have a tripod and needed a wall to rest the camera on.  It’s a bit bizarre, but interesting.

Link: Art sculpture in SG

Photography

HDR image – Mitsukoshi in Nihonbashi

I haven’t had any time to post lately – lots going on at work, and lots on my mind.

I have uploaded a picture to my photo section though – it’s an HDR of an unusual display at the Mitsukoshi department store in Nihonbashi.  It’s not really possible to make out all the detail since the display is so massive and I had to shoot from a distance in order to get it all within the frame, but I like the picture nonetheless.

You can see it in full at http://shashin.njmatsuya.com/?p=72

UPDATE: I’m also going to include a close-up crop of the display here. It’s actually so intricate that it’s hard to make out what it is. I can see a woman in the middle, who looks like she might be standing on the ocean. Above her is a bird, perhaps coming out a cage and flying towards her?

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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 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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-submitted by mom

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-submitted by J4

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-submitted by J3

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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

Challenges Photography

Just for fun challenge – “Reflection”

Last week’s theme challenge was “Reflection”.  I deliberately worded it so that “Reflection” could imply either the obvious (a literal reflection) or the act/process of thinking.  I had intended to provide a picture of the latter interpretation for my submission, but time constraints shot that plan to pieces, and I went for the literal instead.  Oh well, next time!

Here are the submissions presented in the order they were received (click to embiggen):
(Unfortunately frequent contributor Tet was unable to provide an image in time.  However, if he sends something later on, I’ll edit this post to include it)

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-submitted by Mom

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-submitted by J4

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-submitted by J3

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-submitted by me

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Next week’s theme has been chosen by Mom – “Cats”!

Please send any submissions to justforfun@njmatsuya.com – have fun! 🙂