Date Taken: 2008/09/01
Camera: Fuji Film SP-1500

A grab shot as I crossed the road after lunch. This is view down the street close to my office towards Tokyo Tower.

Date Taken: 2008/08/31
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/20
Focal Length: 85mm

A wooden carving on one of the most famous temples in Japan, found in Nikko.

Date Taken: 2008/08/29
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 800

An HDR shot from this weekend's trip to the countryside. More details surrounding the purpose of the trip over the next few days. This was composed from three shots auto bracketed at metered exposure and then +- 2ev.

Date Taken: 2008/05/25
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/6.7
Shutter Speed: 1/500
Focal Length: 85mm

A grab shot on the way through the entrance to Brighton's pier.

Date Taken: 2008/05/25
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1/8s
Focal Length: 56mm

A blown-out sky but I liked the composition of this one enough to post it. Shot through a piece of coastal art on Brighton beach.

Date Taken: 2008/05/25
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/6.7
Shutter Speed: 1/500
Focal Length: 41mm

A dig back into the archives is needed as I haven't had the time or inspiration to get out and shoot new material in recent weeks. This, as is no doubt obvious, is from my trip back to England in May. A lovely day in Brighton despite the entire day of rain back up in London was enough to make it a worthwhile day-trip. The kids on this bungee contraption were also glad it wasn't raining in Brighton :-)

Date Taken: 2008/08/17
Aperture: f/9.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 28mm

Go Karting in the misty rain a few hours drive outside of Tokyo. I had all these great plans to take lots of pictures of the other group driving but my battery charging neglect meant I was limited to just driving rather than shooting after taking a handful of shots of the warm up laps.

Date Taken: 2008/08/10
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/6.7
Shutter Speed: 3.0s
Focal Length: 50mm

I almost missed this one as it looked like just a normal, although huge, firework. At the last moment though the tendrils seemed to come alive and start hunting the sky for something. It was the only one of its kind during the 90 minute display so I'm really glad I captured it.

Date Taken: 2008/08/10
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Shutter Speed: 2.0s
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 180mm

I meticulously planned my second hanabi visit this year. I picked out a good location to get some shots of Tokyo bay with fireworks above Rainbow Bridge and visited it a week before the event to check the angles would work. I forgot, as always, to allow for the other 10,000 people who also had the same idea. The army of people who probably started saving their space right after I checked the area the week before prevented me from getting anywhere near the photos I wanted but I got some different angles from underneath the area I had planned to be. Limited by the roof above my ahead [and the people in front of me] I had a small window of sky to shoot at but I'll post a few shots of what I managed to grab over the next few days.

Date Taken: 2008/08/07
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Shutter Speed: 1s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 100

Tough to get the framing right with fireworks but I like this delicate nature of this shot. so many threads extending from each explosion. Hanabi are always crowded events with many guys and girls wearing their yukatas. I, along with a few thousand others, was watching the display from a rugby stadium.

Date Taken: 2008/08/07
Camera: Canon ESO 350D
Shutter Speed: 1s
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 100

My first hanabi of the year despite them going on all throughout the summer. I've not tried taking photos of fireworks before and although I've got a lot to learn I'll be posting a few of the shots I took on Thursday so I can compare them to my second batch which I'll be taking tomorrow. The main Tokyo bay display is tomorrow night and I aim to put what I picked up earlier in the week to good use.

Date Taken: 2008/07/27
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/60
Focal Length: 24mm
ISO: 100

Not a great shot technically, but hopefully some great memories for Ake. The prefecture she is from in Japan it is bad luck to tell anyone the chosen name of your unborn child (hence the title of this shot) and she'll soon be following the tradition in Japan and heading home to stay with her parents for the latter stages of the pregnancy. We get to keep the husband company and calm his excitement and nervous in the run up to the birth.

Date Taken: 2008/07/20
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 2m01s
Focal Length: 56mm
ISO: 100

This is the gate I was referring to in a post a couple of days ago which, I realise now, was not actually visible in the photo I posted then. Here it is in all it's glory except I'm very disappointed with this picture as the depth of field is not quite right resulting in the gate and rock being slightly out of focus.I decided to post this shot anyway as its really nice apart from that and I don't know when I'll be back at Ishiki beach in the evening to take the shot again.

Let me know what you think.

Date Taken: 2008/07/27
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60s
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 85mm

Walking home from a friend's place I stumbled across this fellow sitting in multiple places on the road which seemed to be strategically chosen so as to avoid cars that drove past every few minutes.

Date Taken: 2008/07/20
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 3s
Focal Length: 41mm
ISO: 800

At the far end of Ishiki beach is this lone gate being wonderfully side lit. It's still very dark without a flash though and so even though Juri was kind enough to pose for me, getting her to sit still enough for a long exposure was a challenge :-)