I tend to sit on photos for a long time before I decide if I like them or not. This, for me, is not one of them. I was just unlucky that day. Too much cloud and sun could not get up high enough to throw colour over the rocks as it rose. Every time I go to Australia I never seem to have enough time to really explore an area. Avalon has some great shots hidden away. It's just a shame I had no time to find them or see the potabilities.
Blog
The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)
Guarding the void
Multitasking
A skill you acquire here over the years. Takes practice but completely possible.
Frozen
Sometimes in the craziness of a Friday night at Shinjuku station you need to just stop or slow down. The man is caught in the moment where he just needs to stop and take stock of where he is, where he is going...just to think for a minute. If he was closing his eyes to the madness, that would be the shot to get.
No idea
Sometimes you look at a picture and just have no idea as to what's going on. What is the girl on the left holding? What is the girl in the middle looking at and why does the girl on the right look clueless? And what are they all wearing!? Well, I guess I can't talk either. Shot the whole thing using a Hasselblad with film. What a waste! Still, not bad for manual focus and eye metered exposure.
The attempt
Adrian Storey - Photographer
March 2007. I can't believe it's not seen the light of day until now. Shot in the usual Friday night location when thing's were a lot quieter and we were all a little greener. This shot is one of my favorites and one that, in the current light, seems to have more meaning than any of us could have known.
The Chair series
Took the same train to work for two years and started to notice the different thing's people did while seated in a chair that seemed to be quite out of the way of any trains. What I like about the collect is the randomly different thing's most people are doing at any one time. The series has only been edited to keep the basic format the same (seems I shot more using 35mm than asselblad 120).
Hakone
I've visited Hakone several times by train and bus and also several times by bicycle. What I didn't realize was that the actual place extends quite far and that there is such a huge variety of places to visit within the area. I'm going to be coming back fairly soon to explore more.
Two shots from the trip. Always good to go in a typhoon. Makes for better sky's :-)
Team Mask
Most people in this 13 millions person city do thing's in groups. Wearing masks I guess is one of them.
Ginza line
I've been going through a series I've been working on - eventually working my way up to editing it in some way that adds meaning to what I have shot (always nice to figure it out in reverse. Kind of like designing a logo and thinking up the bollocks rational after to go with it). I've decided that revisiting the images after about 2 years starts to give you a nice perspective on them. This is one that could well fit into several themes I could have going with the collection. Who knows!? Better to get a few out into the wild than let them all just rot on my drives. I'll make a second call out to those in the know about the editing assistance. I'm sure at some stage the series will see the light of day. In the mean time I'll likely post the ones that don't make it here and the ones that do over to the soon to be revamped 50mm.jp.
Red night
Another take on the previous version of the image with a different colour pallette. Which do you prefer?
Scene from a film
The difficult part about these shots is the colour pallette. I don't particularly like the pallette in this shot but you need to start with something and finding a minimal pallette on the street is not an easy task let alone hoping the right subject matter will enter the frame with the right attitude. I'm interested to know if anyone who reads / looks at this blog considers such thing's.
End of summer
Sometimes you have to take this kind of shot just to get it out of your system. Well, I've done it now so I can finally move on. This was shot with a 50mm and an extension tube for those that care for these things. If you are looking for a relaxing escape from the usual over crowded parks of Tokyo you might want to take a look at this one.
Days past
Alien eye
Shots on a roll
If you have an monitor running 1920x1200 then open your browser to max and view th slide show. Rather than cut these sequence of shots up I've left them how I've scanned them. When scanning 35mm I usually scan the whole strip to see what I've got and then go back and scan the ones I like at a higher resolution. The last part I never get round to doing. I just scan the strip and forget about it. I don't think any of these shots (maybe 1) have seen the light of day. I have a crap load of these. Figured this sequence was not a bad one in terms of quality vs number of shots taken.
Questions, comments and feedback are always welcome.
Urban landscape
Morning coffee
I've become obsessed with this Fuji instant film of late. No development needed. Instant atmosphere, predictable (to an extent) results, I just wish it wasn't so expensive and messy. And the other annoying thing is trying to carry the pictures around with you after you've shot them. I have developed a practical method for this - a plastic hard disk case. Keeps the dust out and prevents the photos from sticking to your bag . The trick is just to ensure you dry the photo long enough before putting it in the case. Scanning these instant photos is a whole other challenge. If you don't like touching out dust, don't think about shooting these because regardless of how careful you are you'll be dust busting for hours. You can always leave the dust in for effect :-)
The old house is no more
An old man around the corner from me used to live in this house. I took this shot right next to his house and this one right outside. Actually while I was taking that shot the old guy came out and at first wondered what the hell I was doing outside his front gate but he soon figured it out, gave me a big smile and road off down the street. A few months back I was walking passed, hoping there were more plants to shoot and discovered his bike missing and some of the plants he once had outside gone. I have no idea if he died or just moved but I knew that the house would vanish quickly. This photo and a few others I took will be all that remain of what once used to be here. It's now an empty lot, waiting for some large corporation to buy it, split it in three and sell each one for a million dollars. Just one of the idiosyncrasies of Tokyo life.