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The photographic blog of Sean Wood (aka motionid)

The last day

Mt. Fuji Sunset from tamagawa

I knew I could see Mt. Fuji from Tamagawa on a clear day but I didn't know how great the sky was going to be when I set out to take a shot of the sunset. I figured I'd shoot a few digital shots to see what I could come up with along the river. So I took my 24mm and the 50mm with me. What I should have done was take to 70-200mm and a monopod. I think that might even be the plan for this afternoon. The interesting thing about this river that's got me all excited is the fact that I can see further than 3 feet in front of me. Typically in Tokyo you can't see into the distance and being from Australia where that's all you can see it begins to be frustrating. This must feel like of like a return home of sorts.Anyway, if you have no idea what you are looking at, just below the sun to the right is Mt. Fuji.

Aokigahara Jukai

So I finally have a few thing's to show from the Aokigahara Jukai trip.Only took the Rolleiflex this time. Well, I took the 5d also but it was the light meter for day 2 and not a good one at that. It seems that my trusty Sekonic did the job just great. These B+W shots are proof. After seeing the results I'm keen to go back again. At the start of the trip it was pouring rain and Jon and I had to walk 20 mins to get to the station at about 6:50am. We hadn't event started and we were soaked. Still, the weather was actually a blessing and I'm really pleased Thomas, with his boundless enthusiasm got us all shooting in the rain in the forest. For me it made for better shots than the sunny day after. Next will be to see what everyone has printed. Thanks guy's. It was a lot of fun.

All shot on TMax 100 and developed using Tmax dev 1:4

Shibuya back streets

In the recent past I have had a bit of a discussion with a follower of the blog. Conversations through the comments system that I have enjoyed have culminated in him sending me reference pictures of what he has suggested I shoot or post. This image is a reply to his recent mail.

I'm hoping (but not sure) that this shot hit's the mark. I might have to go digging in my archives a bit to find some more (or just go shoot a few new ones).

The Englishmen

Adrian and Jon – The Hub, Shinjuku.

And I'm going to use this photo as an excuse to talk about the demise of the 400B Fuji Instant film. Can't believe they have taken it off the market. Right in the middle of a series I was doing using it. This impossible project better get it's act together and start producing peel apart film asap @400 asa at least.

3000 asa! I'm going to have to use a pure black filter just to shoot in the afternoon and still have the background out of focus. Having said that, 3000 asa at night...hmmm, very tempting to do a series with this in the dark.

The Bogey hole

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Shot at about 5:55am on the 1st Jan 2010 in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Managed to wake up at 4 and leave at 4:20am. Never actually saw the sun but was lucky enough to get a bit of colour in the clouds before everything went a flat bright colour.My next trip back there will be with a view to achieve something very different.

Edit: July 3 2010.

Click the picture for a bigger version.

For all of you searching for the location click here for the map

Tips: If you go early enough in the morning, ignore the no entry sign and drive right down to the hole. Otherwise it's a real hike. Especially if you are trying to catch the sun. You should be in and out before anyone can catch you. Go during a week day early. The locals like to turn up super early and swim or actually make it the last point of call after a night out. You won't get any pictures then. Be careful. The whole place is really slippery so take your time walking around. The boats on the horizon you can't do anything about. It's a pain but if you don't want them in your shot you're going to have to pick your angles carefully. If you want your picture to have any depth to it like the one above you should use film. Even if you have a pro DSLR (I own a canon 1d mark 3) you won't get the depth and colour. And anyone who says "HDR" as a solution should be shot. If you think you've taken a winner picture post a link to your shot in the comments. I'd love to take a look. Someone should do a great B+W long exposure. But I bet I end up doing this before anyone else (no one likes B+W any more).

When everything goes wrong

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Words of advice from the inexperienced. Wash your negatives thoroughly and DON'T change the type of film you shoot unless you have experience with the new film you plan to use.I'm a bit disappointed that I traveled thousands of kilometers to meet up with the family (which is hard considering everyone lives in a different state) and manage to destroy all my black and white film in an afternoon. I shall, from this point, revert to my tried and trusted film stock and developers. Not that there is anything wrong with what I've just ruined. Just that I don't want to have to spend more money learning the in's and out's of another stock when the current one already serves me well.

Sunset at mt. Fuji

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I tell you I'm a bit hacked off with this Ektar 100 film. This is the 2nd roll I've shot of the stuff and this time I pushed it 2 stops. Should be no issues given I push another neg film and have never had problems. I have, however, had issues with getting Ektar developed at Horiuchi Color before. SO, this time I figured I'd go to the source and get it done at Kodak. Well, the bloody neg has blotches all over it. Spend a good 20 mins touching the crap out of it to make it look half ok. The OTHER issue is that they decided to charge me 1449 for ONE roll! And this is development only. I must say, I do like the colours I managed to squeeze out of the film but not if I'm going to get bent over a table on the price and they do a shoddy job of it to boot (the development not bending you over a table. That they are good at).I think I'll have to give Ektar a miss from this point on. Shame.

Uchujin

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See his genius at work here -> UchujinWhile I was in the film archives the other day I found a few shots I forgot to scan. A case that so often happens to me "ah, not bad, I'll do that one last". As usual, I forget or run out of time. Figured it would be nice to add to the rest of the shots considering everyone else got a look-in a while back on the blog.