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Sensoji │ NEX-7 & SEL 16mm F2.8 │ 16mm, ISO 5000, f/4, 1/60, Handheld twilight
I took this photo in October, 2011. Recently going through my archives, it jumped out of the dark at me. I've thrown it onto the homepage of my site, which was just populated with more recent photos. However, this image is from a time long-before this site. It's from a time where we had only been in Japan 10 months, and were thinking for maybe just 2 more.
Here we are, over two years on.
Winter Fuji │ NEX-7 & Canon NFD 50mm F1.4 │ 50mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/20, -1.0EV
The Restaurant │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/50, -0.3EV I took the above shot yesterday evening, after a lovely long walk around Kichijoji. It's the outside of a restaurant, and is really quite beautiful. It's been done in the style of the old edo wood carvings and paintings, which I absolutely love. It really caught my eye, and pleasantly reminded me I am in Japan.
Today was the Japanese "coming of age day", which is effectively a "bank holiday" (aka a day off) here in Japan. Seijin no hi (成人の日) is a Japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January (incidentally this year, it's also the birthday of a very good friend of mine). It is held in order to congratulate and encourage all those who have reached the age of majority (20 years old (二十歳 - hatachi) over the past year, and to help them realize that they have become adults. For me, and my co-workers, it was another day at work. Instead, it a wasn't another day of work, because Tokyo had the heaviest snowfall in the last decade, at over 10cm. I was not dressed for this...
and I am glad to be in the warm right now!
Old House │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/125
Little activity, as I've been fighting some kind of stomach bug over the past few days, culminating in taking today off. I still got some work done from home, but slept through most of the morning as I felt totally rotten!
Regarding the photo; every now and then, I stumble across a much older building than those by which it is surrounded. Tokyo is so built up, so modern, and so shocked by earth-quakes, that most building are torn down and new ones built in their place every couple of decades. House prices are high, but the buildings are functional, clean and well built. Old ones like this always get me wondering. Who lives there? What do they do? How old is that house? How much longer will it fight off the bulldozers?
Yakitori │ Samsung Galaxy Nexus; 5MP F2.6 │ 3.43mm, ISO 80, f/2.6, 1/92 Yakitori 「焼き鳥」is the Japanese cuisine of grilled chicken. Though it doesn't sound like much, it's possibly one of my favourite meals. Our personal favourite, is the yakitori of the skewered variety; namely kushi-yaki 「串焼」as inscribed on the sign outside our favourite local restaurant.
I've certainly been known to take pictures of food, especially since moving to Japan. The presentation here, even for inexpensive dishes in casual restaurants, is often sublime. However, on this particular occasion, the shochu & hot water flowed, and various skewered morsels devoured.
Food snaps another time ;)
Everything's easy when you know how. I had found that clicking links at the end of my blog, to get to page 2 or 3, was landing users with an error 404, "page not found". This was annoying, to say the least. I did a lot of trawling through the net, where this error is in abundance.
I didn't find the answer there, though it may be there.
The answer is very simple; to rename one's blog. Calling the blog "blog", sends the site in all sorts of loops, as I have a category called blog, a page called blog and the blog is called blog. Now, my blog is called myblog, and everything works as it should.
Easy. When you know how.
Hello Kitty │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 320, f/4.5, 1/60 Unstabilised, but sharp. Oh, it is sharp. I am finding the Sigma 30mm for NEX to be very capable. It's plastic, isn't premium, and the camera is a little slow to start up with it attached, but it delivers. It's exactly as I had expected, after reading so many reviews and words of wisdom from throughout the NEX community.
Take the above photo, for example. Nothing special, but if I select the following area:
Then we can really show off the Sigma and the NEX-7's 24 resident APS-C based megapixels. Of course, we all know that megapixels do not make good photos, but they certainly allow a lot of detail. Some complain about low-light performance from having so many megapixels, but I am yet to see a discernable difference between the NEX-C3 and NEX-7 for my purposes. They are both excellent cameras, and Adobe Lightroom is a good companion.
Anyway, look at this crop...
Amazing! Not an amazing photo, composition, or subject, but the detail on the cat is astounding. This means the lens and camera combination is suitable for some decent-sized prints, should I wish to have any made in the future. An exciting prospect for a future home.
Incidentally, I recommend dropping by the day-by-day photoblog of "trshptr", here. Some of the best photos I've seen from a NEX camera, are uploaded to his site with good frequency (and he put the sigma through its paces for many months).
Edit: as the photo is not full size, but a compressed JPEG export, there is some lossed detail. But the point remains. Decent image quality and sharpness from the NEX-7 and Sigma 30mm combo. This lens is a must for any NEX owner!
Happy New Year! │ NEX-7 & Sigma 30mm F2.8 │ 30mm, ISO 100, f/5, 1/30 Well, I've finally got the sigma 30mm for E-mount. On sale today, at ¥10,800, it was a steal. I've been uhming and ahing over this lens for months now, and finally decided to just get the damn thing... and boy am I glad!
I've tested the corner sharpness on this lens, and it is one of the sharpest lenses in my growing collection. The 19mm was a similar price, but I have two kit lenses which perform well at that focal length, with OSS, and if I want wide, I want wider... namely the 8mm samyang fisheye (next target?).
It's no secret that I am a fan of Android devices - and I have managed to collect a few android figurines since I moved to Japan. Here's a little photo of them.
A happy new year, to all!
Immigration │ NEX-7 & SEL 30mm F3.5 Macro │ 30mm, ISO 1600, f/7.1, 1/40 "Immigrant" is not a warm and fuzzy word. It separates people. Until one has lived as an immigrant somewhere, one cannot really understand this separation. Holidays abroad are completely different. Then you're a tourist. We have residential status, and pay taxes. I'm not sure if we could have voted in the latest election (possibly, with some difficulty), but it's rather academic all the same.
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Shinagawa station is huge. Housing both regular lines and the bullet train terminal, this modern station is always busy. There's not too much in the local vicinity, other than government offices and the immigration bureau* (no photo of that).
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After submitting our application, we took a train to Ginza (a rather nice area in central Tokyo), for a bite to eat before sunset.
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After sunset, we walked to Tokyo station, hoping to see the illuminations... only to find out that they've been suspended due to large crowds... I'd have expected large crowds, personally. Anyway, the above photo is of Tokyo's central post office, which was one of the best looking and best-lit buildings around.
*To extend your visa for living in Japan, please visit this site.
Roppongi Hills Christmas Market │ NEX-7 & Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, ISO 640, f/1.4, 1/60 Brätwurst and mulled wine were consumed enthusiastically at the German Christmas market here in Roppongi. Great atmosphere, and the hot sausage, mustard and mulled wine, went down a treat.
Merry Christmas to all!
Christmas in Japan │ NEX-7 & Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, ISO 100, f/1.4, 1/40 Christmas is less than a week away! We moved here in January 2011, and so we've been here in Tokyo for almost two years. We originally planned to stay here for a year, but we've enjoyed it so much, that we are still here...
Christmas in Japan is an interesting affair, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I simply did not expect anything at all here. We're on an island the other side of the world, and after pretty far from America. I knew that New Year was the big celebration in Japan, and that Christmas Day itself is a day just like any other - most people will be at work. What I hadn't considered, was that the huge consumerist country that is Japan, has more Christmas illuminations, gifts and general themed events that I have seen during my entire life in the UK.
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I've managed to negotiate a day off on Christmas Day (sounds rather Dickensian, to a Brit), but the rest of Japan will continue as normal. This means we will actually be able to go into shops, restaurants, cinema... but the first part of the day will be spent opening presents, which have been lovingly and painstakingly sent from the UK!
It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :)
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Merry Christmas to all!
Setagaya Flea Market │ NEX-7 & Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, ISO 100, f/2, 1/60
This weekend, we took a stroll to the local flea market, the “Setagaya Boro-ichi” (せたがやぼろいち), which takes place in Setagaya ward on the 15th and 16th of December (and January) each year. This market is the oldest flea market in Tokyo, and has been an bi-annual event since the 16th Century.
The above shot was taken from the viewpoint of the “Daikandokoro” (代官所), the old Magistrate's office. Apparently, this location is the original spot of this market, all that time ago.