So, I took the new camera to Tokyo and came back with pictures, which will inhabit this space for the next few days. For most, I’m not gonna claim they’re “typical”; but these are. If you’re going to show the truth about 東京, it has to be people. Because its buildings and cars and streets and so on are mostly nothing special, but the people who live among them are.
Not far from Shimbashi station and it’s 10PM or so. I won’t claim this is a good picture, but I will argue that it’s what Tokyo street-life is really, really like; do me a favor and enlarge it. For the full effect add an extreme soundtrack: two or three lo-fi music channels crosscutting the machine racket. Mobile talk/walk, check. Construction, check. Overstaffing, check. Capricious display English, check. Massive clutter, check. Not dark at night, check.
I claimed that somehow this camera does well with pictures that are overcrowded, and the above would be more evidence. I have no coherent theory as to why, and anyhow the claim is æsthetic not quantitative. All three pictures here at F1.4 via the XF35mmF1.4 R, for those who are quantitative.
On the Ginza Line, late but not too late. All seats full, check. Everyone’s got a device, check. Occasional gaijin, check. Dark clothes, check.
I could have taken the shutter speed down a bit, then the ISO and the aperture up a lot, for better depth of field. My problem is that I’m not a real street shooter and I worry that people will notice me, so I hurry. But the camera is rather forgiving.
I’ll never really do “street” because it has to be black-and-white and pain all over.
On the Yamanote Line, sort of the Great Mother of All Tokyo Trains with 3.7 million riders every day. Focus problems and all, I like it. Calculated shoulderbaggery, check. Just the right jeans, check. Off-orange hair, check. Shoes to die for, check.
Did I mention the camera is forgiving? This particular shot is a JPEG, almost completely unprocessed, taken while I was still learning the dials, on the way from the airport to the hotel after a 10-hour transPacific; thus in space-case mode.
Ahhh, Tokyo · When can I go back?
