I spent a whole day, on Wednesday working with one of my students, in my studio. He did 99.9% of the shooting. I just took a few shots at the end of each session. Mainly I was there to do … Continue reading
Category Archives: People
Re-energising this blog
It’s been a long time since I regularly updated this blog. That’s changing as of today. One of the main reasons I lapsed was that, for a long time, I’d been using Google Plus to cross-post pics to this blog. … Continue reading
Portrait photography in Tokyo: Nikki in the studio
I bumped into Nikki on Instagram and instantly knew she was someone I wanted to shoot with. She has a unique look and is an all-round creative person: ex-dancer, currently a singer. I feel close, spiritually, to people like Nikki. I … Continue reading
Portrait of my daughter, Ami
I was working from home yesterday so decided to do a few portraits of Ami and Charlie. Simple setup: one Bowens monolight through a small, shoot-through umbrella hight at camera right, angled down about 50degrees onto Ami. Flash triggered by Photix radio … Continue reading
Fashion shoot: Mari for Shisa Brand
I recently received a commission from the Faroe Islands based fashion label, Shisa Brand, to shoot some shots of a few of their lines. This shot is just a little teaser of a larger post I’ll put up on my Japanorama … Continue reading
‘Cup ramen shooting’: five minutes in Shibuya with Norie
Over the last couple or three years, I’ve done a few of what I call ‘cup ramen shoots’. The idea is basically to shoot a fashion set in about the time it would take to unwrap, add boiling water to … Continue reading
Camping by the shores of Lake Motosu
Last week we had a great camping trip, for three days, to Lake Motosu in the Fuji Five Lakes area. Great campsite. Fully recommended. There’s details on the site in the post at the link below, along with a whole … Continue reading
Kids at Hanami: Charlie and Ami in Negishi Shinrin Koen
The other day myself and two of the kids ventured down to Negishi Shinrin Koen for a morning walk. The cherry blossom was just about 100% out and looked fabulous. Not the best of weather, kind of damp and grey, … Continue reading
Location fashion photography in Japan: Mari Hirao at Cape Futtsu
One more from the trip we did earlier this week, over to Futtsu, Chiba, on the Boso peninsula.Scouted this area back in December of last year. Very different weather then. This lifeguard lookout post was an object I really … Continue reading
Fashion model in Tokyo: first shoot with Mari Hirao
Mari and I are doing a shoot next week but we met up today in Shibuya to choose some clothes. I couldn’t resist one quick photo shoot with her whilst we were in this part of town. So, we headed … Continue reading
Mamiya RB lens on Nikon: Shinagawa street photography
Recently I bought a couple of old Mamiya RB67 lenses to use with a Fotodiox adaptor on my Nikon D800E. This is one of the first shots I took with the 127mm f/3.5 lens. This particular part of Shinagawa, down … Continue reading
Fashion photography in Japan: Akari in Yokohama
This is one from a while back, shot just before the end of Akari’s last trip to Japan. She’d asked me to shoot some pics with her new husband, Trevor. We did those and then I shot a few pics … Continue reading
Miu plays Medusa: nudes with Mini Miu, Pt.3
One never wants to kill an idea by over-doing it. But I think this latest incarnation of the ‘take one image and mirror it’ idea with the nudes of Miu works well.. maybe the best out of all of them. … Continue reading
Getting back into nudes, gently….
It’s been years since I shot nudes; at art-college in the early 1990s was probably the last time I did a lot of it. I shot a few semi-nudes during the workshop I did lats year in Miyazaki and a … Continue reading
Eiko: a portrait in Fukuoka
Read the article linked to below for how a Bruno Aveillan book, some plastic, beer and some cameras led to a wonderfully fun time on a very cold day in Fukuoka. Thanks to my mate Chef and his lovely wife Eiko for … Continue reading
Fixed position street photography: drivers passing, Shinbashi, Tokyo
Finding a good spot and staying in it can be as rewarding as shooting on the move. I sometimes equate street photography to fishing and there’re basically two ways of doing either: ‘trawling’ with a big net, i.e. moving and shooting … Continue reading
Professor Satoshi Ono for Eurobiz Magazine
The great thing about shooting a wide variety of types of work is that I get to meet loads of interesting people. This is Professor Satoshi Ono, visiting fellow at Tokyo’s GRIPS [Graduate Institute for Policy Studies]. I met him … Continue reading
Paddle-boarding in the last of the sun., Kamakura, Japan
I don’t post many photos these days that are cropped to widescreen but this one just suited the crop. I actually have a custom ground-glass screen in my Nikon, which has 16×9 and Panavision crops ground into it. So when … Continue reading
The empty stage: Kinugawa haikyo
One more from last week’s outing to Kinugawa and one of the haikyo [abandoned buildings] there. This old enkan [or enka singing/karaoke ballroom] was remarkable: the stage, the curtains, the atmosphere of everything that had happened there over its years … Continue reading
Model and haikyo, Part 1: Azusa in Kinugawa
Last weekend I took a crowd of passionate photographers up to the Nikko area for some haikyo [abandoned building] action. We also took along Azusa, a model I work with a fair bit here in Tokyo. My plan all along … Continue reading
Azusa peering from her parka coat, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo
Azusa is coming along on Sunday’s workshop in Nikko so I thought that, after the studio session we did with +Gwenny Ruiz last Saturday, we’d head for Yoyogi Park and see what we could do with a bit of autumn leaf action … Continue reading
Bored at work
This pharmacist had obviously had a long day and was getting bore by the time 5pm rolled around. I was outside with a couple of friends, having a drink at a streetside standing bar. Gear? Nikon D700 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 … Continue reading
Azusa in Kyushu: a magazine style mock-up from the recent workshop
One of the shots I took on the workshop I did recently in Miyazaki, Kyushu. Nikon D700 Nikkor 300mm f/4
Satoru Masunaga
In September 2011 I was asked to accompany a journalist and shoot some pics to go with his story on Masunaga Optical, spectacle maker based in Fukui, Japan. This is Satoru Masunaga current president of the company and grandson of … Continue reading
Shinyong in Miyazaki: Where the waves break….
This was one of the beautiful locations I found during the build-up to last week’s workshop in Miyazaki. The beach near Mimitsu old town was full of character, had some cool concrete structures and we got there just as the … Continue reading
Layers, reflections: a train ride back from Uraga
Myself, my two sons and my nephew went down to Uraga yesterday to see a house we were interested to look at. Never made it as the weather was awful and I didn’t fancy walking 15mins from the station in … Continue reading
Waves of emotion: Natsuki and I get wet for some art
Gotta say that this was one of my favourite parts of last weekend’s workshop in Kyushu: getting in the sea and getting wet to get some great shots. Natsuki is a model that defies explanation. And I mean that in … Continue reading
Mount Fuji sunset: Ami on the beach at Kamakura
One I shot a few weeks ago when my eldest son, daughter and I went down to Kamakura. Beautiful sunset, great views of Mount Fuji and Ami enjoyed the sea until it was dark…. Nikon D700 Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8
Satisfying Experience: Shibuya, Tokyo, in the rain….
I was out two nights ago doing a night photography lesson for a student whose husband had bought her some lessons as a gift. We’d be trying to catch up for ages but she was busy, I was busy and … Continue reading
Two Years Ago Today | Lady Under The Bridge, Hammamatsucho, Tokyo
I shot this whilst out doing a lesson on street photography for Gisle Daus when he was in town for a few days. It was a great couple of hours, as I recall. Gisle is great company. The day was … Continue reading