While my wife was browsing inside this new upscale shoe store, I managed to sneak a quick shot before the snooty sales guy told me “no photography.” This is all from the same shot, just different crops. Which do you prefer (if any)?

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5 

I shot this on a bridge over Kamakura (a city about an hour outside of Tokyo). Initially, I barely noticed as we walked past a group of teenagers leaning over the edge of the bridge. However, as I turned back to see what they were doing, I realised that these otherwise normal adolescents were blowing bubbles and watching them float away. It was such a startlingly simple scene, it almost didn’t register.

Then it occurred to me that in the UK (where I am from), such a scene would almost certainly mean these kids would instead be spitting off the edge, throwing trash or beer cans or just smoking… It’d be hard to imagine anything else. Certainly not this. I always thought that the idea of teenagers spending an afternoon like that had been long lost to the passage of time.. Even if it was a one off, it was a pretty cool throwback.

More street portraits from my Japan trip can be found on my blog.

Cityscape in Tokyo. This is Ginza, an up market downtown district. A couple of more shots of this type on my blog.

Mayawyaw, Ifugao Province, 2008

Well, it worked. I thought somewhere between the Hasselblad 500 C/M, my loading of MF film for the first time, the manual metering or my focusing would railroad things… but it didn’t. And I have 4 cool rolls of 120 film developed.

Well that was step one.

On the whole I’m actually very pleased with my shots. Here’s one of the pictures. I think it passes the bokeh / dof / subject isolation test.

Is there anything more uniquely Japanese than a capsule hotel?

I asked myself that question last week as I wondered how I was going to be able to get into Tokyo by 5AM to get to the Tuna auctions at Tsukiji fish market. Like many Japanese business men who needed a place to crash - in order to rise early - I had become the Capsule Hotel’s target market.

4,000 yen (40 USD) later, I was booked into Akihabara’s Capsule Hotel for the night. I’m not sure I’ll experience this again in a hurry but the night there meant I ended up with some photographs that I know I’ll revisit again, and again whenever I want to remember just one of the aspects that make Japan… well… Japanese.

More shots on my blog.

Woke up at 4am to make it over to Tsukiji fish market this morning, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world. Definitely worth waking up for. Just going through the shots now - will be posting images soon.

I was in conversation with somebody from Associated Press and he told me about this guy who took that famous photo during the Vietnam war or was it Cambodia… that image where a soldier executes this guy, hands tied behind his back, shooting him in the head, in broad daylight, in a busy street.

He said that this photographer hated the fact that people associate him with that photo and that he had a hard time escaping from the popularity of that image. I guess it then becomes a signature that you just can’t shake.

My question is, what if that happens to you? Not being shot in the head. Hahaha!!! But you know, getting stereotyped for some famous image.

I’ve been thinking about it off and on. I’m not quite sure that it would be a bad thing. In that particular example, however, it might be a bit difficult. Being proud of something like that can be quite the dilemma. You caught the moment and yet how can you feel any sort of fulfillment capturing an image of a guy’s head getting blown off.

Not sure if this question is a multidimensional one.

Just interested on what others think.

Lovn’ new 5d + 35L

First shot with new lens!

Sumo shot from the other morning. I’ve posted the entire set on my blog.

This is of a Rikishi (wrestler) after training.

Episode 9 was the beginning of the quarter finals. It was also the match which saw good friends and fellow Thais Yodsanklai and Naruepol face off against each other.

Yodsanklai won this bout by KO in round 2.

A couple of my favourite shots below.

I got my second cover with Kickboxer International last month. Since the Contender Asia started, I’ve had images published dozens of times (probably more, I lost track a while back and am waiting for the collated media / pubished list). This was one of my favourites though. The guys over at Kickboxer are great and I think they did a fantastic job with my shots.