Spaceship Tokyo

It's my second time to be in this building and it never fails to blow my mind. The architecture from the inside looks like a spaceship's deck. How cool is that?! I didn't bring a tripod that day because it was raining. Having a tripod while holding an umbrella is like juggling to me. So, I had to find flat surfaces where I can balance my camera to do long exposures. I was thinking of investing on table tripods or gorillapods that could easily fit in my bag for instances like this.

The first time I was here, it was in the morning the lights were kinda boring. This was shot during blue hour which I think is the perfect time to shoot this place. The colors of the lights and the blue sky makes a good color contrast.

 

Dynamic Tokyo

It's been a while since I posted and image. I've been struggling with my work schedule for the past few weeks because my gf was coming to Tokyo and I had to finish most of my work before I take a well-deserved 9 day vacation. Now that I am in my work place, I feel bored and empty. Last week was pretty amazing. We went from Yokohama to Osaka then Nara, Yoshino, Kobe and then back to Tokyo. It was expensive but having a credit card attached to you bank account makes losing money oblivious.

I shot this from Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. It was a weekday so it was easy to grab one of the best viewing angles of the Tokyo Tower. I let my gf sit on the bench so she could guard the position until the Tokyo lights lit up while I roam around looking for other interesting shots.

Anyways, here is the map where I shot this. I've always wanted to know where awesome pictures are taken so I'm taking the initiative of posting the locations of some of my shots for those who want to take the same picture. I hope it helps

View Larger Map

Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine is a famous Shinto Shrine dedicated to the soldiers who fought in honor of the Emperor. More than 2 million men and women who fought and died during WW2 were enshrined here.

Being at a perfect place at the perfect time couldn't be more true with this shot. The sun was at right spot and there were no tourists ruining the scene as I was talking multiple exposures. This image perfectly represents the Kanji 間 which means "in between".

The Great Gate - Daiichi Torii

I moved forward towards the shrine and kept on shooting while the sun sits perfectly still on the vantage point.

Father of Modern Japanese Army  - Omura Masujima

The mean guard on the left side of the image kept on harassing me to not use my tripod. So I retracted its leg, put it down, and tried to shoot handheld in front and center of the shrine. The guard approached me again to get out of the middle of the walkway. So I was forced to shoot from the side as seen on this image.

Haiden - "Hall of Worship"

Awesome Sunset Behind the Pagoda

Here is a magnificent sunset caught in Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. I've been here a couple of times and it is almost impossible to take a shot without capturing the tourists as well. So it is hard work for HDR photographers just to make the photo right. A lot of mixing was done with the original photo just to get rid of the ghosting. For some, they just shoot with a single exposure and just do a single RAW HDR image. But if a sunset is involved, I don't think it will capture so much detail. I usually bump up the ISO to minimize the movements of people so that it will be easier to mask them back to the HDR image.

Tokyo Star Road

Every time a friend of mine visits Tokyo, I always take them to Tokyo Tower. So I've been here quite a lot and I don't know why I still take take same pictures again and again. Tokyo's city lights are just mesmerizing and I am always drawn to the window to set up a shot.

I didn't bring my tripod because I don't want to be serious when I'm touring my friends but the urge to capture the beautiful city lights of Tokyo properly was too strong to resist. So, I ended up using my camera bag as my tripod to properly angle the shot correctly from the the ledge near the window. I had also a jacket with me to cover the camera to avoid any reflections from the window.

If you are interested on how I create my HDR images, check out my general HDR workflow below
http://arcreyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/hdr-workflow.html

Yasaka Shrine Illumination

After our Geisha hunting in Gion, we decided to find more illuminated temples just before we go back to our hotel. Our legs were already killing us at this point, but it is not everyday we are here in Kyoto. I already saw a lot of picture of the Yasaka Shrine in Flickr and I found it really beautiful. What I didn't know is that the shrine was also located here Kyoto so when I saw the lanterns, my mood suddenly lit up and eventually forgot about my hurting feet.

I have a big problem when I am shooting night lights. There is too much lens flare with my Canon EF10-22USM lens. Is this because I shoot with long exposures? Or is my lens just broken? I hope it is the former. I will try to experiment with different night lights next time I'm out