Oh my God!

Ginza, a place I love but don't often visit because of the crowds. However, if you get there on weekends before 11, it ain't so bad.

The Art of Education

The Student

The Teacher


The Motivation?

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Tokyo.

Come to think of it, spending forever studying might not be such a bad thing, if the pay were better.

Winter hits Denenchofu

and it ain't what I (used to) call cold.

River Dance

With apologies to the musical...

There are certain times that folks don't want to see reality. One might be walking along the Tamagawa for instance and want to ignore the fact that what appears to be nature or natural---if you use a very selective focus---isn't really. It's all man-made, or at the very least, man-altered.

We can't expect much more many thousand years since mankind arrived on the planet, and we certainly cannot expect much more in Japan, let alone the huge metropolis of Tokyo where man-altered nature is considered more natural than virgin nature---is there such a thing in 2010 anywhere anyway?

The reluctance to see reality is a natural human tendency; I think it is a form of self-defense, for if one were to take a strictly logical, realistic view of the world and life, we'd all be in a constant state of depression, habitually intoxicated, or both.

What does this have to do with anything? Not much, I suppose, but when out running around with a camera and trying to capture what is my view of a real Tokyo, I never seem to capture it. Such a thing is impossible no matter how many words a photo is supposedly worth.

This was taken last December on a walk along the Tama River. There are stands of small trees along the river around Tamagawadaikoen/Tamagawa Station areas. I was playing around trying to find something that I could look at and sorta become lost in a fantasy that it was something more than what really existed. It ain't perfect by far, there are flaws that cannot be fixed with Lightroom, it doesn't look right on blogger or Firefox, and the technique is said to be overdone nowadays, but I don't care. I can look at it and pretend that what is not is something that is. That sort of thing seems to have become much more important...

自分勝手ですけど。。。

No luck

There are always a number of fishermen along the Tamagawa. Some even fish during rare snowstorms in Tokyo. Some folks claim the fish are safe to eat as the river is claimed to be relatively clean, but others who live in the area cringe at the thought as the image of the river is anything but clean.

Nakimushiyama Trail

Last Saturday when it was supposed to be cloudly with snow and -5 Celsius at the most. They got the temperature right.

Daiya River, Nikko

I cannot get this photo right. I liked the sky, but rest just seems a bit off to me no matter what. (The tree on the lower right doesn't help, but I don't particularly mean that.)

It doesn't help that my RAW software--Capture One 4 is not as good as its predecessor. Taken 17 February on one of my monthly trips to Nikko. The memory is nice even if the photos weren't.

Nakimushiyama, Nikko Japan

Close to Nikko station---about a 10 minute walk to the trailhead. The "mountain" itself is only 1104 meters high, but is a very steep climb for the last 1/3.

February "Blizzard" in Tokyo

Or as close to one as we get in Tokyo. It was quite cold for the area that morning. I actually got numbed fingers even though I was wearing mittens. I have not been that cold in the Tokyo area in years.

A Rare Tokyo Snow

It may only snow once or twice a year in Tokyo---or not at all. On February 3, we had the first of two snowfalls this year. This was taken in Okusawa Tokyo.

Winter afternoon on the Tama River

Blue & Gold

On the Tama River

Small woods in Hakone

Speaking of black and white conversions, for some reason, many of mine become grainy---oh, sorry, noisy---when converted. Have used various ways, but much of the noise seems to be in the red channel. This one turned out ok as far as grain goes. I can always pretend the noise is like the grain of old TriX film.

Clouds below

As the sun was setting on Feb 18th at Utsukushigahara. D70, Tokina 12-24 aspherical@24mm.
1/160 F10 ISO 200, from NEF. Converted to BW with Photocamel's plug.

Sunday at sundown

Nikon D70s with Tokina 12-24 aspherical at 12mm. f10 1/200 ISO 200

Northwest

A glimpse of blue

A rare sight this morning on this cloud enshrouded mountain top

7AM