Street & Urban Photography

Leica iiig and 50mm f2 Summitar lens

Drinking districts in Japan II – Nagasaki with a Leica iiig, 50mm Summitar and Portra 400

By / / Photos & Projects / 10 Comments

My photography is about people but often without people – stories in objects and surroundings about their lives and lifestyles.

Nagasaki (city) is a historically famous port. The only place in Japan to allow foreigners entry for trade (albeit to a small controlled island ‘Deshima’) for three centuries. The Portuguese brought new cuisine (‘Tempura’ – food in batter – and ‘Castella’ – a type of pound cake), the Spanish brought Christianity, but the Dutch and British were were more interested in making money so traded without religious connections.

You can see the spirit level looking through the finder. No electronics needed! The lens has a big deoth of field scale for hyperfocal distance and the brass shutter button begs to be pressed.

Alpa 12TC and some Berlin Street Photography

By / / Medium & Large Format / 8 Comments

I was very excited to find that my Wife had booked extra cabin baggage for our four day trip to Berlin which meant that I could take a decent sized camera outfit. Luxury! Berlin is a brilliant place for photography. I usually travel with a 35mm camera , but I have wanted to get some nice architecture shots and ideally with medium format that I can print fairly big.

Leica iiig, 50mm and Elmar f3.5

Drinking districts in Japan I: Tokyo with a Leica iiig, 50mm Elmar f3.5 and Portra 400 – By Geoff Chaplin

By / / Photos & Projects / 16 Comments

My photography is about people but often without people – stories in objects and surroundings about their lives and lifestyles.

Japan probably conjures up many thoughts – crowds, temples (Buddhist) and shrines (Shinto), Shinkansen, mount Fuji, and more. City workers’, ‘salarymen’ in Japanese, lifestyles are centred around their employment, traditionally at the same company for their entire lives, with a wife and children at home. And make no mistake, Japan is a very traditional society still, with by far the majority of girls giving up their careers on getting married, staying at home, cooking, cleaning, bearing and looking after children. After work husbands continue ‘work’ with their colleagues in a favourite izakaya – the Japanese equivalent of a pub/restaurant in the UK.

A woman behind a window

The Girl in the Picture-Frame Window (A One-Shot Story) – By Dave Powell

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She was a living painting hanging above a gloomy stone staircase. A bit of sexual theater.

This anonymous sex worker, erotic dancer, or model earned her daily bread quietly contorting amid those bonfire colors. Behind her, other darker shadows danced like black flames. But down those dark stairs, a second woman wore tight jeans, knee-high boots, a long leather topcoat, and (to perhaps preserve anonymity) a distorted white face mask.

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