Phil

phil_knall @ 2009-12-19T00:33:00

2009-12-18T15:33:52Z

Some pics:

As you can see, there's tons of illuminated trees in Tokyo right now..

I like how it looks like the guy's head is erupting into this sparkly cloud of lights...

Train tracks are awesome.

phil_knall @ 2009-12-15T08:24:00

2009-12-14T23:24:58Z

Holy shit, these Star Wars Luke Skywalker Sneakers are freaking AWESOME.

WANT.
(article here)

also, got my winter bonus :D

phil_knall @ 2009-12-10T01:45:00

2009-12-09T16:45:09Z

Man, I love autumn...

Trying to come up for things to ask Santa for for christmas is hard this year. I'm pretty content!!
Also, hard at work on next year's catalog. Should be pretty slick, can't wait to see the final product..

phil_knall @ 2009-12-08T00:24:00

2009-12-07T15:24:41Z

On the Shinkansen back home from Shimizu (Shizuoka).

Competition didn't go that well... But the booth was ok, and I did get a 500 Yen book voucher (toshoken) for a perfect 30 end, so all is well.

phil_knall @ 2009-11-07T00:45:00

2009-11-06T16:16:29Z

Went to see the current round of Juna21 exhibits at Nikon Salon today. Pretty much ran over to the building in lunch break, it really is too little time to appreciate the pictures fully :(

Sadly they weren't nearly as awesome as the previous ones, but oh well.

The first one I saw was 豚が嗤う (The pigs are laughing) by Iijima Nozomi.
The entire exhibition was made up of black&white captures of a farm, including building, fields, and equipment. Not too impressive really, kinda bland... Except for the far end wall:

Check out the large version, it's pretty awesome.
I didn't read much of the introduction (it was really long, and again, time constraints), but from what I gather, the farm is her family's business, so she must've spent loads of time with the animals. I didn't talk to the artist much, except to say hello and tell her I liked the arrangement on the big wall.

The second one was entitled ポケットの中の月(The moon in my pocket), a collection of really vibrant, colourful night shots by Matsumoto Kouichi.

I didn't get the chance to linger and spend time with the pictures, but I liked the colours a lot. The artist wasn't present, so I couldn't ask him about his process, but I would've liked to know how much of the adjustments are done in post-processing (from what I know about japanese photographers by now, probably not much). Very clever selection of subjects and lighting conditions to produce artful, contrast-rich images. More pop-art than photography, really.

I'm still really enjoying all these free galleries... I think Wakako's getting kinda tired of it, but I go gallery-hopping any chance I get! The exhibitions change every week, which is kinda sad for the photographers (at least with Nikon, they get a second exhibition period in Osaka), but for the consumer it's great as there's something new to see every week!

Work's been pretty busy, gearing up for the indoor season, working on next year's catalog, and trying to juggle the domestic stuff on the side. Pretty exhausting, but definitely rewarding when it is.

Here's some recent pictures of my own...

Coccoon tower, pretty much my favourite building in Tokyo! I watched it being built close to my office, so I have a connection like with a child I saw being raised... I recently noticed there's a bookstore with lots of artsy stuff in the basement (no wonder as it houses two or three art/design/fashion schools...)

I found this place walking around Saitama one night. At first I thought it was shards of glass, but the pavement on that particular street is just made to sparkle like that. Blew my mind.

Hikawa Maru in anchor at Yokohama bay. The thing is fricking huge... Also awesome. Went with Wakako, spent a lot of time just lounging about on the Osanbashi pier.. Very slow, relaxing time.

Took this the same time as the sparkling pavement. I love this shot.

Alright, finally saturday tomorrow. Going to see yet another photo exhibition, and then a movie, with the girl. Good times.

phil_knall @ 2009-10-27T00:30:00

2009-10-26T15:37:04Z

Man it's cold and rainy today...
Saw this heading to work:

That can't be good for the station's foundations...
(Large version here)

The cold is better than the heat, but only marginally. And wet feet suck.

Oh, had a great time at the nationals btw. Got really cold and rainy (and windy) there too, but I wasn't competing anyway...

phil_knall @ 2009-10-11T00:17:00

2009-10-10T15:36:08Z

We headed to Yokohama today to catch the Days Photojournalism Festival 2009 exhibit at the Akarenga Souko, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped... I might've enjoyed it more if I had come alone with tons of time, but really, all the war and famine photos just got really depressing really fast. The animal photos were really fun, and some of the more culturally-oriented pictures were good too, but apart from that, I didn't enjoy it much.

Took a bunch of pictures around the bay as usual, including my first E-P1 panoramas. Photoshop's "Photomerge" batch operation is amazing, I didn't even have to edit out any ghosts.

Real picture under the cut:

Also, took some night shots:

phil_knall @ 2009-10-08T23:51:00

2009-10-08T15:05:47Z

This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I want a poster of it.

(From one of the challenges at dpreview.com, click to go to the page. Not my photograph of course, by a photographer going by "Gary_Scotland")

We successfully survived the typhoon this morning... It did prevent me from getting to work until 2pm, as Tokyo was completely cut off transport-wise. Probably the longest train delay I've experienced so far. I gave up waiting around the station after about half and hour and waited it out at home.

This was Warabi station at 8:30am:

When I got word the trains were moving again and set out for work, the skies already looked like this:

phil_knall @ 2009-10-07T21:19:00

2009-10-07T13:27:13Z

We've got a typhoon scheduled to hit us dead on tonight. It's been raining for 3 days, but right now it is eerily still, so this must be the famous calm before the storm. I doubt it'll be anything serious, but I'm fully expecting for the trains to come to a total standstill tomorrow morning.

A moment of self-gratification, skip this paragraph if you're easily annoyed by this kind of thing.
The general results summary of the July JLPTs (Level 1&2 only) are up on the JEES homepage! (warning: large PDF)
Apparently I was one of 113,483 Lv.1 examinees, and 1,938 that scored over 364 (I had 362, but the report isn't divided that thoroughly), ranking me in the top 1,7%! Yay! I think I will go gloat now.
I still need to work on my Kanji though (especially active ones), which I will do by means of Nintendo DS software ;) (Bless you Nintendo!)

Amazon Japan just put up an ad for the Kindle, which apparently has connectibility in Japan... The tech geek in me really wants one, but then the rest of me knows how little I have been reading, with all my reading time being my train commute, and my iphone, DS and photo magazines to keep my busy. Ah well...

phil_knall @ 2009-10-04T22:01:00

2009-10-04T14:12:04Z

Went to see some more photo exhibitions over the weekend.
My favourites, hands down, were two shows put on by Nikon in their "Juna21" program, which highlights young artists.

The first set (although there really wasn't a set order, you can enter the venue through either of the galleries) was entitled 葉陰の肖像, or "Portraits in the shadows of leaves," by Muramatsu Yoshihiro.
A series of insect closeups, the artist had chosen an exceptionally individual language in lighting, most of the photos really dark and moody. He left just enough detail to make for a clear picture, but not make it explanatory of the subject. Very nice stuff, apparently it won him the Nippon Camera yearly award too, well deserved.

(my pics, That's Muramatsu in the second picture, and friends and family in the first)

(Off the Nikon page, too bad they didn't have any larger pics)
The exhibit featured very large prints in various sizes, I thought the variation was a bit too great, but it worked, and it was an interesting juxtaposition with the subjects.

The second one was titled "青の肖像" (Portrait in blue) by Ono Takayuki, a series of pictures of homeless guys. Very honest, beautiful portraiture of incredibly interesting characters. This was my favourite exhibition to date, the kind of pictures I would love to take but am too timid to try. All the pictures were beautifully framed with a white outline, all the same size in a straight line across the walls. Given the similarity of the shots, this worked out beautifully as well.

Talking with the artist, he told me this was his favourite out of the bunch, followed closely by the one on the promo card.

That's one of the most awesome things about these maker-owned galleries: Most of the artists actually take the time to work the door at their own shows, and are completely open for comments and discussion. I talked to both of the artists this time around, very approachable young guys, was good to talk about their process and way of working (ie how Ono approaches his subjects, or their medium - Ono works on film, slightly overexposed, while Muramatsu shoots all his pictures straight to JPEG because of the sheer number of exposures).

After the exhibitions, we shopped a bit at Tokyu Hands, and I finally got a new messenger bag!
It's by a Dutch maker called Khodi, very nice, flexible yet rugged material, tons of inside pockets that are so nicely padded it makes me want to use it as a pillow!
And, well, look at it. It just looks like it was made for me.

And of course I did take some pictures of my own:

When we were at the Olympus Gallery, Wakako found a flyer for a photo contest asking for pictures of Shinjuku - just like 90% of mine! So after doing some serious curating, I'll probably send in a few of my pics and see how far I get. There's prizes ranging from a trip to Guam to fancy dinners and an Epson pro selection printer - I'd really like that printer.

phil_knall @ 2009-09-30T00:43:00

2009-09-29T16:20:43Z

Finally sold my 17mm lens :D Only one bet for the starting price of 29,500, but oh well... Combined with the 6,500 I got for my wide converter, I had almost enough (minus about 2000) for the Panasonic 200 f1.7. Thusly, I ran out to Yodobashi and got one!!
And took some pictures before going home too :)

I don't want to type it out again, so I'll just paste what I wrote on dpreview:

The blue-and-grey box contained the lens, warranty slip, instruction sheet, and a simple soft pouch. As others have stated before, there is no hood included. When I asked a Yodobashi employee (who are generally very well informed about their product), he told me it was built in a way so it didn't need one. Time will tell, I guess, and I can always get a generic 46mm screw on.

I took some pictures around Shinjuku before I headed home, and my initial impressions (which you can check out here: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&thread=33071042) about this lens were confirmed:
This camera & lens combination is awesome for my style of shooting.

Things I liked:
(+) The construction feels solid and very smooth. Focus ring has just the right amount of tension.
(+) It does *not* stick out past the bottom of the cam. It has a good millimeter of space, I'm able to tilt the camera forward when flat on the table.
(+) The f1.7 aperture range helped me get better speeds, resulting in sharp images in less tries than I was used to.
(+) The IQ is amazing. I haven't quantified this of course, but it feels like it renders sharper than the 17mm.

Things I didn't like:
(-) The lenscap. It's very thick compared to the super sleek olympus slimline caps, and adds another 4-5mm to the lens length, and the camera doesn't slide into the bag compartment as smoothly anymore as it did with the 17mm :( Also, it's much harder to set on straight (I am fairly clumsy, would make a great beta-tester ;)) With the Oly cap, I'd just push it against one side of the thread, and then fit the other with the button depressed. This doesn't work as easily with the Lumix lens, making me a bit insecure about not having it on straight and having it come off when brushing against something. (I do like the clean front design btw)
(-) The visual design. It looks ok on the GF1, but it's a real clash with the E-P1, especially when viewed from above or from the side. I cannot stress enough how much I dislike the grey ring with the huge gold lettering between the focus ring and the mount.
(-) The focus motor is notably louder than the Oly 17mm.
(-) Tested in my dimly lit room, I was surprised to find that the AF did not improve notably compared to the Oly with updated Firmware.
(-) The lens maker and Model does not carry over in EXIF. This is a major gripe for me. (I manually added these in the samples)
(-) Strong bluish fringing in white/black contrasty areas. Check out the sample pictures.

(All with E-P1 + 20mm f1.7, IS1 on)

ISO 200, f1.7, 1/250

This one should tell you about the effective DOF. The banners were about 1m apart, I was standing about 50m in front of and below the first.
ISO 200, f1.7, 1/100

Kinda regret not choosing a larger aperture on this one, then again I might not have been able to handhold it.
ISO 200, f1.7, 1/8

This one has some very strong blue fringing in the top left area - It was a pure white-black contrast area.
ISO 200, f1.7, 1/8

In case you're wondering, here's one with a flare.
ISO 200, f3.5, 0.3

And lastly, a stopped down one:
(also note the aperture "stars")
ISO 200, f5.6, 1/6

I've created a flickr set with some additional shots, as well as full size versions for the pixel-peepers. http://www.flickr.com/photos/55494316@N00/sets/72157622480147710/

My sempai Tsuchiya, whom I assist in the domestic wholesale division, has been out of the office the past few days for the national sports festival, so I've had a ton more work than I usually do... I struggled a bit on Monday, today was a bit calmer. Don't really like being responsible for everything at once, but sometimes I guess I can't help it...

Also, met up with Ryan, an old internet acquaintance, in Akihabara the other day. He's doing JET in Akita, and was only here for the weekend, but it was extremely nice being able to hang out. Spent most of the day geeking out in Yodobashi camera and Super Potato (retro game mekkah!), and I even got him into a genuine Capsule Hotel (okay it was a really nice Capsule hotel)!
So far I've been super lucky with meeting net people in real life... Have yet to meet anyone who is an ass in real life. Oh except for Hiromi, who didn't even say hi ;p

Torn...

2009-09-17T15:19:22Z

Considering selling my 17mm 2.8 pancake lens and getting the new Panasonic 20mm 1.7... If I ditched the Viewfinder (which I never use) and wide converter (which fits only on this lens), I'd break even at least...
Extremely torn on the issue.

Pros:
1. Faster f number means more shutter speed, and more "Bokeh" (background blur) when I want it
2. Panasonic lenses apparently have better Autofocus speed than Olympus ones

Cons:
1. It's much bigger than the Olympus lens
1a. doesn't look as cute and retro on the E-P1
1b. people might notice (be wary of having their picture taken) the camera more with the bigger lens on (however, right now I use mostly my huge old FD lenses and it hasn't been a problem so far)
2. I'd break up the lens kit, might hurt if I ever try to resell the camera.

Neutral:
1. The Olympus pancake lens already has some image quality quirks, so it probably wouldn't get much worse (and I'm getting better at fixing them)
2. I trust Panasonic to make good cameras - my last 3 point & shoots have been Lumixes and they were great.

What do you think?

phil_knall @ 2009-09-14T22:04:00

2009-09-14T14:00:49Z

Just got back from Osaka U's archery summer camp in Nagano.
It was a fantastic time as always. I'd expected to stop going after the students I'd been practicing with directly (1 or 2 academic years below me) retired last year, but I always seem to get close enough with the following generation to have them call me back. Not that I'm complaining...
This year's first years are a loud, wild bunch, very untypical of the students I've met recently... They're enjoying the heck out of archery even when it's physically challenging (this year's summer camp started with a 600+ shot blank bale session since it was raining). I hope it rubs off on their senpai!

The venue was also super nice, a hotel in Kishimadaira, a ski area that does a lot of archery camps in summer. Super nice scenic surroundings, as it it's up in the mountains, and much cleaner, nicer air than down here in the Tokyo area.

Oh and TONS of bugs.

They have a whole lot of black flies, and though I did warn them about it beforehands, one of the girls was foolish enough to wear shorts when setting up the range... She ended up going to the hospital to get anti-allergy medication, with close to 10 bites on each leg. I did manage to catch one too, but it was a tiny bite that didn't even swell that much, so I got off lucky.

But one of the best things (and big surprises) for me was that I was able to get a few shots in with my old 38Pro (at around 48lbs), and no shoulder pain! I think I might be able to go back to mild practice now, and work my way up until the indoor season :)

I've put up a gallery here, but it might not be too interesting if you don't know the people. (flickr's still down ;(

phil_knall @ 2009-09-11T23:29:00

2009-09-11T14:46:16Z

I'm off to Nagano for archery summer camp tomorrow morning! staying all weekend and monday morning.
Should be good, and I'll have lots of pictures too :) Hoping to catch some good night sky shots.

Here's a few pictures from lately:

Random encounter while walking around in the Hamamatsucho area. I didn't even notice there was a third guy in this shot until I was adjusting this in Photoshop.

I left all of the following pics a bit larger than usual, since I haven't been using flickr much (haven't renewed my pro account yet)

Some shots from a recent trip to Ueno:

I love the "Ameyoko" neighbourhood for its bustling market atmosphere, especially in the evening, when shops are about to close down, and try to get their last customers to take the leftovers off their hands.

The other day, I went to see Ani-zoo perform at Shinjuku south entrance again. I tried out some of my larger FD primes on him, since last time I only had the Olympus pancake... Really like the color rendition of these.

We talked a good deal when he took a break between performances. Apparently all the musicians performing in Shinjuku don't have permits! They frequently get cautioned by police, but in his 10 years of street performances, he's never really gotten into trouble or had to pay any fines.
He said it was way worse when he gets harassed by Yakuza...

I also saw this ska-ish band. Their first track sounded a bit like the cowboy bebop theme:

Unfortunately, they didn't move much, so I got bored and went home.

I still need to pack my bags for tomorrow... I'm way too lazy.
I guess I could do it now...
Nahhh...

phil_knall @ 2009-09-09T08:49:00

2009-09-08T23:49:54Z

Holy crap, this bag looks awesome <3

Apparently only available in Germany yet?

phil_knall @ 2009-09-07T23:37:00

2009-09-07T15:37:49Z

I've been living in my apartment for two and a half years now, with no pest problems whatsoever.
Okay, there was this one time when I am fairly sure I saw something crawl over and disappear into the breaker case over my door, making me run to the supermarket and purchase nerve gas.

Yesterday, I had my first actual cockroach. Big fat roach sitting on the ceiling above my bed minding its own business.
Now, I have no problems with spiders or anything, but cockroaches just freak me the hell out. It's a combination of their wavering long feelers, and the sheer speed at which they run. It kills me. There's nothing I would like less to have in my room.
So I gassed it down from the ceiling (Japanese insecticide cans have these awesome long nozzles that enable you to contaminate your room from two meters away), chased it across my futon, waited until it was somewhat stationary, then trapped it with the old glass-and-paper trick, and threw it out the window.
Sorry buddy, my room.
Now I'm just SERIOUSLY hoping it was alone, and I don't have a whole family living somewhere beneath my bookshelves or behind the fridge...They say if you have one cockroach, you have 30. Please spare me... I'm sure there's people out there (maybe called Joe?) who will gladly give you a better home.

In other news, I've been thinking lots about upgrading my bag. I'm using this little Vaude bag that's barely large enough for A4 sized stuff, so I had problems if I tried to carry larger magazines or something, Jump would take up like 3/4 of the space. Plus, I wanted something to hold my camera and lenses, and not have them jumbled all over the place like I used to. I took my entire set with me on Sunday (didn't really need to, just wanted to try out different things), and it took up literally the entire bag.
However, I don't want one of those really bulky, rectangular camera bags. I carry my camera with me all day every day, so it needs to be compact, hold other stuff like mags, and of course look good. A slightly larger messenger bag would be amazing.
I did like the looks of the Crumpler bag I got after getting my camera, but it turned out to be too small to hold anything but the camera and equipments. Besiders, i didn't like the fluffy plush insides too much. So Crumpler's pretty much off the list.
I really really like the National Geographic bags visually, like this one:

Seriously! Who doesn't want a camera bag that looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie?!
Also, I am rather fond of this one:

And then there's the Domke bags, which look awesome, especially with this waxed textile finish:

Really like the F6:

Unfortunately, these again are pretty camera-specific, and don't really work for everyday life.

Either way, all of the above are damn expensive, so I'm putting the whole thing on hold for now.. Possibly til christmas.
For now, I got a cheapo Etsumi divider insert that fits snugly into my current bag. It'll do for a while. (No way Jump fits in there anymore though)

Oh, and I sent in my tunnel picture to the Aashi Camera Photo Contest. Had it printed in large size on matte paper, and it came out just like a "real" picture ;) I have always loved matte paper.. I usually insisted on it ever since I was a kid. Hope it scans well though, in the unlikely case it gets selected.

Anyways, sleep.

phil_knall @ 2009-09-04T00:50:00

2009-09-03T16:05:34Z

Was able to snap some more shots with my FD 50 1.8 today!

This is my favourite shot of the day:

Old man having Ramen on the way home. Can't make up my mind if I should've waited until that woman was out of the frame. She's in the way, but on the other hand gives the picture a shot of dynamic energy, compared to the calm Ramen guy.

A woman having a calligraphy made. I was crouching on the pavement shooting with the camera rested on my palm for minutes, but she didn't look at me once. Very grateful she didn't seem to mind.

I also got a 28 2.8, since the 50 had me wishing it was wider in angle. I found it in the junk bin at Camera Ichiba, saying it had fungus, but I can't spot any. it looks a bit fuzzy around the edges, but micro four thirds doesn't use that area, so I'm perfectly fine! Takes great pictures too, all for 1470 Yen :D

...Uh, I think I'll stop buying lenses now. (except for the Wide converter and the 14-42 kit zoom, all of these were about $10 each! Money well spent I say! Muahahaha.)

phil_knall @ 2009-09-03T00:16:00

2009-09-02T15:25:43Z

Some more sky aquarium pics!
A lot of them turned out really blurry because it was super dark and really hard to focus. Focusing on the LCD is definitely hard with all the low light noise...

At the entrance, with natural light...

Really tough focusing through the distorting thick glass.

All the aquarii (?) were lit in bright colors, so the rough hues in these pictures are actually intended by the exhibition.

Aquarium lantern... Didn't manage to catch the fish.

The obligatory shot of Wakako staring at things.

Quite possibly my favourite shot of the evening. The kid is priceless.

Today I managed to leave both my wallet AND my SD-Card at home, so no new pictures. Definitely getting a reserve SD card to carry around at all times now.

phil_knall @ 2009-09-02T00:16:00

2009-09-01T15:56:59Z

Finally got my JLPT Lv.1 test results! I'd almost forgotten I took that test ;)

Fairly satisfied, I was expecting the low Writing/Vocab results, that part was hard as hell.
I had been aiming at 100% for the Listening part (it's always been my strongest, and I've been living here for a while now), but only got 93... I am fairly sure I know which ones were wrong, and they were mean traps.
I'm kinda surprised I tallied 185 on Reading/Grammar... Then again it might be close to 100 on reading, and below 90 for Grammar.
But all things considered, I'm fairly content with the result, and would really like to see what the average score of all the Asian kids in my class was ;)

Here's something I saw this morning and thought looked neat.

And something in the evening:

(This one's taken with the FD 50 1.8 S.C. btw)

One of my favorite train models:

phil_knall @ 2009-09-01T01:06:00

2009-08-31T16:26:20Z

Had a really good weekend..
On Saturday, Wakako and I went to see 20th Century Boys (The Last Chapter), but it was sold out, so we ended up going to Roppongi Hills instead and saw the Ai Wei Wei exhibit at the Mori Modern Arts Gallery. It was one of the better exhibitions we'd seen (we go pretty much every time), very satisfied.
Also, they had another iteration of the "Sky Aquarium," an exhibit of aquariums arranged and lighted artfully, and once again it utterly outperformed the actual exhibition.
Just beautiful to behold...
I have tons of pictures from this, but I haven't sorted them yet, so here's two favourites:

Wakako commented that these looked like Gyoza dumplings. (Correct)

Completely random pic from the Skydeck:

Yesterday, I went to cheer on Osaka U at the annual competition between the original 7 imperial universities. Unfortunately, a typhoon was about to land, and it was rainy and windy and cold... It was painful to watch, and even I got drenched in the process.
Still good to see everyone though.

Also, here's some more pics taken with that old FD 50mm 1.8 S.C. lens.

Taken in the mall waiting for Wakako. Very impressed with the DOF performance of the lens, love the circular highlight blur ("bokeh")!

The table was too small to allow for a head and shoulders type portrait... 50mm is a freaking tele lens on this camera!!

Today, I got a hood for my FD lenses. 600 Yen... xD

phil_knall @ 2009-08-28T01:50:00

2009-08-27T16:57:42Z

Got my FD adapter! Yay!

E-P1 with Canon FD 50mm 1.8 S.C.
This lens is probably older than me! Still works, and an absolute mechanical wonder to me.

Levels adjusted in Photoshop. This cat is always sitting on a fence near my apartment, looking at passersby. I tried to get it to look my way, but it didn't even flinch, whatever I did.

Wide open... I love the circular glow it gives the street lights!!! Almost like little magical sprites :3

Definitely need to go to sleep now, if I go past 2:30 I usually get no sleep at all.

phil_knall @ 2009-08-22T01:07:00

2009-08-21T16:33:25Z

Egads, my flickr pro account expired! What to do, what to do...
Will probably extend it when my credit card comes back to life on the 10th.

Got Adobe Camera RAW... So fun tweaking all the development options.
Tweaked my tunnel pic a bit:

This is probably my favourite picture of Wakako I have shot so far, even though it's not a portrait.

Also, tweaked the picture of those students at Kyoto station wearing Yukata. Much more pleased with the colors now, and I wish I'd have been able to blur the background a little more (this is already at f2.8, as open as the pancake lens goes...)

Thinking of submitting these two to one of the casual photo contests in Asahi or Nippon Camera. Will have to see how well they print...

Also, I got a nice lens off Yahoo Auctions, since everyone keeps going on about classic prime lenses on the forums I frequent... I decided to go with a Canon FD 50mm 1.8SC. It's really old (probably older than me) and the mount system is discontinued, so I was able to snatch it up for 1,100 Yen (which is like $10 US). Even if it doesn't live up to the hype, it'll be fun to play with for the money. Of course, I will have to get an adapter for like 8k. Putting that off until at least payday next tuesday...
I was, however, able to test it out by holding it up to the camera, connected by an "adapter" made out of a toilet paper roll core. Yes, that actually worked. See for yourself.

That's about f5.6 or so (no EXIF), and looks awesome!! I wonder how well the blur (refuse to use the word "bokeh" just yet) will be controllable once I have the actual adapter...

This is the lens:

Yea, having too much fun with photos. I'm heading to Nagano for summer camp next month, and am fully planning to take some EXCITING night sky pictures, since you can actually SEE stars over there :p

Osaka/Kyoto pics

2009-08-18T15:39:51Z

Ok, pics are up on Flickr!
I narrowed it down to 91 that I actually liked. Not too narrow, eh...
I commented on them on Flickr while uploading, so please browse through the set, I promise there are some worthwhile pics in there.

Though, a lot of pics have a hazy glow in them, which I think is from the PL filter which I stupidly left on the entire time.

Favourites:

My mom commented on how the thing that left the biggest impact on her about japan was the stark contrasts. I don't think it gets any starker than this...

Taking pictures on Dotonbori. I found that the Toyfoto Artfilter suited Osaka extremely well, so a lot of my pics have it on there (added afterwards in Olympus Master)

This guy was walking an actual lizard around the Amemura area. I think it was mainly to pick up girls.

Shinsekai is one of my very favourite places in Osaka. It's like Osaka distilled into one messy, busy place. Sporting the ugliest, most awesome tower of all times.

I set up my tripod at a nice angle and waited for sunset to paint the sky behind Tsutenkaku (for a good hour or so...). I ended up not being able to capture it, because it clouded up just prior, destroying the mood. However, I did make friends with a couple of old guys playing Shogi (a chess-like game) on a big piece of cardboard spread out on the sidewalk.

They bugged me with questions about this and that, and I snapped some pictures in return... Very welcome distraction from the dull wait.

Tsutenkaku got a big clock!

Saw these guys while waiting for the girl in Kyoto station. They looked awesomely out of time and place.

We visited this bridge in Kyoto. It's able to disconnect itself when caught in a flood, making it nigh-indestructible.
We actually got to play in the untouched, sandy riverbed, probably my favourite bit of the entire trip.

Posing for the camera in Fushimi Inari Taisha. If you don't know where that is, you will probably recognizing when you look at the next picture:

Tons of bright-red Torii forming a path. Sadly, it had TONS of mosquitoes, so we didn't linger too long.

A house with lots of gourds near Tenryuuji. I dunno what the story behind this is, but it's intriguing.

Playing with depth of field. Wakako liked this one a lot.

Again, check out the rest on Flickr! I commented on each one, took a while. Don't make me regret it :p

phil_knall @ 2009-08-17T21:36:00

2009-08-17T12:50:47Z

Back home from a 5-day trip to Osaka and Kyoto.
A ton of fun as usual, good times seeing old friends, and visiting places I love. Also, tons of fun sightseeing in Kyoto with my girlfriend!
I filled up my entire 8GB memorycard (going to have to rethink shooting in jpeg+raw), so it'll take a bit of time to sift through all the pictures.

In the meantime, check out these pseudo-macro pics I took today... stop reading if you don't like spiders.

This guy was probably like 3-4mm large in real size. I was quite surprised at how much detail I could squeeze out of the standard 14-42 zoom...

I found it amusing how it was staring back at me most of the time.

Trying to look imposing and threatening?

This guy was sitting nearby on the stairs, so I got another shot.

Kinda similar, found at Tenryuuji:

phil_knall @ 2009-08-09T22:57:00

2009-08-09T14:16:48Z

Today we went to see "Egypt's Sunken Treasure" at the Yokohama Pacifico.
The exhibit was ok, really really crowded, so we couldn't really take time to look at any of the display. A lot of the items were really washed out by the sea, and had lost a lot of detail (duh, submerged for 2000 years or so), so it wasn't as impressive as it could've been.

I took a few pics around the bay area (especially down from Landmark Tower), but it was really overhung and pretty much the worst light I've ever seen, washing everything out to grey. I really hope we have good weather next week in Kyoto. Then again, Kyoto is generally more earthy-toned, so the pictures should be ok.
Still, I could really use a break from the rain. It's been raining so ridiculously much that farmers have a hard time getting their crops in, and produce prices have risen to crazy levels (as if they weren't expensive enough before).

Anyways, here's some pictures...

They had a display of aquariums up on the observatory floor, much like the "Sky Aquarium" exhibit in the Mori Tower... Unfortunately it was much less spectacular, but the kids still seemed to dig it.

I'm proud of how this one turned out... Don't ask how many shots it took.

After the trip up Landmark Tower, and having delicious gelato in the adjacent mall, I headed to Shinjuku to get a travel guide for Kyoto (I was considering getting a lonely planet, but they're ridiculously expensive, and I didn't even find it that interesting anymore, especially since I don't need all the info on getting around and places to stay).

This is the walkway from Hands to Kinokuniya. the original was really drab and boring, but changing the aspect ratio to 6:6 and applying the Toy Photo filter did wonders on it.

This guy was outside Takashimaya, having a smoke while waiting for his girl. The high contrast and wet floor really caught my eye, so I yanked out the camera and snapped away.

A couple more snaps on the way home:

Do check out the Large Version of this, the old guy has such an awesome smile.

Trying to make my "home" town of Warabi look interesting. Gotta love puddles!

As always, originals are up on my Flickr.

Oh, also, one of my pics is up for voting in the dpreview.com "Landmarks" challenge. Vote for me! http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Entry.aspx?ID=146272&View=My&Rows=4
(Not my best, wish I could've framed out that blasted tree, but Coccoon Tower still deserves some attention!!)