Shibuya Nightwalk

I have been doing some part-time layout design in Omotesando at the same place The Cat works, and, because I'm poor, on the trip home, I've been walking to Shibuya to save an extra ¥120 on the train trip. I've also been leaving my camera at home a lot more recently because, at the Tokyo Autosalon, my main 12-35 f2.8 X lens' autofocus system died a spectacular death (I cant afford to get it fixed either... hell. I can't even afford to take the train to Akihabara to get a quote form the Panny repair centre, let alone pay their price.) and if the camera dies too, as my bad-luck, QC-skipped one has a history of doing, I'll be proper screwed financially.

But because it was snowing on Friday, i popped on the 20mm f1.7 pancake and put it in my bag, just in case. The snow was all gone by the time I was done for the day, but I did have the chance to actually take pictures for fun, which I haven't really done in a very long time.

All shots are untouched apart from the odd crop/straighten and the removal of the Aston's Number-plate. Most were shot with the camera's built in vivid colour mode in aperture priority (cars were Auto)

It felt really good. so good that I'm contemplating abusing the credit card to get a second body so that I have a backup, and a daily shooter again. I probably wont unless it actually dies again... at which point I will sell all my Panny kit and go sony because I'm really sick and tired of Panasonic's overly polite, but effectively useless after-sales service, and their woeful lack of pro support.

Anyway... Pictures:

If you want to see these at double the resolution, check my FLICKR profile.

The Ladies of Tokyo Auto Salon - EXCITING GALLERY #1 (AkihabaraNews.com)

The Ladies of TAS 2015:

Of the record-breaking 309,649 people that attended the 2015 Tokyo Auto Salon from the 9th to the 11th of January, a rather substantial portion of them were rocking camera kit that costs more than I made last year. But they were not there to shoot the bold, anti-automotive establishment designs from KRC Modified, or the beautiful tread patterns on Toyo’s new semi slicks - they came for the other staple at car shows: Sexy Ladies.

Intellectually, I’m not too sure I agree with the practice of parading beautiful women around as objects of lust secondary only to the cars themselves, but sports cars are not about thinking with your brain and so...I don’t really know where i’m supposed to go with this.

Editor Reno Interjects: 
Brevity is entirely acceptable here. People didn’t click on this post to bask in the warmth of our journalistic integrity.

You know the drill. click through to AkihabaraNews.com and get an eyefull.

The Rides of Tokyo Auto Salon - BIG-ASS GALLERY #1 (AkihabaraNews.com)

On the Rides of TAS 2015:

This year's Tokyo Auto Salon was held from the 9th to 11th of January. Unlike the biennial Tokyo Motor Show, which is all about showcasing the newest technological developments (translated: how to make driving, quiet, boring, safe and slow), the Auto Salon is all about modified cars; that could mean sticking a V8 into a prius (it was done… and I want to drive it), or it might mean bolting fenders to a lambo because Lamborghinis are boring stock (;p). All the best custom madness from one of the most custom-crazy places on earth was on display.

This year saw a marked increase in non-Japanese cars on the show floor, especially from the bigger houses - it doesn’t help that Japanese automakers seem fundamentally opposed producing any new cool cars that moneyed folk would want to buy. With the exception of the 86 and the GT-R, the majority of Japanese tuned vehicles were the same mid-nineties to early-naughties classics.

It also reflects the state of the tuner market because, increasingly, the only Japanese people who mod are the overly wealthy who buy sports cars to stroll along Tokyo’s Aoyama-dori showing off how well they exploited Abenomics. Or, there are the increasingly poor car enthusiasts who scrape their continually decreasing (thanks to Abenomics) part-timer wages to spend on the 25 year old JDM because parts are plentiful and dirt cheap (and they don’t break).

The funny thing is, out of all the cars on show, the only car I desperately wanted to take home was the Car Guys/Vertex Nissan Silvia S15... Okay maybe the Roberuta Ferrari F40 too.

Editor Reno Interjects: 
Ferrari F40 all the way. No debate. Also, I made Nayalan use the phrase “Big-Ass Gallery” in the title, and I stand by the decision.

Picture galleries are all on AkihabaraNews.com go lookie!

Tokyo Autosalon 2015 - sexy cars and fast women.

I went to Tokyo Autosalon as press this year to take photos, which are going to be published (I'll post them when they are up), but nobody wanted to pay proper money for the vid (nobody seems to want to pay proper money for any content these days it seems). SO I put it on my own YouTube channel. Enjoy.

REVIEW: Sony AX100 4K Handycam (AkihabaraNews.com)

We had the need for an extra camera to shoot the IE/KMD Venture Day 2014 event last December, so we asked Sony if they would be able to throw us a bone. We got their FDR-AX100 Handycam. While nearing a year on the market, it was still the only thing that could do what it did, with the possible exception of Panasonic’s recently released DMC-LX100.

Since then however, Sony has announced the AX100’s replacement, the FDR-AX33, which, on paper at least, has addressed all the AX100’s flaws and added or improved on a number of key features. Provided that it’s as good a video shooter as its predecessor, I can say, quite simply, that If you want a 4K camcorder, Don’t buy the AX100, get the new and improved AX33.

And that would be that, except that I did spend near on 2 weeks with the AX100, shot a bunch of stuff and had planned to say a few things about it, before the AX33 pulled the rug from under my feet… So here is the gist of it:

Read the full(ish) review on AkihabaraNews.com

I also put together a vid for it (those of you who dont care abut tech and just wanna see japan can watch it below)

Where blended wool comes from Shots #140

My photo published in the Japan Times - A pretty good article by Baye McNeil.

Publisher, Japan Times Columnist and all together cool guy, Baye McNeil wrote a piece on the African American Youth Travel Programme. They were the NGO that organised the Silent March for Mike brown. Anyway, they used one of my shots for the article. Epic Win. The fact that I'm actually getting paid an appropriate amount of money for the shot, is even better. 

I dont want to diverge from the topic at hand, but I'm really happy that at least one media outlet in Japan doesn't expect people to work for 'exposure' / pay less than McDonald's staff get. 

Anyway. Click the screenshot or HERE to read the piece.

Click here to see the other shots I took at the march or watch the video below. Actually read the comments too, they are gold!

Tokyo Auto Salon 2015 - A Preview.

I hit up the Tokyo Auto Salon once again this year, and as always it gets better each year. This year I rekindled some old contacts and made some new ones. There is a lot of sifting, retouching and admin, as well as a whole bunch of video editing needed to get all the content ready and out to where it's going to be published, but for now, here is a small taste of what is coming.

Thanks to to the intro of a mate of mine, I also got to to meet and greet the LB Perfomance crew. I also met the man behind all their illustration and graphic design. Who is, like Just about everyone in the automotive world it seems, a really cool guy. I now need to capitalize on some of those contacts and dig myself deeper into the industry. If I'm going to be doing media job, I'd prefer to do them for rev-heads and yankii businesses than the impersonal corporates power-suit suit ones.

Japan How It Is - A Long Walk through Downtown Fukuoka

I take a walk through downtown Fukuoka on a quest for epic ramen.
music by Manny Marx and The Living.

The Ghost of Harlem... Indeed. - Shots#139

Any Harlemese peeps willing to comment on the authenticity of this?

Coming Soon...

Beatboxer RyoTracks, Ikebukuro, Nabe and more... | 7 Days, 7 Minutes (2014-12-08)

00:00 MONDAY Food Library
01:00 notTUESDAY Tokyo Taxi
02:00 WEDNESDAY Ikebukuro Street
03:00 notTHURSDAY RyoTracks
04:37 FRIDAY Oh Japan!
05:00 notSaturday Riding around Yokohama
06:00 SUNDAY Tis the season to eat nabe

CP+ 2014 Booth Babes

Just axing Lightroom collections from last year so make this year's photo work a bit easier. Found some stuff that I haven't put up yet so here it is. You can see the full album HERE.

Click through to the flickr album for more.