Photography

cshimokita
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impressions, a look back...

Returned to Tokyo a few days ago and this morning the film went to the lab to be developed (I had a few shots left on the final roll and had to use it up)...  The laundry is all done (whew that took some time) and just finished cleaning all the equipment and put the less used stuff in the dry box... I can finally take a short break...

Now I know a little bit about why I went to the frozen north when I could have been warm and cozy in Tokyo.  From the middle of November for one month I rented an apartment in Sapporo, Hokkaido with the purpose of taking photos...  It could have been almost anywhere, but I do like the cold and snow so it was perfect .

I have been thinking about how to present the photos... it's been a few years since we dug out the slide projector and put up a screen.  It was always the running joke about watching a vacation trip slide show... usually mom and us kids standing in front of some wide spot in the road.  But I got to hand it to my dad, he came up with some interesting angles and us kids referred to that little instruction paper that was included in each box of film and managed to turn in some decent exposures.  But to say it was interesting to non-family members would be a stretch.

The thing is, the Hokkaido trip was not really a vacation, nor a PJ assignment so I took photos of what I found interesting and/or some things that I normally would not photograph.  My current thought is to group selected photos by theme rather than in chronological order... and I emphasize selected photos.

A word about volume... when I went to Niseko (ski resort) in Hokkaido in February 2013 I took something like 1,500 (digital) photos in three days... this trip I took just under 800 (film) photos in 30 days.  The Niseko ski trip was a birthday celebration and the majority of the photos were taken in one day between 6:00 PM and 3:00 AM the following morning and mostly of people we ran into as we made the circle in the small resort village.  Digital was the correct choice for that trip.  This time it was more personal, so I can't "blame" the low volume on film... it was a different path and I appreciated the pace... it was also, for the most part, a solo adventure.  Life never operates only on one level...

In my experience you have to walk to understand a location... and walk I did...  some times with a target in mind... lunch at the Sapporo Beer Museum for example, or a temple visit... sometimes it was more spontaneous as a visit to the 37 floor observation deck when the sun decided to pop out for an afternoon.  And finally, sometimes I would walk just to keep warm...  Somehow I could get past the concept of "the familiar" and could start to deal with "the interesting".  I still drank my share of non-fat lattes, but with a new mind-set .  So while the attraction of the unfamiliar was a fairly strong motivating force, timing and cycles found or forced a balance.

Taking photos in the morning was still easier for me than later in the day... sundown and a glass of red wine was hard to resist and harder yet to re-motivate after.  Okay, I admit that there were a few non-photo moments .

A word about the weather... there was rain, and snow along with mild days and blizzard conditions.  Bad weather can make for more interesting photos.  I over packed my cold weather clothes... one sweater rather than three middle layers would have been enough... the snow boots I was able to purchase in Sapporo was one of my best investments... indispensable when I went to a remote location.  One take away was the importance of selective packing for the weather... mind you my overweight baggage charges were not that extreme .

As mentioned earlier, I only exposed 22 rolls of film, about 1 photograph per hour for every hour in Hokkaido.  I had a bit more in hand, in fact about twice that amount.  The big surprise for me was that I tended to use color film... three rolls of slide film (which I happened to have in stock) and 12 rolls of color negative film.  I only exposed one roll of ISO100 B&W film...  could have been because it was dark around 3:30-4:00 PM and overcast or snowing for many of the daylight hours... color tended to stand out.  I did find some information on developing Neopan ISO100 that was shot at ISO200 and will be testing that out... ISO200 seems about right for the light there, and I tended to (very slightly) favor Kodak ISO200 over Fujifilm PRO400 color negative film.  The above was most likely not interesting to digital users, sorry about that .

Equipment not used... well, I didn't use my tripod this trip nor the flash... as far as I can remember, everything else got used... including my backup camera.  I have always said, it's good to have a backup, and mine is at home... well that was more or less the case this trip.  I was based in Sapporo for the month, but took two side trips.  One night at an onsen (hot water spa), and two nights north along the coast in deep snow...  For the snow trip, I took only the one (film) camera and left the backup in Sapporo... guess what comes next .  My faithful Nikon F3 P, which has always preformed without problems failed within two hours of arriving on my two day adventured.  The rewind shaft (the bit that rewinds the film into the canister) separated from the rewind knob (the bit you turn with the small crank).  Thus I held in one hand the rewind knob and crank and the camera in my other hand.  My F3 was purchased used and evidently the threads on the rewind shaft were stripped and just gave way at the best moment possible.

So under cover on darkness I was able to get the back of the camera open, and the film rewound around the outside of the canister (then covered in tin foil).  Playing with a pen knife I managed to figure out where all the parts went and hobbled the thing back together (see diagram).  Fortunately the fix held for three days only to fail again when I got back to Sapporo... where my backup became my main camera.

The tin foil wrapped roll went for development this morning, and the rewind knob and shaft were replaced this afternoon... all is right with the world once more.  A word of appreciation for the team at the local Nikon (old film camera) repair center.  They did the work in 30 minutes and only charged me Yen 1,000 (about USD 10.00) for the parts, the time of the repair person was priceless .  We sometimes complain about the service we get (justified or not), but the service I received was excellent... I have used them before to AI an old lens and replace a film advance that was damaged (by a previous owner) in the rain.  They have also re-greased my old 28mm / f3.5 ... so we kind of know each other...

A word about the food in Hokkaido : excellent.

Next time... some notes for myself to review prior to my next trip - YMMV.

Planning... have a list of locations, activities, etc.  that you might want to shoot and when you clean your equipment each night, plan something specific for the next day... remain flexible in the morning depending on the weather etc.

Consider not having internet access during your shoot.  Yes, I know we "need" our connection, but it's a real time killer.  The first few days I was connecting at the coffee shop each morning, and thus limiting my time online.  When ever possible, I like to travel without a computer (I have a dumb flip-phone).

Take a bit of laundry soap along, saves buying an entire box just for a couple of wash cycles.

I rented a Wi-fi router and it worked quite well... so much so that I am thinking to get rid of my hardwired internet connection and using the wi-fi router full time (and when I travel)... see above about the need to be connected 24x7.

Would I recommend and extended photo shoot?  In a word yes.

Thanks for reading,
Casey