Life in Japan

The Stalin

The Stalin top 1980's Japanese punk band, managed to get my hands on a copy of their album "Stop Jap" after watching a 1980 movie called "Crazy Thunder Road" directed by Sogo Ishii. The movie follows the story of biker gang whose leader decides to hang up his spurs prompting one the members to go off the rails. What is impressive about is that most of the actors are people he knew or members of bike gangs. The Stalin are one Ishiis favourite bands and supplied songs for the soundtracks to some of his earlier movies, well worth a listen too.

A spark of colour in another wise desolate world. The dream of one became the playground of many.

A small project to photography different body parts. Am preparing for next trip to haikyo and want to try and recreate some of these style of shots there. Shot using a Nikon D80 and Nikkor AI-s 55mm 2.8 macro @F2.8 SS125. Diffused light through the window of my apartment, tag kindly supplied by ANA.

the haunting

the haunting
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

HDR created in photomatix and de-saturated. Trying to learn how to use the colour range selector in photoshop to grab the red parts of the stairs from the most overexposed shots and then layer them over the top of the HDR, wanted to try and create a flow of blood down the stairs but the red pixels seem a little over the top

lockers

lockers
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

Lacking fixtures and fittings these pink lockers were the only thing of interest in the upstairs lobby. Saturation of the walls which were yellow to the rear has been lowered to allow the only bit of colour stand out in an otherwise dull encounter.

View On Black

hotel corridor

hotel corridor
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

The corridors of the hotel lay bare, never carpeted, never complete, never feeling the footsteps of customers. Below the concrete structure ancient tombs and the curse of the ghosts within them struck down construction workers and ensured the only visitors were the curious or fearless

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reception

reception
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

"When we take one step towards the gods, the gods take ten steps towards us" reads the sign in the reception of an uncompleted resort hotel in tropical Japan. The first step into one of these places always is filled with caution and wonder at lies ahead, and whoever wrote this clearly knew what they were doing when the wrote it. Unfortunately I dont believe in Gods, and would rather it have said "when we take one step into the forbidden, a bunch of security dogs and a guy with a big stick will take ten steps towards us" doesnt quite have the same ring to it though. More photos to follow.

self

self
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

I haven't had much luck when I have tried self potraits but I thought I would try one more time to express my monday feelings after consuming too much alcohol over the weekend. This shot was taken in my apartment using a 50mm lens on 1.8 and with the ISO up at 600. I normally wear glasses but I was thinking that my eyes were looking particularly like they were carrying excess baggage. The problem I have had in the past with this kind of shot is relying on the self timer and not getting the focus right but this time I got one shot out of ten that came out and with a bit of work in photoshop managed to produce an image I am happy with and gives an overriding feeling of tension and anxiety, very different to my usual shots.

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joyful

joyful
Originally uploaded by Ginger Jive Turkey

Attempting to link flickr and blogger to make posting little easier. This September I was asked to photograph at my Secondary Schools Sports Day, these kids just won the tug of war and were clearly jumping for joy, have been trying to learn photoshop and added some blur to the shot as I am now without a zoom lens. Shot on D80 with 85mm 1.8D.

Gothic Hands House

Who would live in a house like this? Stumbled across this place while wandering around Ikebukuro yesterday afternoon. Half of it was owned by a liquor delivery company and the rest was an apartment block, the outside reminded me of someone trying to imitate Gaudi and the inside well just plain weird! Unfortunately I only had my 50mm lens with me so I couldn't get any wide angled shots.