Underground Commute

Underground Commute
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/4, 1/15s, ISO 1600

I remember spending a fair bit of time in the NYC subway shooting passers by at shutter speeds of around 1/10s or 1/15s. You get a lot of blurry shots, but when you manage to stay steady, you capture some of the motion. With a wider angle lens (a 28mm in this case) it’s a bit easier and I find that at 1/15s I can more or less consistently shoot a sharp shot. I liked those columns and the contrast produced by the black band of tiling, that’s why I chose this Tokyo underground spot.

Subway Reflection

Subway Reflection
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/2, 1/60s, ISO 1250

Compared to the Paris metro, the Tokyo metro is clean as a hospital. I wanted to capture all this white and thought that doing it in a mirror would be a little more original. I guess it would have been more effective at rush hour, maybe an idea for the next trip…

Tokyo Bar

Tokyo Bar
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/2, 1/40s, ISO 3200

In the narrow streets of Nakano, I stumbled upon this bar. The bottles, the lanterns, the woodwork, it all spoke to me of a Japan of yore (even though the bar is clearly not yet 2 years old…)

Nakano

Nakano
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/2.8, 1/20s, ISO 3200

I went down to Nakano to hunt for photography gear, and ended up walking around the labyrinth of narrow streets and just soaking in what felt (to me) like an older version of Tokyo.

Tokyo Underground

Tokyo Underground
Fuji x100f, 28mm, f/16, 12s, ISO 200

In many ways, Tokyo is even more of a vertical city than Hong Kong where I live. Hong Kong mostly grew overground, which makes sense when you realise that most of the high-riser areas are on reclaimed land. Tokyo on the other hand seems to me as much underground as overground with multiple layers of commuting, shops and walkways superimposed. That means lots of colonnades and interestingly graphic things to shoot with a wide(ish) angle lens!

Seminyak Sunset

Seminyak Sunset
Fuji xpro-2, 85mm, f/5,6, 1/100s, ISO 800

I only saw a couple of sunsets in Bali, but both were quite spectacular. The added bonus for this one was the fisherman in the water to his thighs, which made for a nice (and local) anchor point for the composition.

Motherhood

Motherhood
Fuji xpro-2, 72mm, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 800

I am no wildlife photographer and have no aspiration to be, but when you’re surrounded by monkeys as was the case in the aptly named Monkey Forest, opportunities of shooting animals abound. I lucked out on this shot, from really close up by wildlife photography standards. I’d been ‘tracking’ this monkey and her baby for the last minute or so, never catching a shot of both their faces when she simply sat down in front of me…

Balinese Bedogol

 

Balinese Bedogol
Fuji xpro-2, 50mm, f/2, 1/110s, ISO 200

Temples and, sometimes, houses in Bali are often protected by guardian statues called Bedogol in Balinese. I loved their fearsome look, their coiffes and the fact that they all carried a mean looking mace in one of their hands. This one (in font of the Petitenget temple) was covered in moss, and added bonus in my book.

Bedugul Pagoda

Bedugul Pagoda
Fuji Xpro-2, 27mm, f/8, 1/900s, ISO 200

Bedugul is a beautiful area in the Balinese mountains up North, and sufficiently off the beaten path that it’s not swamped with tourists. The pagoda of Ulun Danu Beratan Temple is quite beautiful, set as it is in the Danau Beratan lake. This felt properly Balinese and Oriental at the same time.

Bali Fisherman

Bali Fisherman
Fuji Xpro-2, 50mm, f/4, 1/3000s, ISO 200

Truth be told, it’s hard to find anything authentic in Bali, especially in or around Kuta. The area is so devoted to tourism that it feels like very little remains of what Bali must have been originally. And yet I spotted this rare local fisherman pulling his net in. He was definitely not there for tourists.