View over Osaka

JAPAN. Osaka. 2014.
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/8, 1/350 sec, ISO100
JAPAN. Osaka. 2014.

I miss Japan! Unfortunately, I won’t be traveling there this summer 😢, but perhaps next year! I took this photo from the Tsutenkaku observation deck. In it you can see the tallest building in Osaka prefecture, “Abeno Harukas”.

One thing I love when traveling in Japan is that my wife (who was born and raised in Kansai area of Japan) really takes care of us and we get to do lots of cool things. It’s kind of like we have a tour guide wherever we go! She treats us so well, and for that I am truly grateful. 🙇 You know, I would be happy just hanging out in the city during our visits, but my wife often takes us around the country to see new places (and eat local foods). It’s kind of surprising for me (as someone who grew up in the U.S.) to realize that there are so many regional differences throughout the country of Japan. I love it! So much to explore… 🇯🇵

Fuchico photo

USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X-T10, 23.3mm, f/4.5, 1/40 sec, ISO6400
USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a Fuchico photo. Here’s the classic フチ子. For those of you who don’t know, Fuchico or “Fuchico on the cup” is a series of small plastic toys of an office worker named Fuchico who sits on the rims of cups. The one in the photo is the original, but since then, there have been so many different poses, outfits, and spinoffs. It’s cool because these little figurines make the photos a lot of fun! Here’s another one of my favorites that I took.

Recently, my wife showed me this video of SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi trying to recreate some of the Fuchico poses. It’s so funny. Enjoy!

Photos page

JAPAN. Kyushu. 2014.
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 16mm, f/8, 1/500 sec, ISO100
JAPAN. Kyushu. 2014.

This is a photo I took during my last trip to Japan. We took a tour of Kyushu, the southern part of the country. It was beautiful in the summertime!

Speaking of photos, I have created a page called “Personal Photo Documentary”. Since I started taking daily pictures, I thought it might be nice to put them all in one gallery. So now if you don’t want to read the daily post, you can just go the the photo page and see the latest pictures that I have made. You can get to the page using the navigation at the top of the site, in the Photography drop-down menu. I hope you enjoy!

X100T Viewfinder Position

Just a quick note – one thing I love about the Fujifilm X100T is that the viewfinder is on the left side of the camera. Because I use my right eye to compose photos, this means my nose doesn’t hit the LCD screen of the camera. On my DSLR, with the viewfinder in the center of the camera, my nose would leave grease-marks on the LCD all the time. Just another reason I like the rangefinder-style design of the X100 series!

Daily Photos

Hi! I hope you had a nice start to the new year! We had a very relaxing one, just eating osechi (Japanese new years food) and watching movies.

Lately I have been reading about photography projects, and the one that caught my attention is something like a “personal documentary”. I guess it is sort of like a recording of my own daily life… just normal things that we take for granted, but if we give them attention, they can become important things. Or another way to look at it is that in 50 years, these things might be of interest. I don’t know if this is true, but I really enjoy viewing these types of photos.

So, I think 2016 will be the start of mine. I am not sure if I will take a photo every day, but I’ll try. I’ve done 365 photo projects in the past so I am confident I can keep it going! I’ve started a new category in the blog named “Personal Documentary” if you’d like to sort by these photos.

This first photo is about as everyday as I can get… it’s the pen holder on my desk at home. I’ve actually had this beer can for over 20 years. I think I cut the top off of it when I was at university and have used it to hold pens ever since.

"On the Desk" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/90 sec, ISO6400
“On the Desk” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2016.

This project seems like a New Year’s Resolution, doesn’t it? Well, I rarely make resolutions, so I don’t think I can call it that but it is something I’d like to make a habit.

I hope you all have a wonderful year and give it your all!

-B

Flying

Here are a few photos from our flight over from Texas to California.

"Sunrise from the Sky" USA. Texas. 2015.
“Sunrise from the Sky” USA. Texas. 2015.

Our flight was supposed to arrive at 8:15am, but there was a thick layer of fog over the Long Beach Airport, so our landing was aborted and we had to circle above Los Angeles for 45 minutes before landing. I made the most of the extra time to take a couple extra photos of the thick clouds and the Pacific Ocean.

"Circling" USA. California. 2015.
“Circling” USA. California. 2015.
"In the Heavens" USA. 2015.
“In the Heavens” USA. 2015.

Hope you have a great day!

-B