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Hanami

Written by Peter Weilnböck

Published on: 2023-04-04

Ramblings about getting back into photography, including some pictures.

#photography

#random rambling

While the cherry blossoms here in Japan are a good excuse to get back into photography, they might not be such good excuse to switch the camera to black and white.
I am not entirely sure what the real reason for becoming more interested in photography again is, but it probably has something to do with the fact, that some people in my immediate vicinity showed more interest as well. You might call it following the herd, or you might call it getting inspired. But however you look at it, I quite happy about it. Photography is a nice hobby with the added benefit that you gather a extensive collection of memories (well, of pictures that can trigger memories. But lets not split hairs here.).
It is also a good excuse to learn how to embedd images into this blog using Astro. Something I have not done so far, because I was a bit worried about automatic resizing, etc.

Since I already mentioned black and white, I think I should also explain the reason for it. A general tip for learning photography is to limit oneself, to be forced to think a bit more creatively. One of the most common tools is to use prime lenses instead of zoom lenses. Having just one focal length available limits the possible compositions. But by being forced to work harder for a good composition, one learns about it and also probably finds interesting perspectives, that one would miss with the luxury of just zooming (so the theory).
Another restriction that I had heard about a few years ago was to take pictures just in black and white. Without colour it is necessary to focus more on contrast. And, following this tip, I had switched my camera to black and white for one or two months, and it really was quite helpful for me. Not only did I learn to look for contrast in my compositions, I also got some pictures with their own flair, that I rather like.
Since it has been a few years since I tried this, I thought that it might be time to reenforce those lessons before I forget them completely. It also pushed me into a more creative mindset, and I took some pictures that I probably would not have taken otherwise. Which would have been a shame, since I am rather pleased with them.
As an additional wake up, I decided to mainly use my 85mm prime lens, since I had become rather comfortable with sticking to the 40mm prime.

I will put those pictures at the end of this article, but first a short disclaimer: I quite like photography, but I am not a professional. I feel like I am still just learning the basics (well, maybe photography 102, not 101). One rather important facet of photography that I have not even begun to learn is post processing. Maybe I get interested in post processing at some point as well (there is a decent chance, since my wife is currently learning about it), but alas, so far I have not mastered it. So those pictures are straight out of camera, without even adjusting the exposure. They were taken using the B+W creative mode of my Sony. (Although I am cheating slightly, because I am shooting RAW+jpg, so I would have the option for post processing and colour, in case an image demands it).
I downscaled the pictures a bit to reduce loading time. Maybe I will find a better solution in the future, but for now, they are a bit smaller.
Constructive critisism is of course welcome.

Black and white picture of a man sitting on a bicycle, looking at his phone. He has stopped on a bridge, one foot on the curb, the other on the road. THe man is wearing a cloth mask and dark clothes. Through the railing of the bridge the river is barely visibly, slowly flowing through a deep, artificial riverbed. Behind the man there are cherry trees in full bloom, blocking the view to the buildings behind them, the branches hanging down deep towards the river. The white blossoms contrasting the dark and dirty concrete wall of the artificial riverbed.
A black and white picture of a footpath. On the right side of the path are buildings, looking like a mix of modern and traditional japanese architecture. On the right side there is a row of cherry trees in bloom interspersed with street lamps, designed in a old style, remenicent of victorian times. Hanging between the poles of the lamps and the cherrey trees is a string of lanterns, striped vertically. On each of the lanterns, one of the stripes carries some writing, a mix of Kanji and Romaji, displaying the name of a bank that might have sponsored this lantern. The white bloom of the cherry trees contrasts the dark roofs of the buildings on the other side of the path, while the white walls of the buildings contrast the dark tree trunks and the bushes planted between the trees. At the end of the path two people in dark clothes are walking in oposite directions. A little bit closer, in the center of the visible path a man is walking towards the camera, looking at the ground. He carries a shopping bag, that seems to be heavy, and is wearing a long, open coat. He seems to be lost in thought.
A black and white image, at the first glance confusing without structure. In the background are buildings and a parking lot, with the left most building being shot head on. In front of the buildings is a street, then a railing and then a man-made wall dropping off at the lower edge of the picture. On the left edge of picture as well as on the right side in front of the parking lot, two cherry trees are growing. They are in full bloom and the white blossoms contrast the dark, almost black bark of the trees. Between the right tree and the railing two women are standing and leaning over the railing trying to glimps something on the left, below the edge of the wall. One of women has a camera, which is pointed towards this unknown subject. Onother person is walking briskly behind them on the street.
A head on black and white shot of a telegraph/power pole. Behing the pole a modern building fills the frame. The pole stands on the edge of a street, which runs perpendicular to the viewing direction. Between the street and the building two cherry trees are growing, both having thick, gnarly, almost black trunks. The crowns of the trees are still filled with the failing blossoms, the whites shining in front of the mid tones of the building behind. The top third of the image is filled with many cabled going to and from the pole, most of them running perpenticular to the shot, in parallel to the street, but some coming from the direction of the viewer. In the bottom quarter of the shot, a woman can be seen crossing the street diagonally. She is looking down and apparantly walking quickly, her light colored long coat and black skirt billowing behind her.
This black and white image shows a cherry tree in full bloom. The tree grows on top of a wall, in front of some buildings. The ground level, where the tree starts to grow marks roughly the upper third of the vertical image. One of the branches reaches down the wall, almost reaching the bottom of the picture. The almost black fo the bark and the brilliant white of the blossoms form a strong contrast to the midtones of the dirty concrete brick wall, and the dirty, slightly run down buildings in the background.
This black and white picture shows a woman, from the waist up, looking away from the viewer. The woman has long, dark hair, tied to a high pony tail, but still reaching below the shoulderblades. The hair is slightly blowing in the wind. She is standing next to a railing, some distance away is a paralell railing on top of concrete brick wall, enclosing an artificial gorge. On the other side of the gorge there is a street with out of focus buildings along it. On the top right edge of the picture, a dark, thick tree branch grows to the left, thinner branches ladden with white blossoms hanging down. The woman is on the left side of the image and looking towards the center-right. She is holding a camera pointed towards one of the smaller branches. The breese that has caught her hair, also shook lose a lof of the cherry blossom petals, that can be seen out of focus over the whole picture, reflecting the light and giving the whole scene a dream-like atmosphere. The petals almost seem like stars or glitter sprinkled across the reality.
This vertical black and white image shows a stone torii, occupying the lower half of the picture. Two women are walking through the torii towards the viewer, giving scale to the scene - the torii is at least four times the hight of those women. One of them is clothed dark, and pushing a baby buggy, the other is wearing a light top and a dark skirt. In front of the torii the ground is paved with regular stone tiles, behind it there is a small forrest. The small forrest is quite dark, and no details can be seen, but directly above the torii in front of the dark vegetation the brilliantly white crown of a cherry tree in bloom stretches acros the picture. In the distance a part of a skyscaper can be seen, reaching from the top of the trees upwards, with the roof beeing somewhere outside of the frame.

The next post for this topic:

Photo Walk

Pictures from my first photo walk