Nikon D200 55mm f/2.8 1.6 sec ISO 100

Last night I went out to what I expect is Sydney’s answer to London Calling. Neo Tokyo was a reasonable electro night but I wasn’t really feeling it as far as dancing went. I felt like the DJs were playing songs and not sets, which is fine at a bar but when I’m out dancing I like to have something perfectly crafted with a consistent flow which runs from track to track…

Adding to my angst is the fact that one of my flash units has developed a curious and erratic fault with it’s sync port. If I pop it during a long exposure, it decides that it wants to fire repeatedly and at random throughout the exposure. Now I have found the fault it means a quick trip to the nikon service centre and everything should be fine (I have several spares) however in the dark of a club I wasn’t able to isolate the problem and so had a thoroughly frustrating time taking pictures. I finally came up with a work around involving 3 pocket wizards, some gaffa tape and a clamp (don’t ask), but by that point I was running low on moxie and left for home shortly afterwards…

Enough of my whining and here are some more pictures… (more…)

Good job I didn’t post my phone number yet as I managed t lose my phone this morning. I didn’t get chance to go buy a replacement…

The phone is however stll turned on, so there is a faint chance it hasn’t been stolen, oh the joys…

Nikon D200 17mm f/3.2 8/10s ISO 100

So I survived the move, I’m in Sydney and the weather is awesome. I have found good but expensive internet access so feel free to contact me via e-mail (I will be checking it daily so be a little patient still please). I have a new phone number so if anyone is in Sydney and wants to get in touch you can do on… (guess who can’t remember their own phone number?)

Before I left Tokyo I had a great last night out, visiting Mel Bruce’s party Berzerk at Pantera. Now this night is usually awesome with electro so dirty you think you’ll need a shower, but last Saturday Robert Palmer absolutely slammed it, with one of the best sets I’ve heard in years. Robert Palmer, definitely remember that name…

After Berzerk I drifted a little before ending up at DJ Maluse’s new after party in Roppongi, which was a really pleasant surprise as Roppongi nights are usually marked but drunken sleaziness and horrid music. Electro panic however was marked by drunken sleaziness and really great music thanks to Maluse and Funky Gong amongst others…

Check out the pictures here or buy prints over here

It would appear the weather has turned for the worse, there goes my plan for being touristy this afternoon…

I’m currently relocating to Sydney for the summer, I shall be checking my email and will do my best to reply to any queries as quickly as possible, but things may take slightly longer than usual…

Next post will be from the southern hemisphere…

This week has seen two really big changes, at least in terms of how the behind the scenes will work here at StrikingShots…

The first change relates to the way in which I provide prints to people. Selling prints accounts for about 0.5% of my income and profiting from them isn’t an avenue I’m overly interested in going down at this point. I have however found myself spending increasing amounts of time arranging printing for people, going to the lab, collecting prints and posting them off. I find the whole process labourious and frankly there had to be a better way…

Enter Exposure manager, who will now be handling all of my printing needs (obviously any speciality items will be dealt with by hand) and my albums will still come from one of my vendors.

So how does the system work? All that you need to do is go over to the Proofing Area, find the event you are interested in, find the photo you want prints for and order using their secure online shopping cart.

Less than a week later you should receive your prints. I’ve seen samples of their pictures and they are head and shoulders above the quality that comes from the quick print machines and while costing slightly more ($1 for a 6″x4″ print), are well worth the money…

There are however two drawbacks that I can see, firstly the process requires you to have a valid credit card, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The second one however has been the big sticking point with me in the past, which is that the prints are coming from the USA and therefore shipping is a little expensive for non-US residents (though at around 1000Â¥ per order is hardly excessive). I have contacted them to see if there is any way around this issue, but at the moment it remains…

The second big change relates to my workflow which as you may well know runs mostly through Adobe Lightroom. Coupled with photoshop Lightroom lets me do everything I want with my pictures and I am not exaggerating when I say it has changed the way I work…

Yesterday Adobe Labs announced the public beta for version 2 which on initial inspection seems to retain all of the features which I love but has added a number of new features which will help me work even quicker, spending less time behind the computer and more time taking pictures, which frankly benefits everyone…

Nikon D200 85mm f/1.4 1/125s ISO 100

Today I’d like everyone to meet Izabela and Kamil, who had a wonderful destination wedding here in Tokyo, this past weekend. They definitely had the flower gods on their side as they arrived at the perfect time to appreciate the sakura (cherry blossom), something we used to full effect in their portrait session…

After a brief civil ceremony at the Polish Embassy the rest of the day was spent in a traditional Japanese style (though the level of drinking was definitely all Polish), and was one of the most enjoyable weddings I have been to, an awesome way to finish my stint in Tokyo…

I shall put up more images up as the week progresses, but really wanted to share something with you nice and early as frankly I couldn’t keep the pictures to my self…

It would appear my phone company have been a little premature in cancelling my contract and have disconnected my phone, if anyone has tried to call me please email me at Paul@strikingshots.com with your number and I will call you back as soon as possible.

I’m brushing up my complaining Japanese….

*UPDATE* I’m back in the land of telephony, apparently one department had decided seeing as I was leaving, not to send me a bill, while the other had decided that as I hadn’t paid the bill (which they had not sent) to cut me off. $40 later and I’m back to getting 50 spam texts an hour…

On Sunday I was lucky enough to attend the opening of up and coming photographer Kyle Flowers’s first exhibition here in Tokyo, a nice small affair with some excellent music provided by the Matt Stansberry Band.

I‘m unsure if Kyle has a web presence, if you do drop me a line and I shall get you some linkage from here. Anyone with a spare few hours should go and see his work while it is still hanging at Cafe Pikey, close to Ebisu, if nothing else the food is excellent…

It was a very relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon after what had been a pretty fraught morning…

Spring is here, strawberries are in season, it’s not quite as cold and now it’s raining. Perfect…

For anyone wodering how this was done, it’s a very simple two light setup, with a single light providing the background, just metered it to f/16 and shot at f/11.

The main subject was lit via a second light being bounced off a sheet of white card held at an angle in front of the strawberry. I bounced off card for two reasons, firstly it gives a nice soft light, but also it gives much nicer “specular highlights” or “catchlights” than just using the flash directly…

Today I’m going to the aquarium so expect to see fish pictures in the near future…

Nikon D200 28mm f/2.8 1/2s ISO 100

I just got home from Fukt, an artists’ collaborative evening. I’m tired and need to sleep but I will bring you pictures (and more words) later today…