Captured by Film

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Yurt roof

This is the roof planks of a yurt-inspired 20 sided cabin in Duxbury. Cedar shingles now cover the roof, but we’re racing to get the structure enclosed before the weather really turns. This was shot on an Olympus OM-1 with a Zuiko 35mm f2 lens on Kodak Tri-X that expired in. 1976. The OM-1 was the first ‘real’ camera I owned. I picked it up when I was a student studying in Tokyo back in 1979.…

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Floating

A dock floats in a pond on an early summer day in Duxbury, Vermont.

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Neon Poppies

The sunlight caught these poppies in my neighbor’s yard and really gave their color a pop. This was shot on Kodak Max 400 that expired in 2007 on a Minolta point-and-shoot, which maybe the reason for the graininess of the image.

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Flash Photo with a Point-and-Shoot

This was shot on an old point-and-shoot, the Minolta Explorer Freedom Zoom, a mouthful of a name. The model sports a 28-90 zoom, a very useful range, especially at the wide end. The film is Kodak max 400 that expired in 2007. The flash on these old compacts tends to be unkind to most scenes but I like the look this one which makes the rose petals scattered by a rain storm look like a crime scene.

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Feathery grass

I think these are Chinese silver grass. There’s a house with a wildly overgrown lawn – plants towering overhead – on one of the routes my dog likes to take on her walks (she had definite preferences on which path she wants to take on any particular walk). I’ve seen there plants in many other, better tended, lawns. I’ve always found the delicate plumes at the top of the plants beautiful, but…

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Foggy morning at the marina

This was back in April. The docks were set up in the water, but I don’t think the city marina was open yet for the season. There were no boats in the water yet, and it was way too cold be on the lake at any rate. Within a month, the boaters, anglers and people on paddle board and in canoes and kayaks would descend on the lake, with the Coast Guard issuing warnings about how dangerously cold the…

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Wheelock Farm barn

This was in April, with snow still possible and the trees yet to bud. Winter tends to linger in Vermont, but the season can turn very quickly.

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Hammydown gets down

I don’t shoot events very often, at least no for myself, and I rarely use a flash. But his shot is an exception to both practices. I’ve followed Abbie who fronts Hammydown since her early days on the Burlington music scene and try to catch her show whenever I can. Here she’s playing at the Monkey House during the final Waking Windows festival this past May in Winooski. I had my Leica M6 with the…

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Night Garden

This is the garden at the International House of Japan (Kokusai Bunka Kaiakn), known as I-House, in Roppongi. I-House has long been the base for our family on our visits to Tokyo. The garden dates to 1929 when the hen head of the Mitsubishi Corp. brought in a famed landscape artist to design the grounds. The particulars:

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Smokers

Japan has banned smoking throughout most train stations, but some offer designated areas where you can light up. This spot in Shinjuku is closed off but many are often out in the open. You see a lot more smokers in Tokyo than in most of the U.S., though smoking seems to be making a comeback among the young as being cool.

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'Tachiyomi'

Many of the alleyways in Jimbocho are lined with bookshelves where passers by peruse the books for sales. Some people will spend time reading a good portion of a book in a practice known in Japanese as ‘tachiyomi’ – standup reading. This Tokyo neighborhood is known for its used book stores, although their numbers seem to have dwindled over the years. Most of the shops specialize in a specific…

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Beer Crates and Bicycles

Jimbocho, Tokyo, street scene. This neighborhood is known for its used book stores, although their numbers seem to have dwindled over the years. Most of the shops specialize in a specific genre and carry only Japanese volumes, but there are shops that carry a good selection of photography books.

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Prada, Aoyama

Clouds reflected on the facade of the iconic Prada store in Aoyama, Tokyo.

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Honda S800 Coupe

Say this classic in the parking lot of the International House of Japan in Roppongi. You see a lot of very high-end vehicles in the neighborhood and classics tend towards American muscle, so this was a relatively rare sighting.

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Shinjuku Street Scene

I don’t really do street photography, but this scene on a side street in Shinjuku caught my eye. The lighting sucks and the scan seems a bit soft, but I like the juxtaposition of the woman on the phone and the street musician – something that’s not a common sight in this part of town.

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Under the train tracks

You can walk from Asakusabashi (not to be confused with Asakusa) to Akihabara along a street that runs under the Sobu train line’s elevated tracks. There’s some interesting neighborhoods, a mix of commercial, retail and residential that echos the old shita-machi neighborhoods of old Tokyo.

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Why the Giraffe?

Tsukiji used to be home to Tokyo’s main fish market so the you’d expect to see the kind of over-the-top signs featuring what the neighborhood is know for. But what’s up with the Giraffe? (third image) The sign read Edoya Kaisan, a dried seafood shop.

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