John Small. Photos.

To Kyoto!

First up... a scene for which I've been unable to come up with anything to say.  Yes that appears to be a Buddha Reindeer.  I'll have to go find another Colonel Sanders Santa to round this theme out.  

Tokyo. This and That.

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Tokyo. People.

I've been told I don't take enough pictures of people.  Here, I'm finding it addictive. 

 

 

Tokyo. Wow.

There was no preparation for this.  I wrote this to my friend Barry after my first full day here:

"Tokyo = No travel book could prepare a person from there for here: Cityscape, food, language, collective psyche, rhythm, infrastructure, sound.
In the pouring rain I went for my first solo walk while my friend Liz attended her language class.  The small part of Tokyo I've seen exists in physical layers... the transit system consists of hundreds of train lines, subway lines and buses, some stations are massive, with entire cities of food and retail and services under and over them.  There's a sense that the actual ground is far below somewhere.  But then just past the Colonel Sanders dressed as Santa Clause, there's a narrow alley down which I spotted a Shinto Shrine.  Just like that.

Funny, I've been here 36 hours, and already the local Seattle things that seem so important, ideas and certainties about who we are and what life is about... all bets are off.   New reality?  I'll say!"

More later.  The food is amazing.  

Do not not be fooled by this image.  This is a TINY TINY portion of this vast city.

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A few from Northern California (while you wait for Japan pictures) day 3

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A few from Northern California (while you wait for Japan pictures) day 2

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A few from Northern California (while you wait for Japan pictures)

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Off to TOKYO! Look for new photos in a few days!

Hi all, I'm finished packing and am heading for the airport.  Travel with me.  Look for new pictures in a couple days. 

A week of Abstracts: Reflection.

Someone asked me, "Where was this?"  I walked them to the spot where I took this photo, but this was nowhere to be seen.  

People ask, "Do you photoshop?"  In general I think this means, "Do you add or rearrange things digitally?"

In those terms, almost never.  In those terms, I did nothing to these two images.  Everything you see was done in-camera.  I like the challenge of making a scene, finding props, and figuring these sort-of organic things out.

   

   

A week of Abstracts: Motion.

Move the camera, move the subject, move the light.  Someone saw this first one and said, "John, you've outed yourself as a dancer."  This is, now that I think about it, a self portrait.  Shot twenty of these. Quite a workout.

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You will never ever guess what this one "is".  This is one is the closest to really painting... broad brushstrokes of light on the sensor.  Took me a while to arrive at the camera settings that produced this. It was about 1 AM.

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