Japan Photo Guide

This is a problem that we all encounter, you go to a place that is famous and because it is famous there are so many people, if you take a photo you are taking one of the people not the place you want to photograph. There are a couple of obvious things you do to get the photo. The first is just wait it out. Sometimes it just takes waiting for a minute or two for things to clear up, sometimes a little longer, but I find it usually takes less than 5 minutes for things to clear up in most cases. The second thing you can do is go early in the morning. This is good for two reasons, first because the earlier you go the less crowded it will be (because who really wants to wake up early) and maybe even more importatly the light is much better earlier in the morning than in the middle of the day. Another tip is use the people in your photographs. Sometimes the secret to a great landscape photograph is having that small person in the corner, or the couple holding hands. Don’t be afraid to use the people that are there! The mood of the photograph can change, for better or worse, so play around and don’t be afraid to use the people that are there! Look at the photographs below of garden at Nanzenji, Kyoto for an example.

As you can see, each photo have a different feel to it. Which one you prefer is up to you but one thing that is for certain is that you need a little patience as for both of these shots I had to wait for the decisive moment. The best advice I can give for this is to have your camera ready and just look through the lens until the time is right. The one on the bottom was harder to get because people were always walking by, if I had waited one more second there would have been somebody walking in my frame, so be ready!

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