Japan Photo Guide

When I show my photographs to my Japanese friends, a lot of times they tell me that they have never looked at the subject the way I do. While I would like to think it is only because I am a good photographer, a large part of it is that I am looking at a culture that isn’t my own and as a result, I just see things differently.

“The hardest place to find beauty is in your own backyard.”
–somebody smart

I believe this is one of the fundamental truths not only with photography but in life. Actually, when you think about it, it is saying the same thing as that quote about grass being greener… I know this is a travel photo travel blog, but sometimes we need to be reminded that what we are looking for can sometimes be right in front of us. Anyway, this post is to remind you, to go and search and “travel” the area where you live.

For example, during cherry blossom season, I traveled all over the Kansai region in hopes of getting some great photos, but as it turns out, some of my favorite photos from the 2007 cherry blossom season were taken about 10 minutes from where I live, in my own backyard.

See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

First of all, if you do not know what geisha or maiko are, check out my previous post about geisha and maiko.

One of the most popular questions I get from tourists and photographers alike is, “Where can I see geisha?” There are two very big misconceptions about geisha, the first being that geisha are prostitutes and second is that geisha can be seen commonly all over Japan. Both of these are false. Actually, it is very rare that you will see a geisha in Japan. That being said I am going to give you the easiest way to find them; HOWEVER, even if you take my advice, there is still a chance you might be unsuccessful! I am not guaranteeing you will see geisha or maiko here, but from my experience, the odds are pretty good!

Details after the jump! See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Seeing how it is now the middle of winter for us northern hemisphere people, I thought I should give a little advice on photography in the winter…actually to be more specific I wanna talk about camera care during the winter. Taking some precautions to take care of your camera in the winter is very important and a few simple things can keep you from causing serious–and sometimes permanent– damage to your camera.

The first thing you should be aware of is that cold weather will reduce your battery life (sometimes drastically), so not only should you have a spare battery but you may want to carry your battery charger with you at all times when traveling. Nothing is more frustrating than missing a great shot because the batteries are dead! Another type about battery life, if you know you will not be using your camera for an extended period of time (while you are sleeping for example) take your batteries out of your camera because even if your camera is turned off, the contact in the camera will slowly but surely drain your batteries!

While having dead batteries is annoying, a more serious problem is condensation. This could happen when you come inside to a heated room after you have been outside in cold weather. There are a couple of things you can do to help reduce the chances of this happening. Put your camera in a zip lock plastic bag before going inside to help prevent condensation from forming inside your camera (instead, condensation might form on the bag itself). Another way to prevent condensation is to bring the camera into a room that does not have heating first and let it adjust to that temperature so there is not such a drastic change in temperature. If you have a reason to believe that condensation has formed in your camera, take out the battery and memory card and leave the doors to your camera open to let it dry out.

When leaving a hot room to go outside into the cold, there isn’t as much to worry about, but you still need to be careful of condensation or water. If there is condensation in your camera and you go outside to very cold weather, if this condensation freezes it will result in permanent damage and most likely the use of some 4 letter words.

Those are pretty much the main things to consider while doing winter photography, but if anyone else has some tips please leave a comment!

Wanna see the other photography tips and tricks?

Before my friends buy a new camera, many of them ask me “How many megapixels do I really need to make nice prints?” My answer has always been something along the lines of, “Unless you are making prints lager than 8 x 10 inches, 4MP or 5MP should do.” Which is more or less true.

Recently, I came across Design215′s megapixel comparison and maximum print size chart that talks about how big you can print your photos depending on how many megapixels your camera is. First, I am going to say it is a nice chart and is helpful; however, having said that, unless you are publishing a photography book I have to be honest and tell you that the chart isn’t exactly right. I mean, the chart stresses it is true if you want “true photo quality,” but who can really tell between “true photo quality” and slightly below that (whatever that is)?

For example, the above link says that using a 6MP camera that gives you pixel resolution of 3008 x 2000 and a maximum print size of 10.02 x 6.67 inches, but using a simple function in Photoshop (I used CS2 but pretty much any version is ok), you can easily go beyond that while loosing minimal quality. The trick is increasing the image size by 110% (multiple times). To do this just go to the “Image” menu, select “Image Size” and then configure the window so it looks like this one below:

The changes you will need to make are first checking “Constrain Proportions” and “Resample Image: Bicubic.” Then change the drop down box under “Pixel Dimensions” from “pixels” to “percent.” Finally type in “110%” in the width (and height of course) and then press “OK.” That is it! Depending on the photo you can repeat this 5-7 times before you start to notice any real loss of image quality. I have printed images that started at 10.02 x 6.67 inches and using this trick and got beautiful prints as large as 19.5 x 13 inches. I mean sure, if you do it 7 times and look at it real closely you can tell a little, but a print that is 19.5 x 13 inches (7 times) is not printed to be looked at closely. I printed the same print at 16.1 x 10.7 (5 times) inches and it was almost identical to the original sized print at close range. If you want, you can easily record an action in Photoshop to repeat these steps for you.

Of course, results will vary depending on the quality of the camera (if you have a 2 MP don’t expect to get great prints at any size really), the quality of your printer and the colors in your photograph (if you have a lot of blue in your photograph or a night photograph results will vary because most of the “noise” in digital photography is in the blue channel).

So in conclusion to the question, “How big can I print my digital photographs?” you can print them 110% (5-7 times) the original size!

See the rest of the travel photography tips and tricks!

This may seem obvious but I see it many times with travel snap shots…especially when I ask some stranger to take a photo of me at (insert famous place here). Pay attention to what is in your frame and don’t crop off half of somebody’s body, or somebody’s feet. Of course there are sometimes when you may want to do this because there is no other way to make the photograph work, but a lot of times body parts are cropped out of the frame for no other reason other than laziness. Take a look at the photos below. Both times there is plenty of space at the top of the frame so my feet could have easily not been cut off had the photographer paid attention.

My advice to you is… See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Just like in real life, it is not good to always have your subject in the center of your frame. Actually, it is almost always better not to have your subject in the center because it usually makes the photograph more dynamic. Of course there are some situations when you want the subject to be in the center, but in general you should avoid putting your subject in the center to make your photograph more interesting. Here is an example of Himeji Castle where one of the photographs has Himeji Castle pretty much in the center and one where Himeji Castle is not.

Basically imagine if you divide the the photo into 9 sections with 4 lines (2 horizontal and 2 vertical). Like the example below. A good rule of thumb is to put your subject at one of the four intersections 1/3 of the way from either side. Of course you don’t have to aim exactly for 1/3 of the way from the side but you get the idea. Check out another example below from cherry blossom tree in Kyoto.

I actually like both of these photographs for different reasons, but visually speaking the photo of the cherry blossom tree on the bottom is much more interesting and dynamic.

See the rest of the travel photography tips and tricks!

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!

See the rest of the Photography Travel Tips!

Welcome and thanks for stopping by! BahBeeBooBayBohDOTcom, or Japan Photo Guide, was created in July of 2006 when I, as a phototographer, decided there wasn’t enough information about places to travel to in Japan in English. Of course with the more popular places like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima there are plenty of photos and information in English but for some of the more remote places sometimes it is hard to find information and photos. It is my goal, by showing you pictures of Japan to provide a guide to Japan for not only photographers but also regular travelers. This site is fairly new and I do update Japan Photo Guide as often as possible but I do so as my hobby, not my job. If you have advice to offer about traveling in Japan or photography in Japan or even just like my photos of japan, please leave a comment or contact me about being a contributer!

*NEW* I have started to add Tips and Tricks about travel photograpy, so be sure to check them out!