tIM rUDDER’S bLOG

Had an idea for my next Tokyo sketch but wasn’t working out so decided to do some plain old drawing practice.
This is based on an image supplied by drawingBoard.org. I used to do exercises there semi regularly and found it to be one of the best online communities I’ve come across. Great talent pool, an openness to criticism and support for beginners. Whether it’s still the same or not, I don’t know.

another one today.
quite annoying when you can see what’s wrong with something but seemingly can’t fix it.
Anyway, I find sushi chefs to be amusing creatures. Some are loud and boisterous others barely say or acknowledge anything.

sketch based on araki.
caricatures are damn hard in my opinion. had a go a few nights ago and turned out quite dismally. Don’t mind this except it feels a bit distorted and I still can’t draw hands for peanuts.

Just solo tonight. Went to the 2 Moriyama exhibitions currently being held. I really love his Shinjuku series but actually didn’t like the retrospective so much and I’m not sure why. I think it may be partly due to trying to show a range of projects the number of images in a series wasn’t huge (but still fairly decent), partly because I’m heavily critical/hard to please and I also think a simple lack of understanding on my part. A series of photos with a glass bottle lying on grass or a pair of boots just doesn’t grab my attention and yet the exhibition goes on to say he won a prestigious Japanese photographers award that year for the series. That kind of hits on something that’s been playing on my mind, (whether the series is actually good or not is irrelevant) that I understand how to take a photograph but don’t understand photography. But that’s a whole tangled web in itself. After I finish studying Japanese I’d like to study some photography and learn from someone with a greater understanding and guide me in a better direction.

Anyway, I thought the Moriyama Hawaii exhibition on the other hand was great. For some reason it felt like such a sense of relief for Moriyama and also for ne to walk into the room after the retrospective didn’t live up to my expectations. Large prints all around the room almost made you feel you could sense what Moriyama saw when he thought of Hawaii. There was also a video at the end which shows Moriyama shooting. I always like seeing how photographers shoot. He seemed like a tourist really, silently shooting with his various small cameras.

Anyway walked from Ebisu to Gotanda, didn’t find much of interest on the way actually..
I sometimes shoot in B&W mode on the 400D and change it to colour in post. Left it as B&W after the Moriyama exhibition I guess.

did a walk from kanda to shimbashi last night with jono and grumpy.
was a bit disappointed at the end of the night but quite like a couple of them now I’m looking at them. The area becomes buzzing with the drunken friday night workers. There is a bit of a life in what’s usually a business area.

Also quite liking the new workflow I’ve been using. Think the images are definitely clearer for it.

Met the ping mag crew today then walked to Shinjuku for coffee with a friend. Had a bit of spare time so took a few shots before then took more after. All with the new lens. I like it, it is definitely a bit soft but it’s small, fast AF, f2.0 is great for night, is built a bit better than the 50mm f1.8 and is almost a true 50mm when you take in the crop factor. Will probably only use it for street photos though.

Was woken up this morning by a delivery man with my new umbrella and stand.
As you might guess I played around with it a fair bit and have little idea on how to use it well. Being in a small apartment (and raining outside) finding a decent backdrop was quite hard but managed to get the backdrop to near black and accentuated that a bit more in post. It’s times like these you wish you had a decent sized living space, but guess I can’t complain.

Also did a quick sharpness test with my lenses. It’s by no means definitive but does show that the 35mm is definitely softer at f2.0. But it does seem to auto focus better than the f1.8 so I do wonder whether if that will mean less shots missed. The first shot with the f1.8 was totally out of focus.

Went shooting in Nakano with Jono tonight. Not the greatest night for people shots but a good night for simply exploring Tokyo.
Also ended up coming home with a new lens - 35mm f2. The 50mm f1.8 is a lovely little lens but a little too long really. Gave the 35mm a good work out, and seemed to be able to focus fast in low light and sharpness seems a little soft at f2.0 but nothing worryingly so. I’ll do a shoot out with my lenses tomorrow to see how they compare.

Been meaning to do more project based photography for a while and seems like that might be starting to fall into place. Obviously my still life lighting exercises seem to be forming something of their own, I’ve had someone say they’re keen to model for me, should have an upcoming project with Akina but I also got in contact with ping mag a while ago to do some shooting for their articles. First one went live today with an article on street light design around Tokyo. Hopefully there’ll be more articles in the future.

» article here

Ok I’ve moved onto 2 strobes, but still quite DIY.
Bought a toy when I was at the supermarket seeing I don’t have much left in the house to shoot.
Used a clear plastic box, small mirror tied to a tripod with string and a white wall. One flash in the box the other lighting up the wall.