One reason I love living in Japan!

One reason I love living in Japan!
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

I am always amazed when people back in Australia tell me how much it still costs to have a decent internet connection (let alone an unlimited download limit). Is it really that hard to hook everyone up with nice fast access without paying through the nose for every gigabyte you download?! Come on already we're in the age of technology aren't we?

Shooting Autumn

Namekawa waterfall hdr pano
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

Been getting out as much as possible on my days off recently to try and capture some nice Autumn colours up in the mountains of Fukushima and Yamagatta prefectures. Tried this HDR panorama shot of these amazing falls just near Namekawa hot spring just over the boarder into Yamagatta prefecture. Its about an hour hike from the onsen (Hot spring) up and over a ridge down to a beautiful clear water rock river. Then you make your way up the river for about 5 minuets or so to get to the base of the falls. Its not a walk in the park to get here thats for sure.
Im always amazed at the strength of the elderly Japanese people that make an effort to make the climb to get here. Although I didnt see anyone make it all the way to the falls there were quite a few people making the climb and decent some of the way or most of the way before turning back as it gets a little tricky balancing over rocks etc.. But they are just amazing.

So to make the most of my time on the days off Ive been getting up around 3:30~4am to drive out to these places. Its a great change from shooting all day in the studio or at weddings etc.. Very relaxing. But I defiantly don't feel like a professional photographer as far as landscapes and nature goes yet. Still fun though!
As usual come check out more recent shots on Flickr or Smugmug.

Canon 1D Mark IV details released!

The new flagship camera from Canon will be gracing us with it presence very soon and specs for the camera have been showing up around the net. It looks to have fantastic high ISO low noise performance. ISO can now be extended up to a whopping 102,400 ISO!!!!! You'll be able to overexpose a pitch black room while still keeping it pin sharp handheld lol, now thats insane!

Heres a little vid explaining more of the Canon 1D mk IV's features.

The Daily Grind

The Daily Grind
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

After a very long day (started at 3:30am) shooting on my day off up various mountains looking for nice autumn colours I ended up at our local skate park shooting some of the fellas doing there thing there. I was experimenting with some off camera "Strobist" type flash shots and also mucking around with some pseudo HDR stuff as you can see in this shot.

As I get so many questions about how I do my HDR's I will be witting up a more detailed blog post shortly explaining my technique so I dont have to keep witting it over and over for every email.

Jet screams like a chimp

Heres a funny little clip I captured on my Canon G9 of Jet in the park. He wanted to go higher so Mummy was pushing him higher. Maybe bit off a bit more then he could chew LOL

Jenna pix

Heres a few more photos of new born Jenna I just uploaded to Smugmug for anyone who would like to see.

http://petesphotographyjapan.smugmug.com/Other/Jenna-just-born/9889157_fHz2Z

Keep checking back for new additions to the gallery!

Its a girl!!

Our baby girl Jenna was born at 4:30 this morning! 3 days over due but at least the labor was quick this time (6hrs) compared to with Jet (24hrs or so?). Both Haruna and baby are doing great and are resting at the clinic for a few more days before going back to Harunas parents place to stay for a month as is Japanese tradition.

I managed to get some shots of little Jenna being born also this time. I shot with the Canon 5D and 50mm f1.4mm so there was no need for flash and could also get a nice shallow depth of field.

Now its time for a long over due nap!

More photos to come later today. 8)

Lets see who gets sick first Daddy!

Lets see who gets sick first Daddy!
Originally uploaded by Shenanigans in Japan

Still on the subject of movement, I knew I would make myself sick trying to get this shot but couldn't pass it up anyway. I used my Joby Gorilla pod to mount my Canon 5D to one of the poles on this spinning thing in a park here in Fukushima. To illuminate Jet I used my 550ex flash held in my left hand and synced via Canon's ttl sync cord. Shutter speed was 10th/sec to make the nice background blur.

Its all about motion

Had the day off yesterday and the weather was nice so decided to take the 50cc scooter for a spin up the mountains to hit the onsen for a while and and to also have a play with my Canon G9 and Gorilla pod. Heres a couple of results.

This river runs for miles down the mountain from the hot spring towns and has tons of great little waterfalls along the way. The red in this shot is caused by reflections of the red rocks behind the falls. Kinda looks like a painting?

Mounted my Gorilla Pod to the handle bars of my fun little 50cc scooter with Canon G9 attached for this shot zooming up the mountain roads. Very hard to get a good smooth shot though as it was so bumpy.

For dinner we headed out to one of the local Sushi joints for a fish fix. I was still in the mood for more motion shots so decided to try and attach Gorilla Pod to the window of the car with the Canon 5D and Sigma 15-30mm mounted on it. I kept held of the camera strap for back up and fired it via cable release. It stayed steady the whole way and didnt even look like falling off even with the heavy body, lens and big metal ball head on it.

This was just a spur of the moment shot. I was firstly mucking around trying to shoot panning shots of the sushi at like half a second and 1 full sec exposures etc.. and got a couple of not bad ones. But then I thought it might be cool to let my 5D go along for a ride with the sushi and came up with this.

Day turns to night from Dust storms in Australia

I was just sitting in my studio killing time between shoots when messages started coming in via Facebook etc.. "But you wish you were in Oz with your camera now ey?" Why whats happening?? Sydney had apparently woken up to a crazy dust storm and it was making its way up to Brisbane.

Yeah I wish I was there! Looks like a great op for some very cool photos.

Anyway check out this crazy amature video footage I found on YouTube