Close and involved - in Japan

Planning
I have been on holiday in Japan for the past two weeks and I took the opportunity to get close to some Japanese people that I thought would be interesting photo subjects.
Mostly I was using a 28mm prime lens which is equivalent to a 40mm focal length approximately in 35mm film terms. This is midway between a 50mm standard lens and a 28mm wide angle. With this lens, I still needed to have a viewpoint only a couple of metres away from the subject. Whilst my 18-200 mm zoom lens would have provided a wider angle, the bulk of this lens and camera combination makes it unsuitable for surreptitious photographs.

Before we left for Japan I experimented taking photographs in Guildford High Street with a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot camera. Whilst I succeeded in getting at least one satisfactory photo, I was not convinced that this sort of camera would suit my purpose:-

• It felt equally conspicuous holding the point and shoot camera as I do holding my DSLRwith a small lens. People still glanced at me rather suspiciously.
• The LCD screen helped with composition only occasionally when the camera was reasonably level with my face and not too far away. This particular screen had a setting to improve visibility when viewed from below. This made the screen clearer, but it was of little help when holding the camera at arms length. With my DSLR, it is possible to shoot blind: taking multiple shots holding the camera at arms length hoping that the composition and focus of one of them will be satisfactory. This can work in quite a number of situations.
• The flexibility would be somewhat limited as this sort of camera is not so good in low light conditions as a DSLR.

I thought that it was worth trying street photos with my 28mm prime lens on a DLSR rather than using a smaller less noticeable camera for two reasons:

• I saw a video about a London based street photographer last year whose camera of choice was a DSLR.
• I recalled reading an interview with photojournalist Magali Delporte in which she disclosed that all her work is done with a DSLR and three prime lenses a 24, a 35 and a 50mm.

Photography

Tokyo commuters

Nikon 28mm: Iso 400 f5.6 for 1/90th second

During office hours, the trains were not too crowded and it was possible to get a clear view of the commuters sitting across the carriage. I had my camera on my lap and took a sequence of photos of these three individuals, shooting blind, whilst pretending to look at photos on the LCD screen. The shutter makes a slight noise, but this was probably drowned by the background noise.

In this photograph, both men are looking up as if in thought, whereas the girl in the centre is engrossed in her mobile phone. The man with the trilby hat on the left hand side is rather stylishly dressed. The three figures are all clutching handphones with different hand positions - a repetition that potentially links them together. The background is busy but it is not a strong distraction against the figures in the foreground.

Study visit

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f8 for 1/160th seconds

A group of smartly uniformed schoolboys were sitting down outside a famous Buddhist temple busily writing in their notebooks. I held my camera hanging down by my side in my right hand and stood just in front of them, again shooting blind. Most of the photos cut off part of their bodies, but in this one, they were both whole. I just needed to crop a little from the ground and sky.

The two boys in this picture appear to be working together, one writing something down, the other one sitting sideways watching him. looking rather studious in his glasses. From a lighting standpoint, the photograph is not very satisfactory. The light on their faces is flat and lacks contrast. Furthermore, there are some highlights in the background which need to be toned down.
Contrasting styles

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f2.8 1/2500th seconds
Japanese youngsters have their own fashion styles as illustrated by these two girls one in a short frilly skirt with knee length stockings, and the other in t-shirt and trousers in monochrome grungy colours.
I used the same technique as the photograph of the two boys above: dangling my camera by my side, standing fairly close to the subject and shooting a number of photos to get one with the subjects in the frame. This photograph is better from a lighting standpoint than the one above as the background is relatively dark in tone so that the subjects stand out.

Late for school

Nikon 28mm: Iso 200 f4.5 for 1/200th

For this photograph, I used the technique mentioned in the notes of pointing the camera slightly away from the subject so that the subject is not less aware that the wide angle lens has in fact taken their photograph.
It is good to experiment using the camera in different ways, and to devise ways to disguise the fact that one is taking someone's photograph. For most subjects however, the results were better using the viewfinder, such as, for example, the following.

Geisha dashing for a dinner appointment

Nikon 28mm: Iso 800 f2.8 for 1/20th seconds

The most likely time to see geishas on the street is at dinner time, after dark, as they walk to the high class private restaurants where they perform and entertain. I set my camera to a high Iso and the aperture to the widest setting but still the shutter speed was too low to be sharp. The geisha moves quickly along the street but the slight panning movement of the camera blurs the background more than the subject. The light was also low for the autofocus to respond. I should have anticipated this and tried manual focussing instead. Still it was a valuable lesson of photography in tricky conditions.
Technical matters
I have used a different workflow for the photographs I have taken in Japan. The photographs were taken in RAW and uploaded daily onto an iPad. I sorted and cleaned up the pictures using the Photo app and iPhoto app on the iPad directly. The resulting selected images have been uploaded as JPEGs to my desktop computer and have been posted directly in this blog. Previously, I have uploaded RAW images to my desktop after returning home, and I have sorted and cleaned up the pictures using Lightroom 3. I previously used the iPad only to get a preliminary view of the photos. The iPad workflow minimises the time lag before posting web-size photographs. For prints however, I assume that I will still use Lightroom 3.
Conclusions
On this holiday, I tried to look for as many people photographs as I could, as I wanted to show the Japanese in their daily lives, not just the well-known tourist sights. I have included only a few to illustrate the techniques that I used and the experience I gained from taking these photographs. There seemed to be some situations where it was possible to use the camera viewfinder without attracting attention, even when standing close to the subject. There were other situations, however, where it was necessary to shoot blind, taking account of the viewing angle of the lens (53 degrees for the 28mm lens) to judge where to stand.