The rules for today’s street photograohy mission! #1 can not get off the bike all photo angles must be from the bike
Rule #2 can get off the bike if the purpose is to take a picture with the bike in the frame!
Enjoy the cruise around the neighborhood!
Respect & Love to all. Thanks for watching. You can learn more about me below and follow the links to see the products and other creative outlets I produce.
Please purchase Dang Shades in Japan through this link!
このリンクから日本で Dang Shades を購入してください!
https://c.affitch.com?ref=9MA9GXT646KY
Our Soft Serve Ice Cream Specialty store.
Locale-JZK
https://locale.carrd.co/
Purchase or rent my movie series through Vimeo on Demand.
Car Danchi Movie series
Buy my photo book through Buena Book in Tokyo, Japan
Bluetiful Photo Book
https://tinyurl.com/Bueno-Books-Bluetiful
My hosting work for the city of Sapporo.
Visit Sapporo:
Movie Production work for the beautiful town of Uchiko-cho in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku.
Uchiko Town
https://tinyurl.com/Uchiko
My author profile on Outdoor Japan.
Outdoor Japan
https://www.outdoorjapan.com/author/neil_hartmann/
I use TubeBuddy to help manage my YouTube channel and you should too! Use this link to sign up today!
1972年カリフォルニア州サンディエゴ生まれ。ニールに先駆けてアメリカから北海道へ移住した父親を訪ねて９１年から北海道で暮らし始める、北海道のラジオ局(FM北海道、現AIR-G’)のラジオ司会者としての活動を開始。北海道テレビのスノーボード番組「no matter board」のオリジナル司会。98年長野オリンピックハーフパイプMCや日産エクストレイルジャムのレギュラーMCなど。９０年代後半からスノーボード映像の撮影を独学で開始、自主製作のスノームービー『CAR DANCHI（車団地）』北海道在住のスノーボーダーのドキュメンタリー作品シリーズ。『CAR DANCHI』は、およそ１、２年に１タイトルのペースで発売を重ね、現在までに10作をリリース。最新作『CAR DANCHI 10』は2018年の秋に発売された。
Along with Client and professional work, Neil created his own series of Snowboard documentary films entitled “Car Danchi” The first episode was released in 2005 and a total of 10 titles were produced over 14 years. As the video industry evolved and new outlets for creativity and promotion like social media arose, Neil, shifted again to incorporate this new media. For the last several years, Neil has focused on creating photo and video content for many brands, cities, and towns that concentrate on tourism and travel. “Visit Sapporo” YouTube channel video content. Uchiko Town in Shikoku video and photo production, Rusutsu Resort TV commercials, Social media management for Chalet Ivy Hotel brand, Rusutsu Resort, Niseko Moiwa Resort, and Promotional video production for Tokyu Grand Hirafu Resort, NEC, Sapporo City Ainu promotion, and more.
Besides the video production, Neil and his wife Erina own and manage a Soft Ice Cream specialty shop called “Locale-JZK” In the summer season you can find Neil and Erina greeting customers at the location in Jozankei Onsen. In the winter the shop moves to the top of Sapporo Kokusai resort, Sapporo’s largest ski area. Customers can enjoy delicious Hokkaido soft ice cream at 1,100 meters elevation during the ski season.
hey there Neil here with you it’s time
for a little street photography today I
have my uh my mama chatti as it’s
affectionally known here in Japan
mother’s bicycle is what they’re called
and I’m going to cruise around the
neighborhood here this is my wife’s old
stopping grounds was born here in Tomoka
Japan great little town in the gomma
prefecture of Japan uh I got my Sony 7
R5 today and I’ve got this funky old
lens that I bought it’s an old uh
nior what’s it called nikor
SC 1.4 50 mm lens made by npon Kaku
Japan that’s the original name of the
Nikon Corporation before they came
became Nikon so this lens has got a lot
of character and great for these little
snapshot street photography kind of
missions what I plan to photograph today
is these kind of old funky buildings uh
from the I mean this is really old this
is now abandoned and
unused uh but there’s a lot of buildings
from the showah era here in Tomoka the
showa era was uh like the ‘ 60s 7s and
80s in Japan and it was during the
economic bubble when things were just
going off and everybody was creating
businesses and building houses
and now that uh it’s kind of all gone
down hill you have a lot of these sort
of old funky buildings houses businesses
some still being used some unused and
there’s a lot of them in the
neighborhood here and they make for
great photographic material so uh
today’s rule is going to be I have to
stay on the bike no getting off the bike
I think that’s going to be the rule
we’re just going to cruise on the bike
and we’re going to snap photos we’re
gonna see what we can get I think I’m
going to start off uh in the uh black
and white mode here yeah black and white
and I think I’m actually going to go to
um let’s see what am I’m going to go
to I’m going to go to uh
4×3 we’re going to go to a 4×3 aspect
o here we go 4×3 aspect black and white
and just cruise around and take some
photos okay let’s go have some fun
okay here we go first photo of the day
manual focus by the
way okay that looks
good
okay no particular goals today just sort
of playing it by a you know hope you can
see that a little bit and uh oo this is
going to be
tricky I’ve got the peeking on so I can
kind of the focus but there we
go boom first
shot okay are you
ready I hope you’re
ready we have a train
coming so let’s uh oh boy dangerous
sitting on the train tracks I think it’s
coming let’s wait wait and see if we can
get a shot of the
train coming by o there’s some
flowers we can sneak into someone’s
Garden here and get some
flowers quite
beautiful
um get the exposure oh
wow
ni beautiful beautiful stuff
[Applause]
nothing like riding a bike and taking
some
photos let’s go uh oh see here it comes
okay awesome I wonder if I can make a
sub rule that says I can get off the
bike if I want to put the bike in the
photo yeah let’s let’s do
that that’ll be my little my secondary
rule I can get off the bike but then the
bike has to be in the photo so this is
good
we can get the bike with the
train
and okay
exposure looking good here it comes
pressure’s on oh I kind of want to
go
who Man the action happens fast here
okay that was cool we got the bike in
the photo
now where should I
go I kind of know this neighbor I’ve
been coming here 20 years more than 20
years
actually uh my wife and I have been
married about 20
years and you know every time I come I
cruise around and check out the
neighborhood do little tours like this
it’s kind of
fun oh great looking
Lexus check out this building how cool
is that
so
cool W I don’t think we need the
sequence smells
good oh man someone’s cooking up
some something
good look at all that funky
stuff I’m not going to get very far
today am
I wow it’s like all kinds of junk
there’s a lot of story right here
folks it’s a
whole basket of old pants
some really old fry pants back
there Rusty fry
pants o oh man I am definitely not going
to get very far
today look at this classic
japanese
cool
black Toyota
hias little bright
okay I’m glad I made the don’t get off
the bicycle
rule that’s going to help a little bit
o a lot of u-turns going on here a lot
of
u-turns okay this could be
cool we can do the get off the bicycle
rule one time here I think this is
Worthy
okay there we
go
nice no
real particular statement with that
photo
but I just like the street and I like
the
bike oh man there’s just so much cool
stuff here
I think this is a great uh a great
Pastime just cruising around local
neighborhoods taking
photos let’s get a shot of this house
it’s pretty cool I’m shooting at uh what
am I at I’m at
f2 we can try this lens is kind of
interesting if you go up to like
F4 you obviously get a little more Focus
but it has an insane
vignette at the edge lens take a look
yeah that doesn’t look too bad
um but it gets a it’s a beautiful
vignette around the
uh around the edges you
know
okay I think we’ll go over to the most
famous area in the town here uh this
town is famous for the tomoca silk
Mill and
Factory so they
grew wow check this out let’s go down
this
street silk worms were big here and it’s
sort of
the the beginning of like the Industrial
Age in
Japan uh CU everybody was growing these
silk worms up in the attics of some of
these houses and then they would take
them over to the factory and uh it a big
thing during the war cuz they made like
parachutes for the Japanese military um
but that is the the very brief history
of this town
Tomoka so they have this famous silk
Mill that you can still go and uh take a
look at oh the flowers smells super good
and
um that’s kind of the that’s that’s what
brings in the tourists now to this town
and uh it became a national heritage
site about maybe 10 years
ago wow everything is just blooming
smells
good I love these little narrow streets
you can tell that you know this town was
around before there were cars cuz they
have all these amazing little tight
streets look at this place
wow very cool very very cool
I like that that tree is
funky and then like these buildings
these are Cuda or little storage houses
uh very thick walls highly insulated
this is where they would store uh
rice um who knows maybe potatoes and
other
vegetables um probably mainly rice back
in the day correct me if I’m
wrong let’s see here
that’s pretty nice and some of them are
still fairly well preserved like this
one uh they’ve obviously put siding on
this and I’m sure if you took that off
you’d find stucco and then underneath
that you’d find like a mud insulation on
top of some kind of
uh like bamboo probably they make like a
framing with bamboo and then they put
mud on it make these big thick walls
we’ll probably see one that’s broken
down here somewhere and then you can see
the way the mud is used as
insulation okay so let’s go over to that
uh the main the main area near the the
Tomoka silk Factory if I can get there
man so like when I get into this photo
mode it’s tough it’s tough to like keep
moving you just see so much stuff that
you want to take pictures of here’s a
little
Cemetery Little Corner Cemetery
if you can get a look at
that all right hey we can get the old
classic mirror shot why not this will be
my little portrait for the day here we
go very
nice oh I’m so insanely original this is
like one of the greatest photos ever
wow never
mind excuse the sarcasm oh check out
that
house no window
I think it looks like they’re tearing
this one down yeah you see the uh the
Machinery there the
pylons oh okay they’re letting me cross
here thank
you I didn’t really want to cross but
they stopped people are nice here
actually in this town they uh they stop
so yeah man they’re going to tear this
one down great great I got I’m going to
get a photo of it cuz next time I come
it’s going to be gone so what they do
here when they tear a house down is they
have to now separate all the building
materials so glass metal
insulation wood concrete steel
everything has to be like separated and
taken to like a different disposal
facility you used to be able to just
come in and Crush these old houses just
like tear them down and um that was
it now they make him separated it’s some
kind of environmental uh
thing but it it um it makes it a lot of
work so as you can see they’ve gone in
and they’ve stripped out all the glass
and the
insulation and uh they’re just trying
to okay let’s see I I want to get a
photo from across the street but maybe
we can look in here o okay that I don’t
know why but that’s kind of cool little
woodworking
window let’s see
here oh
tight
Focus
okay okay this is not a bad
shot ah not being able to get off the
bicycle does more difficult doesn’t
it
okay 50
mm I’m going to have to get further
away interesting
let’s get the machine in there see
there’s the tatami you got all the
tatami mats over there on the ground
because that needs to be separated as
well let’s get a shot of the tatami
mats the machine itself with those
[Applause]
okay
well now we can get the whole thing
in let’s have a
look
and
okay yeah say goodbye to another old
house
okay
wow
ah it’s killing me check out the yellow
flowers very nice here
I like I
like so this lens can actually do like
macro photography cuz it’s on this
adapter and uh let’s see how close okay
there we go you get quite
close how does that look
it’s kind of nice let’s get something
coming in the
background H doesn’t
really
okay
who
BVO
2023 the Santo beer penguins
pretty classic character here let’s get
a shot of
this man
W I’ve been in Japan
30 I don’t know 33 years 34 years now
and I speak really good Japanese but I
don’t read or write very much I can get
get through some of the basic simple
alphabets but not the Chinese characters
so I miss a lot by not being able to
read or basically being illiterate you
could say
um and I do wish
sometimes that I could uh I could read
all the signs
because then you can get a lot more
meaning out of things you can you can
see things that you know obviously
something’s interesting because of what
it says or what’s written
but on the other hand not being
distracted by all that written
stuff sometimes has an advantage as well
cuz to me it’s all just very very visual
you know it’s
just it’s just a picture it’s not a word
to me it’s just just another visual
image we’ll cruise by the train station
here this is the train station in uh
Tomoka and then we’ll go down usually in
in every town in Japan that has a train
station there’ll be like a a
little you know road with shops and
stalls it’s called the sheni where you
have like businesses traditionally that
would be you know the street where
people would get off the train and on
their way home they’d buy some bread or
buy some rice or some meat or
whatever now most of these shangai
streets are pretty much
uh going out of out of style and out of
business although there is a bit of a
Resurgence with this sort of
nostalgia for the bygone showa era so um
it’s kind of a cool little shop I don’t
think that was here last time this is
the schang street that leads directly
from the train station and I’m sure back
in the day it was super busy right now
it’s pretty
quiet let’s see here ah oh
awesome let’s get
this little
Ramen om
rice M good
stuff let’s see oh the bobblehead owl
let’s get that the bobblehead owl with
the fake Rose in a vase I love
it
okay
chahan
beer
oong
Mong good
stuff
chah let’s get some chahan
keep a move on keep a move
on huh some new buildings going in
oh
man so much good
stuff if you could get access
oh here we
go swinging around swinging around I
love it look at
this kabura beauty salon beauty salon
kabura check out that place how cool is
that that car with the dusty window
right there I don’t think it’s uh moved
in a long
time
okay very
cool mind get a little further
away I wonder if I’ve created a new
genre of Street cycle
photography that would be cool the rule
is you can’t get off your bike unless
you’re putting the bike in the photo
remember that that folks cabara beauty
salon
wow very
funky very
rundown very out of
business they just left the
car
huh
take see I can I can read some of the
signs so when I do see something that I
can read I end up reading it you know
that’s what happens if you see it you’re
going to read
it oh I love these
characters this is a massage place
apparently it’s got a big logo of a
thumb hold on I got to get the Focus
right here so hard to focus on the
screen just not very good with the the
screen I love looking through the
eyepiece
okay oh man so this
place um this place is kind of cool this
is a shop that’s nothing but buttons
it’s a button shop but and thread I
guess they have thread and buttons it
actually used to be much cooler because
they had these really funky old wooden
doors and they uh the really old it was
like in his 90s it was a guy who was
running it his daughter uh retired from
her job and took over and they kind of
refabbed the place and they put in these
like new doors and windows and it it’s
changed the vibe I mean the place is
still very cool but it was it was much
cooler when it was older
looking oh
sorry okay I want to go
back who that was a tight corner for the
bik that
guy I want to get a shot of
this post box with the
tree I like that that’s that’s
pretty Charming that
is charming where did that word come
from um let’s get a closer
look there’s there’s so much going on
here there’s a little uh Hedgehog
character down there let’s get
that then you’ve got the the post box
with the tree growing perfectly around
it The Little Owl character on the
branch oh oh look at that car oh my
God classic old Toyota Corolla wow that
was
cool ah okay now here we
are Let’s uh how should we go okay let’s
go from down here
so the silk Mill is kind of back over
this way but I’m going to go down here
we’re going to take a right we’re going
to come at
it okay I’ve actually photographed this
place before I think
I why do I love stuff that is just old
and Rusty and like destroyed I don’t
know why but I
do and I think a lot of other people do
too there’s just there’s that nostalgic
aspect of
it there is an old
register wonder if there’s money in
it
wow
yeah just check to see if we’re still
recording yep how you doing down there
hope you’re doing
good hope you’re enjoying the
tour some cool trees over there I like
these trees with the little
clumps get it with the
truck
and without the
truck okay ooh another great old
building
now this is what I’m talking about when
I say like the very old doors look at
how cool that is it’s all Wood
Construction you’ve got that mud
insulation I mean this thing is probably
like 80 100 years
old it’s like you
know like the Victorian houses in San
Francisco but you know you know the
Japanese
version of that there’s concrete but I’m
sure this was added later the original
building was
probably there’s probably not even
really a a
foundation I would see yeah it’s just
like some concrete blocks now it’s got
concrete but I bet underneath that you
would find just like
rocks tin siding on this side what a
this one’s a real piece here this one’s
a pretty classic piece
okay keep it rolling keep it
rolling I should add another rule no
stop longer than like 20 seconds or
something like that just to keep the
tempo
up need like a little a little clock
that appears in the corner counting down
20 19 18
17 you are nearing completion of your
photo stop get on the Move Little
electrical shock in the chair of the
bicycle like keep you moving you
know
okay I don’t think I’ve been on this
road before always cool to explore
something
new new to
me okay not much excitement on this road
when things
get yeah like I don’t know someday maybe
I’ll want to take photos of stuff like
that
there’s certain things that just are not
photographically
attractive there is a
cool uh Kura or storage building right
there this one is made out of stone and
has a very cool door I like that let’s
get a quick
shot not bad let’s see get the exposure
right Focus
ding just one shot 20 seconds okay all
right all
right beautiful trees beautiful trees
beautiful flowers there some nice
flowers compatriot on a bike there okay
so this is
this is I believe another one of the
so-called shopping streets and this one
if we follow it this way we’re going to
head to the to the silk Mill so let’s
kind of cruise and see what we see here
we’re going to see a little bit
more life on these streets
obviously you know gets more traffic
more
tourists so people have been able to
keep their businesses
alive and you you do feel a little bit
more of a vibrancy I
suppose in uh in these or on these
streets oh I love the
uh the
bicycle it’s actually running I think
he’s waiting to take an
order local post
office Japanese post offices are always
pretty cool Catholic Church huh how do
you like that that doesn’t look like a
Catholic
church so when the silk Mill was
designated a
Japan National Treasure
or her it’s a what is it a it’s a UNESCO
world heritage site or something like
that when it received that
status there was
a a bit of a commotion and things like
this parking lot were
built and there was sort of a Revival a
little bit of a Revival and like they I
think they paved this road after that
and the city you know they got pretty
excited obviously and it did in the
beginning especially the first three or
four years there was a lot of Tourism
you know people came on bus tours to
check it out and uh it was interesting
to see how how much an
effect those kind of uh accolades bring
to a small town like this I was able to
kind of observe it
firsthand and uh it’s a good thing it’s
definitely a good thing
so that’s the uh silk Mill directly up
ahead
there you can see we got a guy running a
little business here 500 yen to park
your
car I guess if you own an open Lot close
by here it’s about what you can do with
it little cafe so there’s another big
parking lot I think that’s owned by the
city this is kind of a cool uh
spot next time we can come in here this
this building was actually is very old
if you go in there they got like
displays it’s like a little Museum uh
and this is one of the places where they
were growing the silk worms up in the
attic there and then they had like
Factory Machinery inside to uh turn the
silk produced by the silkworms into
fabric
so yeah a lot of history very cool but
today the rule says I can’t get off the
bike unless I want to take a photo of
the bike so sorry we’re not going to go
in there
today
okay boy look at all there’s like nobody
here and there’s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight I
think I see like eight people working
[Music]
tell you what take you on a uh we’ll go
around the
backside of the Tomoka silk Mill and
I’ll get you a little
view of the
place before we wrap up our our little
tour here oh hold on I got to stop and
get a photo of one of my all-time
favorites I like come and take a photo
of this place every time I come here
we’ll use the get off the bike world for
this
one
okay here we go look at that look at
that door the whole building is just
covered in findes
now there we
go That’s a
classic most definitely
okay so this wall on the left everything
inside the wall is part of the
uh the tomoca silk
Factory and uh it’s not
just the factory building back in the
day they had like the managers and the
workers like living inside the compound
so there’s all these cool funky old
buildings um I’ll just give you a quick
look over the top here see if we can see
they got a little barbed wire kind of
going on here but you can
see what the buildings kind of look like
so that was like housing for the workers
and they would be right on the
property it’s a beautiful building it’s
got uh it’s it’s made out of
brick and inside you can go in and
they’ve got all the what do they call
them like looms all the machines that
would take the the the
yarn and weave it into like the
fabric I don’t know if they made
finished products here I don’t think so
I think they were just making the
material um and you know huge industry
right everybody in the town was uh or a
lot of people at least were were raising
these silk worms to get the material to
sell to this Factory so it basically
supported the whole town for a long long
time but I guess they were the first
place to really turn you know small
little like cottage industries into like
a major
manufacturing large scale production so
I think that’s what really makes tomoca
silk Mill something special is the way
that they turned it
into uh a real industry okay there’s
another at it this is one of the
buildings so inside there would just be
rows and rows of
uh Machinery looms
Etc let’s get a
shot the electrical pole in the way
there
nice while look at this parking here you
can park one day 100
Yen that’s
cheap 100
yen here we got 200 yen bargain bargain
prices here I get see oh look at this
place whoa there’s a bottle oh check it
out absolute nostalgic Paradise right
here bottle of champagne a very old
TV what else we
got uh window
screens
plants uh a kerosene
jug there’s some beautiful flowers here
in the foreground may we can get
that very
cool I love
it there’s I bet if you could get inside
there there would be some amazing
antiques hey parking 300 y the prices
are going up here 100 yen 200 yen 300
Yen I think we’ve got a little
competition going
on look at that
flower hold on cycle
back I think we’re going to run out of
battery soon folks so when the show ends
the show ends hope you enjoyed it I’m
just going to keep on
going
until the battery
dies check that out very cool let’s get
a
Focus up in front
here very
nice got the car in the background air
conditioner there’s a well check that
out so back in the day everybody would
have their own
well and uh this is one right here I
wonder if it still
works pump water straight out of the
ground check that out
nice okay
it’s kind of a cool roof isn’t
it another one of the factory buildings
here let’s get a shot of
this Focus looks
good nice
h
is
another church
[Music]
all right well folks I think that’s uh
that’s going to wrap it up for our tour
today great stuff really enjoyed that
the bicycle photo
Cruise bicycle street
photography a new genre it’s going to
explode it’s going to become the the big
thing on uh on
YouTube give it a try folks I think it
uh it should always be with a mama
chatty
though they’re they’re good cuz you’re
upright and you have this basket like I
got my bottle of water there you could
have a little bag of extra
gear Mountain bike mountain bikes look
cool but let’s be
honest you’re you’re kind of hunched
forward they’re not great for uh
photography this is perfect cuz you can
just sort of stop put your feet down
snap a photo and move on
all right
folks nice we’re still recording that
was 41 minutes that’s awesome so if you
have a chance come and visit the Tomoka
silk Mill here in
Tomoka give him a give him a little
support and check out the neighborhood
around here great to walk around don’t
just visit the mill take a walk around
the city and try to find something to uh
you know use your econom IC power to
support appreciate that and I hope you
enjoyed the photos enjoyed the talk I’ll
be back with another one
soon yeah
1 Comment
Fantastic concept. Keep it up. Surely new photographers would learn a great deal from your technique. Good that there was no traffic.