A Day of 35mm Street Photography in Hiroshima, Japan

A Day of 35mm Street Photography in Hiroshima, Japan

[Music] So, this was a short preview of the mix of atmosphere and ambiance you can experience at the Hiroshima Flower Festival. It is one of the biggest festivals in Japan, and it carries a profound message of peace and remembrance, honoring this city’s history and resilience. This was my excuse to go out in the city and shoot some photos. This week, I thought it could be fun to capture the atmosphere and the people attending this event. And for sure, there was a lot of actions and characters maybe too much for someone like me who leans more towards composition-driven photography. That’s also why at some point I decided to go out of the festival area to recenter and shoot things I’m more used to. It was a challenge, but I had some fun and I will bring you along in this video trying to show you my workflow and explain my thought process like I usually do. So, I eased into the day by getting ready and shooting some photos from the bridge. Looking at the atomic bomb dome, it was just a bit before 1 p.m. for these first photos, so the sun was very high in the sky, not giving much potential for dynamic lighting setups, but still it brought the spring colors nicely, and I like the kind of bright looking shots we can take in such conditions. I included one person in this frame to give more life and direction to it. I love capturing the dome at this time of the year because we have the contrast between the building who carries a heavy historical background surrounded by the fresh greenery. It’s a nice symbol of Hiroshima and how it revived after World War II. [Music] [Music] Going into the peace memorial park, I could hear some music playing by the river. There were people performing on this riverside stage, and I saw that the vibrant green dresses just popped nicely against the red carpet. I decided to include the two people in the foreground and frame the performers right at the center. It adds a feeling of being there almost like you’re in the crowd too. I think it is more interesting than capturing the performers straight on. But now where it falls short is the fact that everyone is facing the same direction away from the camera. So it feels a bit odd. I walked a bit more to see if there was something to be done from this other angle having the performers and the atomic bomb in the frame. Also heard the sightseeing boat coming from the right. So I waited and tried to capture everything, the performers, the boat and the dome. I quite like the woman popping in the right side of the frame too, wrapping everything up and adding another layer. But still, I find this photo a bit too busy. The light comes from my back, so there is no interesting light play to save this shot. Maybe a slightly wider lens to give more breathing room around the edges could have worked, but it could also have made the scene even more busy with more people in the frame. [Music] This next one is a breeze of fresher after the last busy frames. This one is much quieter. I saw this man sitting alone near the flowers and I stayed at the distance not to disrupt the scene. I like contrast as the frame is almost split into two. The left side is neutral, paved, quiet, and the right side is bursting with life and color. I think that this position works well here. I decided to crop this one in 4×3 to make the photo much cleaner. I’ll show the original to illustrate my point. If I kept the original 3×2, you have all these peoples and buildings in the background. Cropping is not cheating. It is one of the best tools you have to simplify your photos and fully extract their potential. [Music] [Music] After that, I kept walking in the peace memorial park and also in the busy areas of the festival. But I quickly noticed that my attention was split between too many things. Hiroshima is usually not that busy and although I love the work from the photographers capturing this kind of bustling environments, it is quite difficult for me. So I needed a quick break. I went through this underground passage and shopping complex when I saw a nice opportunity for a more abstract shot playing with the reflection and silhouetted subjects against this bright and golden backdrop coming from outside of the passage. I placed my camera almost on the pillar to my left trying to add this reflection coming from it. sleek surface. I waited and waited again to have one single subject reaching for the door on the right side of the frame, but the moment never came. Instead, I kept this shot with the man right at the center mixing with the abstract reflection. I thought this one worked out well, too. I used the cropon this one to have more of a 15 field of view. [Music] What I was trying to explain here is how my placement was important to achieve good subject separation and make this photo better. If I stood more on the right, this pole with the street light would have been right at the center of the area where I wanted my subject to walk in. It would have been mixed with the subject and make this photo a bit pointless. But by trying to go as much left as possible, I could stick this pole to the edge of the building behind it, opening a much wider area for my subject to walk in. After that, it was easy. I just had to wait for someone to walk there. And I quite like the result. For the thumbnail of the video, I cheated a bit and used the stamped remove tool to make it even cleaner. And since this one is not really documentary, but more composition driven, I think it could be okay to use such tool. [Music] Oh, are [Music] Don’t [Music] Okay, good morning. [Music] I slowly made my way back to the more busy areas closer to the festival when I saw this woman dressed in yellow from a distance. She literally was dressed in yellow from head to toe. Luckily, the surroundings were quite neutral in color, helping to make her pop just like she did in my mind when I saw her walking in the streets. The next one is about color and repetition. I didn’t frame this one with a particular subject in mind. What caught my eye was the echo of those bright red pants and skirts across these two people in the frame. That kind of visual rhythm doesn’t happen that often in street photography. So when it does, I try to capture it. Sometimes in Asia, you would see couples or close friends wearing the same outfit somehow they like that. But here, to my understanding, these two people who are not linked whatsoever. So in my mind, it adds a bit of value to this shot. Otherwise, it was a bit chaotic. But I like the lightning, too. Slightly angled and coming from the right. It creates more contrast and depth than earlier in the day. After that, the battery in my GoPro died. So, I leave you with clips from the Sony and the last few pictures I took. I think that maybe a 20 mm lens could have been more appropriate for this kind of shooting environment. It would have let me take a bit more dynamic photos, giving this right in the action feeling. Or I could have done the other route, maybe with a 50 or even an 85 mm and going with a complete different mindset, focusing on details overlooked moment or going abstract since there was so many colors and textures to play with. Regardless of that, if I look at the photos I got at a festival like this one now and compare them to what I was shooting 3 years ago, I can see some improvements. Not necessarily on the photos shown in this video, but more on my purpose when going out to shoot in such conditions. Before I would have snapped much more and took photos of people in focus with a quite shallow depth of field just because I thought it looked cool and that I could take them with my modern and capable camera. Now I can look at the photos and also the ones I did not include in this video and clearly identify the why I tried certain shots whether it was for a special moment or a unique character. Most of my photo attempts are motivated by something. They are not taken just for the sake of pressing the shutter and getting those photos because I can. So yeah, the good thing is that I see some improvements and I think I matured as a photographer in these last three years. But it also makes shooting in such event more difficult than it was before because I’m working harder and looking around with a lot more intention than before. The results in my opinion are worth it for sure. So that’s a win. [Music] every [Music] week. What is the All [Music] [Music] right. What is the [Music] And here comes the end of this video. Thanks for sticking around and I wish you a nice day or a good night. See you soon. Bye.

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