A Day of Moody Photography in Hiroshima, Japan

A Day of Moody Photography in Hiroshima, Japan

[Music] I quite like the simplicity of this scene. We have the road curving um in the background. We have nice trees going up. They are really straight and like the the rain. This kind of moody atmosphere works quite well. I tried both vertical and horizontal, but I think a pretty wide shot uh vertical at 28 mm worked pretty well. Like we could see a bit more of the light ping from the top part of the frame. So yeah, I think we have one more shot. [Music] to climb a little bit more to reach the temple that I spotted in Google Maps. I hope it’s worth it. Another scene in the same style. We have this walking path also curving a little bit this time to the right. And we have this small uh red lantern that makes a nice anchor point in the frame. And we have this very atmospherical almost like a foggy rain um that adds so much to to this scene. So yeah, it’s pretty simple. I focus on this uh little lantern. I shoot it at 28 mm and yeah, I think it works pretty decently. [Music] I love what we have here with this red lantern and the little one in the background. They are kind of a main subject and second subject. I think the interaction between the two works well and as you can see there’s even more of this fog rain thing around here. It’s a bit darker, so it’s pushing the mood to the max. Fukuji, this is where we’re going. We are starting to see the shrine. And uh the conditions are really harsh. I’m freezing. But uh I must say that it’s probably the best conditions to shoot this at least. I mean this angle, this seems we have right now in front of the camera because like the the mood coming from this uh rain and overcast almost fog really adds something. It brings up all the greens around and um yeah, it looks so nice. And here we have the staircase that goes all the way up to the shrine that looks very cool. Adds a little bit of direction to to the shot which I really like. And um yeah, it’s pretty simple. I will shoot it again pretty wide focusing on the shrine. And yeah, let’s grab the shot. There’s something I really like doing in this kind of situation. Like when I see this kind of scene, I really like them, but in photos it doesn’t really translate well. So, what I do is use a Dutch tilt to tilt a little bit the composition and have something that goes like this. I think it brings a little bit more dynamism and it’s less boring than if we were shooting it straight in the middle um with everything perfectly aligned and symmetrical. Here we go. [Music] I am suffering a little bit but uh I think those conditions were the best I could um have for this location. It was so nice with this mood and um the location itself. It was my first time here and it was a lot larger and just a lot more beautiful than what I expected. The photos I saw on Google Maps were not really paying justice to uh to this location. So, I’m glad I came. And now I think I should invest in better gear for this kind of conditions because uh yeah, I kind of like to shoot uh these kind of photos, but I just don’t like being so cold. So yeah, I think it could be a smart investment. So I just want to take a minute before moving to the next location to thanks today’s video sponsor, Milanote, the best tool for organizing creative projects. I often go on these photography day trips and to make the most out of them, I do a little bit of planning. And to do so, I love using Milanote because I can make a visual representation of how I get organized for the day. It’s like a big board, very customizable. You can create simple notes, to-do lists, and short list, insert photos, videos, and more. You can group some notes together by theme, and anything that helps you visualize your whole project. Regardless of what creative project you’re about to tackle, Milanote has a built-in template for you to start laying down your project. For this very day of shooting, I started my board using the Photoshop Plan template. Starting on the left with a global description about the project, what and where I will shoot, whether I plan to make a video out of it, and what it could be about. I inserted a link to Google Maps with some locations that I wanted to shoot and scout during the day. Very important, I also included an inspiration mood board with some pictures I sourced online. And to do so, you can use the Milanote web clipper extension. Then I made a group with everything logistics info about my rental car. And also, I put a nice lunch spot because why not add even more excitement during this shooting day, right? I also linked the weather prediction to help me prepare and that made me think of how and what to shoot in these conditions. Then I have a gear checklist to make sure I bring everything with me and a short list so I don’t forget anything I wanted to talk about in the video. It is very easy to keep track of that because they also have a smartphone app so you can view and check boxes on the go. I also like the last column that I fill up after the shoot. I paste my favorite photos of the day. So it’s a good way to visualize what was accomplished and it’s also a very good starting point to build some photo sets that I will be sharing online. Milanote is available for free and with no time limit. Sign up using the link in description to start your next creative project. So, thanks again Millanote for sponsoring this video. And now, let’s get back to [Music] it. Really like this house with the road coming here on the right side. Creates a nice leading line. You have the moody clouds on the top left corner. Simple, yet it works. With the weather today, we can really take here a very moody photo like focusing on the top of the mountain somewhere at 50 mm or something. And with the nice clouds, it creates yeah this kind of atmospheric feeling. And the mountain itself almost looks only as a silhouette which is quite interesting. It will be pretty minimal. And yeah, I will try to compose that now. [Music] I really like this uh Tori made out of stone and it pairs well with the wall here also made of stone. It’s leading to the shrine I’m going to visit next. But here we have a nice opportunity for a very center shot which I like. And I want to take it wide. But the issue is that if I do so, there will be a little bit of this handrail. And here this wall will appear in the photo. Uh which I’m not a big fan of. But the thing is that if I get closer or if I use a tighter focal length, then um the trees here will be cut at a very random and uh very nice position. So, I think I will shoot it wide anyway and maybe use a little bit of stamp remove tool here with this unrail. Trying to uh figure out a way to make the scene as simple looking as possible. [Music] here. If I go a little bit tighter around 40 mm, we can have a nice minimal uh frame here focusing on the roof of this very cool looking traditional house with the beautiful clouds in the background. It looks very monochromatic. It’s very moody. And yeah, I guess it’s the theme today, like moody shots. And this one works pretty well, I think. [Music] [Music] I spotted this uh ramen restaurants on Google Maps and decided to come here not to eat because anyway today would not have been the right day because it is uh closed for business regular uh closing day of the week. But no, I decided to come here to take a photo of it because it looks so random. It has this boat shape and um I also paid attention to where it was located. I mean behind we have a very open background which is perfect for the photo I envisioned. And today we can see the clouds on this side. looks very nice with the the mountain and it makes something quite interesting on the right side but otherwise we have a clear white sky which u gives the the stage the full stage to the subject of this frame. So I went a little bit further back because now we have the roof of the restaurant not being blended by the you see the edge of the mountain like where I was before it was I think somewhere like this and we see that the mountain here goes down and it’s kind of blending with the roof I mean the top of the roof of the restaurant which doesn’t really look good. So by stepping away a little bit more and adjusting the focal length accordingly, we can have something not too busy on the edges. Obviously, I will not include that. And yeah, small adjustments makes big [Music] difference. [Music] Here, if I use my zoom lens to the maximum range, 70 mm, with APS-C crop mode, it makes 105 mm and we can focus really on these clouds and mountains in the background just behind this highway and looks very minimal. Looks quite cool. So, I will try that and later I will continue exploring this place. But uh doesn’t seem to have a much more interesting things to photograph. [Applause] Here’s a good example about how your position and your angle is important. Because right now where I stand, I have a nice angle on the train. I mean, I like how we can see the front and the side of the train. And also by coming here now, I have a much more simple uh frame than before. Because if I was here, we could see a lot of uh I mean there’s a a car, there’s two buses behind the train, and shooting it like this would make um the photo a lot more messy. But by just moving it a little bit on the left, we have a better angle on the train and we have a much more simple scene. By the way, it’s an old train station that is not in use anymore. It’s just here as a um sightseeing spot. And I like the mood again with this weather. I mean, it’s cold, it’s wet, but um it looks good in photo. But it is not really the season to come here because uh there’s a lot of trees that uh are sakura trees, I guess. And in about a month it will look absolutely beautiful with some sakura trees. But yeah, I’m here today with rain and cold. But u happy to be here. 35 mil. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] here. I’m glad I decided to bring my zoom lens uh today because as you can see behind me, there’s not more space for me to get further back. And uh luckily at 28 mm, it uh fits everything in the frame. So yeah, that was a bit pragmatic today and went for a very simple kind of boring setup. a general purpose zoom lens 2870 with the A74 [Music] Sony. I just found a quite interesting angle here. Um, I decided to squat down a little bit, but usually I try not to move too much my position because I like to keep things at eye level to keep some sort of realism in my photos. But here I think it works well. We have these three on the right that um frame the the pagoda nicely kind of leads the viewer’s eye into the main subject. We have a little bit more of these like rain puddles on the left side which brings a little bit more interest in the [Music] photo. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] I love this little hut here surrounded by so many greens and with this little winding path that goes to it. It works so well with the rain. At the moment it’s super cold. My feet are wet. But um the rain with this kind of greens, this kind of scene just works so well together. [Music] [Music] quite like this guy with the red hat. And um here we can use a composition technique I really like which is blocking or using foreground to further simplify the scene. We have this nice uh tree here on the right side of the frame. And I guess if we frame it vertically, we can have something pretty simple. And um of course using a longer focal length, I guess I will use 70 mil. And um we’ll see how it turns out. [Music] [Music]

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