City Night Scape

I saw a poster of Tokyo Tower taken From Mori Building in Roppongi over a year ago and told my self that a simular image would be nice to have in my stock. Have had requests for "post card" images of this kind in the past but never really got to it to take these. There are certain cliche images all and everyone have seen from Tokyo and have got used to associate with the city. Sanya Festival, Asakusa Temple, Jingu Shrine, Teenagers in Harayuku, Shibuya Crossing etc...and Tokyo Tower. I usually don't shoot these subjects but the view from Roppongi Hills on this clear day (was very windy earlier in the day so the smog was gone) was superb with the light slowly shifting as the sun was fading in the west. I got me that "post card" I set out to get and can now relax and say -"Sure thing!" when next client asks for a good shot of the landmark being 3 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower (just to piss-off the French I believe). Cost you almost $20 to ride the elevator up there, Mr Mori isn't Mr. Mori for no reason....

California V.S m.w.c.p

Going to be in California on various jobs and excursions between July 7 - 20. So if any of you good people in that part of the world have anything cool you think I should see or do please let me know. To continue a project I started a couple of years ago about the lost highways in no mans land, Joshua Tree & Death Valley is on the schedule after some time in L.A proper.

The best way to reach me at the moment : nishitaka@hotmail.com

Visions Of The Kansai Ghetto (Click on the image)

Being the second city in Japan, Osaka is a world away from mighty Tokyo. Home of junk food, sluttish looking women and apparently a funny dialect (I can't tell the difference). I went down to Osaka for a couple of days to hang with my good friend Jeremy. He showed me around and after shooting the Castle, American Village (Ame Mura) & Namba and some YakiNikku smoked filled area of the city I had got a pretty much good taste of what the city was about. I definitely recommend a visit to Osaka to clearly see the different styles and trends of the Japanese citiesand what they are all'bout.

Survive @ Earth Dom

Another great gig from the Heavy Root Metal dudes in SURVIVE. I let the images speak for themselves, just a hint for you camera geeks, this was Canon 15mm Fullframe, 1" on Tv mode, Strobe at manual 24mm.

See if you get it f I put it in this formula instead : 15mm F.F.F.E x1" V.S Tv+24mm manual=metal photography.

LR's Direct Positive With A Twist

Dusk in the biggest city on earth i.e. "In comes 5D & LR, out goes the common sense..."

Tokyo Metal : Pulling Teeth And Friends

EARTH DOM is a small, airtight dark bunker in the dingy Korean area of Tokyo. It's here, and at numerous places like this you will see the best live performances on a any given day in the royal capital of Tokyo.
I have been following Pulling Teeth with a camera for a couple of years now and to the guys in and around the band as well as all the other DIY bands playing in the same league I owe a big thanx. I entered this scene as a complete outsider but have now after a couple of years got accepted and this has opened up doors to take more and better photographs of the people involved. It's a scene I love to be in and it's great to be able as a non band member to contribute with something that these people appreciate.

Tonights gig was shot entirely with Canons 15mm fullframe fisheye lens, f2.8. Had to be really close not to get too much stuff going on in the composition. The light was shifting constantly so the reading of both strobe ( -1/2 ) and camera (-1/3) had it's up's and downs but in general this wide angle view worked out better than I thought. The live venue was also really packed and the stage as usual, not bigger that an average phonebooth helped as well to get that "packed" mood as well as the comunication between the band and the moshing audience.

The New Work Flow

I never liked to sit in front of the computer, still I don't even if I actually do it for hours everyday. I have a very comfortable well organized small but effective office where I have all my camera/photo gear, my slide stock, my collection of photo books, scanner, printer, a very nice soft chair with wheels and arm rests to spend many long hours in and of course, my iMac G5 with 10GB of pure Heavymetal and Hardcore (plus some Wagner and Madonna). There is also a gas heater for cold winter days and a brand new airconditioner for hot summer nights, the coffee machine is just in the next room and there isn't really anything more to ask for exept this urge to actually be outside shooting. Since I have always respected and regarded the simple in life a priority I have for some time now been waiting for Adobe ( Abode with a twist...) to finally release the new software, i.e Lightroom. Well, to buy this was not as easy as you might think, seemed like the Japanese version which came out month behind the "world release" was only available in Japanese. I need to work in English so I ordered one on the internet. But there seemed to be some WTO conspiracy in the air cos this was not possible from either Adobes homepage or Amazon where I buy lots of stuff (mainly books).
Then I found a solution, there is a shop in N.Y.C called Adorama that worked pretty smooth when I ordered some 4GB FlashCards, and yes, I had the software in the computer a week after I sent them the order on the net. So what was this all about, why couldn't I get this very famous piece of Adobian engineering in a less timeconsuming and smooth way? Anyways, Lightroom, or LR as it's called officially might be the solution for m.w.c.p. If I can find the right workflow in RAW I can spend less time in my super nice and cozy office and more time carrying around tons of equipment in some 3rd world shit hole (to quote Trevor, a travelling Aussie I met on a bus out of Bangalore in India once) or on HardCore venues with stagediving misfits, just the way I like it.

Always The Hard Way...

No comment...

The Final Step

I asked a photographer friend to shoot my body suit for an upcoming article in a British magazine. Looked best in B/W.











































Thank you Saito Sensei ( http://mary-portfolio.mond.jp/ ), you did a nice job with that 5D.

Nippon "Live House" kulture

The Japanese "live" scene is cool. It's not a huge metal/hardcore scene here but it's never the less here and it's intense, very intense. The Japanese moshpits are fun, most of these light featherweights are doing their best to kick the shit out of eachother but always with a murky smile on their face. I have seen many times "westerners" trying to make themselves understood in the circle pit by doing what they do home in Bavaria or Kentucky or where ever they come from. The lokal kids just gets shit scared and will either try to fight the aggressor for real (!?) or just from a distance keep aways from that lonely frustrated white man, all pumped up, standing there alone in the pit looking just plain dumb. The thing with Tokyo is that most bands pass by here for a couple of gigs on whatever "world tour" they are on, and most of the times they play in really small venues, makes it easier as photographer to get close to both the bands and the kids but there are usually no place to shoot from except from in the middle of the pit or on stage, fine with me. Next month we have MADBALL, H2O, SICK OF IT ALL here in Tokyo (in one of the oldest and smallest venues there is, great...) and even metalcore gods LAMB OF GODS will play a gig or two (also in a tiny place).

Agnostic Front V.S Aggressive Dogs

Grand Fathers of New York Hard Core i.e AGNOSTIC FRONT versus the real Old timers of Japanese Hard Core i.e AGGRESSIVE DOGS. Man, was this a gig we all just had to go and see. I was as always jumping around with my gear in a tight grip both on stage and in the pit and I even managed to squeeze in a stage dive while a buddy held my camera. Had the day before made an interview/group shoot with the bands and they were all really cool people with no wierd attitudes what so ever,see, that's what I'm talking about. Hard Core people just don't have to play hard and be funny (funny!), it's all in the lifestyle and the lifestyle is real, as real as it comes. I Like to meet people from all walks of life but it's when you meet people like these guys that you can relax and let your guard down.

Technically, it was hard to find that flow in light settings between the on camera flash and the camera settings. I am used to shoot with 35mm slide film and you don't really have the same shit to struggle with on a film camera as you do on a digital. Just so much more light sensitive. Seems like all that crazy light at a gig just fucks some digital chip up and gives you often a very over exposed image. I was shooting the whole range of settings during the sets, M,P,Tv,Av, flash on auto and manual. Used a 22-70 f2.8 the whole evening and that lens is just great for this kind of work. And with the camera attached to a sidegrip you get that extra security in holding the stuff in the mosh pit and around the crowd. All in all, it worked out pretty nice in the end and from now on I have to use my 4GB cards instead of the usual 1GB, was running out of data space (man, what is this world coming to, can't belive I just wrote that...data space..if you didn't know I was sXe you would think I was stoned or something?)

Always the Hard Way, the H.C way!