Color Reflections 2

Shooting Color Reflections in Kawaguchi 2

What:

Yesterday I made an attempt to shoot reflections in color. It was not the original intention for the day, just an overwhelming gut feeling. The images created, poor. The idea, major potential. I returned to the scene of yesterday’s crime.

Kawaguchi city has a number of working phone booths. Their large glass exterior makes for a perfect canvas. A reflection of both the character and characters of the city. This was the main goal of the day, aside from a couple of spots I check on each visit. The plan was to shoot primarily in color, though some black and white does make an appearance.

The contact sheet below is marked up with what I liked, what I didn’t, which images make the cut, and how I plan to edit them.

How:

These phone booths have such large clean panes of glass with clear reflections. They are located on an elevated pedestrian walk adjacent to the train station entrance, providing lots of traffic and light.
The light allowed me to shoot with high shutter speeds, 1/500-1/1000, and a low fstop of f8/f11. The fast shutter speed freezes the moving subjects. While the low ftsop provides a good amount of depth of field. This is crucial as the reflection creates multiple planes of focus. The more the depth of field the greater chance to capture a difficult exposure.
The picture below is an example of just how important the depth of field is. The camera is focused on the woman in the phone booth talking on her iPhone. The girl looking at her phone walking past the phone booths is a few meters in front/askew from the focus point. As well she is walking, constantly changing her focal point.

Kawaguchi Reflections 2

Reflection of a woman on a phone booth.

Why:

Why shoot in color? Why not look for a cool black and white reflection? Why shoot street with 135mm?

Why shoot in color? Color is just what saw. I went with it. The first day wasn’t too good, I am so happy with day two. So much so, this location will be frequented. That image style will be a constant in my bag of skills. (Black and White actually does work)

Why not look for a cool black and white reflection? It was a color first day, which is quite unusual, and I went with it. quickly found myself in a groove. In the edit, I did explore black and white. (see the gallery below)

Why shoot street with 135mm? In practical terms, it’s the compression of depth. Tokyo goes up and down which creates long narrow spaces. Pulling that space together in a single image provides layers upon layers of meta to fill the frame. Philosophically, there is a dreamy idea that if I use a portrait lens to capture a million images of Tokyo, I will have a portrait of the city herself.

Two Frame Reflection

Gallery:

Bellow, the gallery of keepers from day 2 of color reflections in Kawaguchi.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

The bus stop Captain takes a break, black and white image.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Black and white reflection of umbrella in a phone booth.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Black and white reflection of girl on her phone walking past a phone booth.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A man sitting, man’s reflection in elevator glass.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A black and white image of a man waiting under a pedestrian bridge.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A close-up of a man waiting under a pedestrian bridge with a bicycle on the crossing.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A color image of a woman in a phone booth talking on a smartphone.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A woman talking on a smartphone while in a phone booth. color image.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

A woman in a phonebooth talking on a smartphone, old man’s reflection on the phone booth. black and white image.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Black and white image of a man walking away from a phonebooth.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Woman’s reflection on phonebooth.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Old man’s reflection on a phonebooth

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Woman one talks Woman two walks.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Woman 1 talks, woman 2 walks

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

135mm, Smartphone in the phonebooth.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Two frame stitch, work in progress.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Two frame stitch, possible NFT.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Kawaguchi Prince.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Security curbside smoke break, color image.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Contemplative curbside smoke break.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Eye contact curbside smoke break.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Curbside smoke break.

Day2 Kawaguchi Reflections

Kawaguchi Double Monolith

Where:

Kawaguchi City is located just north of Tokyo. A sleepy suburb that still retains much of the character of the previous generation.