Mad World (Explore 16/10/17 #231)
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan
If you Google "Shibuya crossing" and click on images you will most certainly recognise only two viewpoints - the obvious is at street level and the other from an elevated point which I know of only two. One is from an hotel and restaurant which has now cottoned on and blocked access to photographers, especially those with tripods and the other is from Starbucks with a 1st floor gallery right opposite the crossing. Unfortunately, everybody else knows of this viewpoint and so the queue to get a front row seat is considerable. I've never seen so many people make a Frappuccino last so long but that's probably just the excitement in me to get my shot!
But patience is a virtue, or so I'm told and eventually we muscled our way to the front row. This was to be the scene of my first upload... a tripod shot, 2 to 3 seconds exposure with Mrs R stood in the middle of the crossing waving at me with the masses all blurred around her but the best laid plans of mice and men fell at the first hurdle.
Firstly - you can't set up a tripod in Starbucks but I was wise to this fact and so bought a gorilla pod specially for the job.
Secondly - the front row consists of high level tables between the pillars which is constantly on the bounce with people leaning and pushing against them so no stable platform for the pod.
Thirdly - the distance from said tables to the windows makes reflections impossible to avoid so shot one well and truly knackered!
The only thing to do is watch all the fun below whilst drinking your Matcha green tea latte (it's the future, try it sometime)... albeit slowly before getting out there and joining the masses.
I wanted to capture the chaos of the scene and couldn't think of a better way of conveying the randomness of the masses other than setting my camera to slow shutter speed, holding it above my head and crossing with everybody else when the lights go green. A bit random I agree, but I like the effect and it fits nicely with the accompanying track suggested by Mrs R.
Mad World (Explore 16/10/17 #231)
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan
If you Google "Shibuya crossing" and click on images you will most certainly recognise only two viewpoints - the obvious is at street level and the other from an elevated point which I know of only two. One is from an hotel and restaurant which has now cottoned on and blocked access to photographers, especially those with tripods and the other is from Starbucks with a 1st floor gallery right opposite the crossing. Unfortunately, everybody else knows of this viewpoint and so the queue to get a front row seat is considerable. I've never seen so many people make a Frappuccino last so long but that's probably just the excitement in me to get my shot!
But patience is a virtue, or so I'm told and eventually we muscled our way to the front row. This was to be the scene of my first upload... a tripod shot, 2 to 3 seconds exposure with Mrs R stood in the middle of the crossing waving at me with the masses all blurred around her but the best laid plans of mice and men fell at the first hurdle.
Firstly - you can't set up a tripod in Starbucks but I was wise to this fact and so bought a gorilla pod specially for the job.
Secondly - the front row consists of high level tables between the pillars which is constantly on the bounce with people leaning and pushing against them so no stable platform for the pod.
Thirdly - the distance from said tables to the windows makes reflections impossible to avoid so shot one well and truly knackered!
The only thing to do is watch all the fun below whilst drinking your Matcha green tea latte (it's the future, try it sometime)... albeit slowly before getting out there and joining the masses.
I wanted to capture the chaos of the scene and couldn't think of a better way of conveying the randomness of the masses other than setting my camera to slow shutter speed, holding it above my head and crossing with everybody else when the lights go green. A bit random I agree, but I like the effect and it fits nicely with the accompanying track suggested by Mrs R.