Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills

Roppongi Hills is a newish development that has a 52 story building - rather rare in earthquake prone Japan - with a city-view observatory. This has a wonderful view of Tokyo from an almost 360 degree view. Here is a shot of Tokyo Tower looking north and east.

I'm not sure how I feel about this shot. I think I like the idea of it and the ideal of what this shot could become. The execution I think is lacking. For one I was standing a few feet back from the glass, in which you can see faint reflections of people standing. That's too bad.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Swirling water

Our family was in Evansville, Indiana visiting family for the holidays. While we were there we happened upon their really cool children's museum. They had a whirlpool where you could throw in these plastic blue balls and watch them swirl around and around.

This shot was taken without a tripod trying to catch a bit of motion. So it's not incredibly sharp, but it will have to do.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

The Santa Monica Ferris Wheel

This is a shot that I've wanted to take for a long, long time. The last time I tried to take it, I brought my camera and my big tripod - only to find that I forgot the flash memory for my camera. Stupid! This time I made sure not to miss out.

The shot is rather easy to take - point and shoot and keep the lens open long enough to capture a long rotation of the ferris wheel. In this shot I left it open for about 10 seconds.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Shibuya at Night

I was in Japan a few weeks ago and I spent some time after work one night in the Shibuya area of Tokyo. Shibuya is known for being the hang out for the young. This shot is taking from Hachiko Square, near the main exit to the train and subway lines and the main entry point into the shops, restaurants and other nightlife of Shibuya.

The picture taken below is a panorama compiled from four individual shots I took with my Nikon. I then stitched the photos together using a really nice piece of free software called, Autostitch. All you need to do is take a number of pictures in succession with some overlapping scenes and then drop them into the program and after a while a panorama will appear.

Over the next few months, I will be spending a lot more time in Japan for work. I am taking my camera each time so that I can take more panoramas of places like the Imperial Palace and the Ginza area, etc.

A shot like this really needs to be seen in a much larger size. Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.