Party Shooting
I'm not an antisocial person by any means, though when I'm invited out to larger gatherings in the city I tend to shy away. My mind goes through all the possible scenarios; I drink too much and feel lousy the next day, I miss the train and have to pay 20,000 yen in cab fare to get home, I don't recognize any faces and everyone feels unapproachable and so forth. My new secret weapon is the camera. Now every-time I hear about a party I think of it as an excellent photography opportunity, where, for the most part, people don't mind getting their photo taken up close and most rather enjoy it.
Phone-cams get little respect, as do compact 35mm and digital cameras. Polaroids are fun but none of these seem to garnish respect like my Nikon SLR with Speedlite flash. And I love being able to move around the room and jump into conversations if the opportunity presents itself, or shoot a few frames and move along.
Here are a few more photos from Saturday I scanned late last night, and yes I'm still learning how to use the flash.
Next time you are in Kinokuniya in Shinjuku you ought to pick up Winogrand's Public Relations book. There are quite a few "party pictures" in it, shot with a flash. In his "Arrivals and Departures" book Lee Friedlander says that when he once asked Winogrand how the party at MOMA went the night before, he grinned and replied "35 rolls."
Were most of those shots with your 50mm lens?
::posted by: john at March 10, 2005 09:02 AM
Some great candids! If I may ask, are you bouncing the flash or using it with some sort of diffuser straight-on? (I assume the latter...)
::posted by: Erik at March 11, 2005 02:47 AM
John, big thanks on the book recommendation -- added both to my already bloated wish list. For Japanese clubs or house parties the 50mm is out of the question if I want to get more that one person in the shot. I wish I had wider but the 28mm does the job nicely... for now.
Erik, I wasn't using the diffuser nor bouncing the flash that's why it seems quite harsh. I've used bounce flash plenty of times but the film always seems to come out underexposed, so it's kind of a trade off until I experiment more. I've heard some people using a spoon to bounce flash off walls with compact digicams.
::posted by: mark at March 11, 2005 02:55 PM
Wow come across you blog after google.co.jp-ing Ebina where I will be moving to from the U.K in just 9 days and I have spent the last two hours reading you entries. Totally excellent blog - very human very funny and what amazing pictures.
::posted by: Katie at March 11, 2005 10:44 PM
Thanks Katie, glad you enjoyed poking around my site. What brings you to Ebina? Ebina Sta. is one express stop (6-7 min) from my place. Just had lunch there today.
::posted by: mark at March 13, 2005 04:36 PM
