Shiromi’s Diary

I was invited by Yannick to come and photograph a men fashion show in Aoyama, in a club called the Orbient.
The designer is called Paul Marchand (obviously French!) and is teaching in Tokyo. Most of the work there was done with the help of his devoted students.

That was my first real assignment and I was a little anxious going there as I had never done that before.
I wouldn't say that the pictures are outstanding, but they're much better than what I expected, considering that the room was quite dark, the models moving fast, no tripod (my arm started to hurt after a few minutes because of the weight of the camera!).
Definitely, I think the camera helped a lot... I don't think I could have made it with my old D30, which had a lot of difficulties focusing in the dark...
With my 10D, I could take pictures of people I couldn't even see myself with my own eyes and focus was just incredibly accurate!

The show it itself was very interesting, although I have to admit some of the things I saw would be quite difficult to wear in the office !

There are basically 3 sections here:

• The 1st show, meant to be seen by the press and other fashion designers
• The 2nd show, same models, same collection but just for the audience
• Pictures taken "backstage" and other pictures of the audience

Enjoy the show !

Don't miss the new updates in the Origami page by Master Tuan Luong
The work accomplished there is really fantastic!

Don't miss either the masters of this discipline in the Tuan's links, and especially Kamiya Satoshi's gallery, which I just find stunning

I've just realized that I still hadn't put up some of the pictures I had taken during my trip to France in late 2002.

All the pictures taken in France were taken in Saint-Emilion (Unesco World Heritage) by a cold but sunny day.
Saint-Emilion is of course well-known by wine amateurs, but it is also a beautiful medieval city where you can find excellent French restaurants.

Additionally, I included 3 pictures taken in London during a one-day trip to visit some friends

While I was visiting some blogs, I noticed an interesting link to something called blogshares

It's actually a trading game, where you can buy shares of blogs, which stand for companies, the value of the share changing depending on the number of links pointing to the weblog, to its activity, etc.

I think the principle is quite funny and it may be fun to play, even if you don't have a weblog yourself, just to see how good you could be in trading

As a competent analyst (arff ;D), I highly recommend shiromi's diary as a fast growing blog with a high potential !

Have fun !

It was a warm night, after a hard day... I could hardly stand up and keep myself awake. I was feeling dizzy and I couldn't think about anything else than to go to bed.

Then, I started thinking about what Yannick told me today: he's going to organize a fashion show and he proposed me to come over and take a few pictures.
I have never done that before, but I thought it would be a fun experience

I was getting excited about the idea but also scared at the same time, not knowing how to shoot, whether I should use the flash or not, what lens to take with me, etc.
About the last one, I think my 28-135IS would still be the most appropriate one (until I get the 24-70L!) for its wide range of focal length.

However, I was a little worried about its ability to focus in low light so I just forgot about my tiredness and went out to try it out (I haven't shot with it much lately, putting in front the 16-35L) and went to take my own "prada" shot, that new building in Aoyama that must have been shot by hundreds of photographers, I presume

I had in mind a few shots such as Fred's or another one from a most excellent weblog called Tokyo shoes, but I was wondering how I could have my own personal shot
I wanted someone in the shot for the picture to really show the crazyness of that building and I was quite lucky as I didn't have to wait too long until 2 girls stopped by to have a look at some shoes

I couldn't wait for another opportunity like this one, as it was already late at night and that the probability for more people to drop by was quite low (if you put aside the drunk salary men, of course...), so I grabbed my camera, and took the shot hand-held (exposure: 1/30s) at ISO400, taking advantage of the low noise of the 10D.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the shot was sharp, in spite of all the hot discussions on the web concerning the alledged unability of the 10D to properly focus, no camera shake either and very clean for ISO400

Have a look at the tokyo page where there is another picture I took on my way to prada

I feel a little better about my camera and the capability of this lens, but I'm still worried about the fashion show which should happen on Thursday night.
The pictures will be posted as soon as I can.

We had a quick party in the office for Candice who's returning to France with Arthur, Tom and Gaelle, who was at the party too.
On the other hand, Sebastien will follow later this year.

I took some pictures but the light was just awful (those neon lights, combined to a flash bouncing on yellow walls) and it's just a nightmare to get the skintones right so I used the "sepia trick", in order not to have to manage the colors...
I actually kind of like the way the pictures came out with this sepia tone, but it's a just a little too much when there are too many pictures, so I guess I'll have to work on them again when I have some more time...

I hate the rainy season.
It's hot and humid, it's raining all the time, you can't sweat because of the high humidity and it makes you feel sticky the whole day...

Yet, while I was waiting for the rain to stop, I noticed some droplets hanging on a bamboo stick outside of my apartment.
I rushed to get my camera, my new macro lens and my tripod to capture this divine instant. The picture does not really give justice to the actual scene though... I wish I could have got closer or take more time to adjust the depth of field but time was running against me.

I'm sure it will rain again and again for the next few days so I'll try to get a better picture then.

I'm finally ending up waiting for the rain now !

In the meantime, you can see the full version of the picture I took yesterday, also accessible from the "anything" section.