In November I was approached by two editors from the magazine Nippon Camera about possibly doing Tokyo Camera Style as a monthly feature for 2011.
A week or two later the three of us were on a street corner of Ginza at 11am in the rain. There were few people out, and even fewer (zero) cameras. The thing about TCS is that the more one goes looking for cameras the harder they are to come across. Luckily after lunch the sun soon came out as did the usual crowd of well heeled rich-folk, Japanese out-of-towner tourists, couples on dates, and tour buses of highly audible tourists from mainland China. Interspersed were several people with analog cameras. The SOP is for me to approach the owner with a greeting; usually a compliment on the camera around the photographer’s neck. Once contact has been made, my “crew” would appear with business cards and model release forms. After I snap a few shots of their camera with my GRDII, I fiddle with a DSLR (Nikon D7000) and get a few pictures of their portrait or entire figure (hence the model releases). I’ve never really tried to do the full-body thing on the blog since it is a lot easier to ask “Can I get a picture of your camera and put it on the internet?” than “hey can I uh, take a picture of your entire body and put it on the internet?”. For what it’s worth, each participant receives a complementary copy in the mail for their trouble.
The game plan from here on out is to decide on a location like Ginza, Shibuya, or Shinjuku (tomorrow’s venue) and photograph about 10 people and their cameras. I’m thinking about themes as well- Sakura season and Enoshima in the summer ought to be possibilities. Kamakura too. A “Kyoto Camera Style” location shoot would be great. . .