japan

DL Cade

Rude Tourist Photographers are Getting Photography Banned in Japanese Temples

Any travel photographer, or traveller in general, will tell you how important it is that you respect the locations you are exploring. This applies as much for natural environments as it does for sacred manmade spaces, and it's the latter of these that are having to ban photography because of rude tourist photographers who are ignoring this fundamental rule.

DL Cade

This Couple’s Shared Passion for Photography Extended Beyond the Grave

Get the tissues ready, because this one is aiming right for the feels. Tucked away within a documentary on the history of Japanese cameras, this touching story of Yoko and Minoru Tanaka took us completely unawares.

We thought we were watching a mildly interesting and informative documentary... as it turns out, it was much more than that.

DL Cade

Video: Modern Day Earthrise in HD, as Seen by the Japanese Lunar Orbiter

Forget sunrises... what we need to see more of on Instagram and our Facebook newsfeeds is Earthrises. Of course, they're a bit harder to capture, but spectacular footage like this high-definition video shot by the Japanese Lunar Orbiter can give even the most beautiful beach sunrise a run for its money.

Michael Zhang

Fujifilm Launches Its Own Camera Lens Rental Service in Japan

Camera equipment rentals is becoming big business. LensRentals proves it: the 7-year-old company was reportedly on track to take in revenues of $13 million last year.

Now it looks like camera makers may want a piece of the pie as well: Fujifilm has announced that it's launching its own lens rental service in Japan.

DL Cade

Photog Loses $7,000 of Gear On Japanese Bullet Train, Gets Every Bit of It Back

News in the photo world isn't always uplifting -- what with all the layoffs and copyright scandals -- but once in a while you stumble onto one of those 'renew your faith in humanity' stories that just make you smile.

That's the uplifting story told by Imaging Resource Editor-in-Chief Dave Etchells, who recently lost $7,000 on a bullet train in Japan, only to have it found and returned to him with nary a piece missing.

DL Cade

Hasselblad to Open Its First Retail Store in Tokyo

The online shopping revolution has wreaked havoc on brick-and-mortar stores, and photography shops are no exception. If you need an example, look no further than Jessops in the UK, which is down from 187 stores to only 36, and even those are only open because of some serious funding from investor and Reality TV star Peter Jones.

Stories like that, however, don't seem to be stopping camera companies from jumping into the retail store game. Over the past year, Canon opened its first Experience Center, Polaroid opened its first Photobar, and now Hasselblad is joining the party with its first retail store, which will be opening in a few days time in Tokyo.

Christopher Jue

My Experience Photographing the Yakuza

After watching the movie "The Last Samurai" at a theater back home in Southern California (where I'm originally from), my curiosity for Japan inspired me to go and discover what it's like. I took a couple of vacation trips out there and met a lot of good people before I found a job that sponsored my working visa to officially let me move out to Japan in 2005.

DL Cade

Photographer Bernie DeChant Takes the New Panasonic GX7 for a Spin in Japan

Earlier this month, Panasonic unveiled the new Lumix GX7: a rangefinder-style Micro Four Thirds camera that the company packed full of Panasonic firsts. Since Panasonic is hoping the camera appeals to professionals and consumers alike, the folks over in advertising decided to put together a series of videos dubbed "Shooting Impressions" in which they get professionals to use the GX7 on assignment and talk about the features they liked best.

The video above features photographer Bernie DeChant and his recent trip to Kyoto, Japan where he photographed the "erikae" ceremony through which a "meiko" (an apprentice geisha) becomes a full-fledged geisha.

DL Cade

Olympus Executives Manage to Avoid Jail Time After Committing $1.7 Billion Fraud

The Olympus financial scandal -- you know, the one that was discovered all the way back in October of 2011 -- has been trying to reach a conclusion for some time now. But now that the Japanese justice system has reached a decision, many won't be happy with the end result. Namely: all of the major players in the $1.7 billion scandal have managed to avoid jail time entirely, at least for now.

DL Cade

Trippy Mirrored Hyperlapse Videos Shot on Japanese Monorail Systems

Mirroring your time-lapse footage can yield a trippy, ethereal quality to an otherwise standard video. Riding on the Japanese monorail, for example, is nothing particularly special. Creating a hyperlapse of the experience, while cool, probably won't stand out.

A few users, however, have come up with some interesting takes on a monorail hyperlapse by mirroring the footage and taking you on a much stranger journey.

Michael Zhang

100 Years in Tokyo: Portraits of People in Japan From Ages 0 Through 100

Between 2009 and 2012, Finnish photographer Petri Artturi Asikainen roamed the streets of Tokyo in search of subjects for his project 100 Years in Tokyo. His goal was to collect portraits of people for all the ages between 0 through 100. The result of the effort is a book that contains 202 beautiful portraits -- the faces of a man and a woman for each age in that range.

DL Cade

Google Takes Street View Cars to Nuclear Ghost Town in Japan

Due to the tragic Great East Japan Earthquake and the tsunami and nuclear disaster that it caused, the 21,000 residents of Namie-machi, Fukushima, Japan had to evacuate their homes. Even now, a little over two years later, the residual radiation makes it impossible for those former residents to return to the homes and businesses they were forced to abandon.

Still, many would like to see what has become of their town in the intervening years, and so Google teamed up Namie-machi mayor Tamotsu Baba to make that wish come true. As of yesterday, the displaced residents of Namie-machi (along with the rest of us) can tour the entire nuclear ghost town digitally.

DL Cade

Canon to Target Chinese Market Amidst Lingering Anti-Japanese Sentiment

Over the last couple of months, a political skirmish between Japan and China over the ownership of a set of islands has caused anti-Japanese protests all across China, affecting many of the Japanese manufacturing facilities. Some companies -- most notably Panasonic and Canon -- were forced to shut down operations and evacuate their premises as a result of the violent protests. Things got so bad that Chinese photographers had to camouflage their Japanese-brand cameras with red tape and Chinese flags.

Despite the political atmosphere in the world's most populous nation, Canon has China squarely in its sights as it plans its next moves for international expansion.

Michael Zhang

A Neat Look at How the World’s First 3D Photo Booth Works

Earlier this month, we wrote that the world's first 3D photo booth had popped up in Japan. The studio looks like it's designed for ordinary portraits, except the "photographers" capture you with fancy handheld scanners and then turn your into miniature sculptures instead of photographs. Since then, more information has emerged that provides a better look at how the whole thing works.

Michael Zhang

Portable Vacuum Cleaner in the Shape of a Nikon 70-200mm Lens

Of all the photography-related novelty products we've seen so far, this one has to be one of the most bizarre. It's a hand-held vacuum cleaner designed to look just like a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR lens. The device can draw its power from either the cigarette lighter socker in your car or the USB port on your computer.

Michael Zhang

The Current State of the Mirrorless War

Japanese electronic industry analysis company BCN has published a new report (in Japanese) on the current landscape of the mirrorless camera industry. Using data gleaned from retailers and manufacturers over in Japan, it reports that three companies -- Olympus, Sony, and Panasonic -- account for nearly 70% of mirrorless camera sales in Japan. Nikon and Canon, both relatively late to the mirrorless game, are fourth and fifth (respectively), with a combined share of 22%.

Jessica Lum

An Unexpected ‘Kiss’ in Canon Rebel T4i EXIF Data

If you've noticed an unexpected "Kiss" in your Canon Rebel T4i EXIF data, there's no need to panic (or blush!).

In certain applications that show EXIF data, the camera name may show up as the EOS Kiss X6i -- the Japanese market name of the same camera model. Additionally the Camera Settings / Remote Shooting screens of EOS Utility (EU) also shows “EOS Kiss X6i," according to a Canon product advisory.

DL Cade

Nikon In Hot Water After Canceling WWII “Comfort Women” Exhibit

Nikon found themselves at the center of a controversy this last weekend after they decided to cancel a sensitive photography exhibit without giving a reason why. The exhibit, a photographic documentary on the theme of "Comfort Women" (Korean women used as sex slaves during WWII in Japan), was put together by Korean photographer Ahn Sehong and set to start on June 26th at the Nikon Salon in Tokyo -- until Nikon cancelled it.

DL Cade

Super High Definition 33MP Video Camera Captures 4 Billion Pixels Each Second

Some of the biggest recent advancements in imaging technology have come in the form of video. Case in point, the new Ultra-High-Definition video camera made by NHK in Japan. This baby takes in 33-megapixel video at a mind numbing 120fps -- that translates into an input of 4 billion pixels per second (count 'em... it'll take a while).

Michael Zhang

Lost & Found: Snapshots Salvaged After the Japanese Tsunami

The Lost & Found Project is a volunteer effort that recovered three quarters of a million lost photographs after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Each of the snapshots was washed, digitized, and numbered, and twenty thousand of them have since been reunited with their owners.

Michael Zhang

Leg Hair Font: A Bizarre Typeface Created with Photos of Leg Hair

Mayuko Kanazawa of Tama Art University in Japan was recently given the assignment of creating a typeface without the aid of a computer. She decided to use a camera, but instead of doing a more ordinary alphabet photo project, she decided to photograph leg hair manipulated into different characters.

Michael Zhang

Japanese Flying Ball Could Be the Future of Aerial Camera Systems

Japan's Ministry of Defense has unveiled an amazing "Spherical Flying Machine": a 42-inch remote controlled ball that can zip around in any direction at ~37mph. Built using off-the-shelf parts for about $1,400, in Internet is abuzz over the potential applications, which include military reconnaissance and search-and-rescue operations. What we're most interested in, however, is the device's potential as an aerial camera for things like sports photography and combat photojournalism.