Photographs of Japan

April 2023

One month before departure to Japan, I brought my camera into the shop for repair of a light leak that had surfaced well over a year earlier. The leak caused some, but not all, photographs to be tinted red in a thick, vertical strip right along the first line of thirds. When I got the camera back it felt brand new! I shot a roll and dropped it off for processing before I left.

Almost immediately after landing in Japan did I get some native speakers to teach me how to ask strangers if I could take a photograph of them. Syashin wo tottemoii desuka, they wrote for me on a piece of paper. I share more about that story in this article. I brought eight rolls of film for a month long trip (only 9 days would be spent in Japan) and I felt ready to shoot as freely as I could.

After a few days there I received an email that my film scans post-repair were ready, and unfortunately when I opened them the light leak had been worsened. I was disappointed and seldom shot a thing for the rest of the trip, including the Vietnam portion, unsure if I was effectively wasting film. For whatever reason the photos turned out mostly fine, so the joke's on me!