1. My journey into photography
I was recently in Japan during cherry blossom season. This trip felt like 15 or so years in the making. It was incredible. In anticipation for this trip, I picked up another hobby: Photography
I have many hobbies. I’m an advocate for trying new things, being a '“forever student”, and pursuing anything that takes your fancy. Why not? Life is short. And as someone who has been plagued for a long time by the concept of doing things to perfection, it brings me a sense of freedom and healing to actively just do things without holding myself to any expectation. Life is short. Do many things. Do them badly! Do them well! Enjoy just doing things.
So when I was planning my Japan trip earlier this year, I also planned to pick up photography.
In addition to doing lots of things, I like to learn by doing. When my brother, as a surprise, gave me his old Sony Alpha 6400 a few days before my trip, I thought to myself “This is perfect. I have no idea how to use a camera and I’m just going to wing it.”
As much as I like the idea of just doing things without placing expectations or pressure on myself, I also recognise that, as a designer and artist and… Well, myself… I have a deep desire to bring my vision to life accurately. And so, generally, there is always… Somewhat of a pressure.
There was also the pressure time: We had 7 cities to visit in 21 says, I don’t get to visit Japan often, and I also had the additional pressure of timing our travel to expected bloom dates. As you may know, cherry blossoms tend to bloom on a predictably unpredictable schedule.
So. There was somewhat of a pressure.
But, I tried to remain chill about it. In my mind, the worst case scenario would be that:
I completely miss peak cherry blossoms at every location we visit. This was looking to be very likely.
My photos are so overexposed, underexposed, far away, blurry, etc, that the photos aren’t worth looking at. About a 50/50 chance. That’s why I took a lot of photos.
Even in the worst case scenario, I figured I would still have a magnificent time in Japan. It is, after all, probably my favourite place on Earth (Thailand coming in second place).
If you’re interested, both of the above did kind of happened. Firstly, we were in Sapporo when Tokyo started to bloom - Which was much earlier than expected. (Side note: Sapporo was great! I saw snow for the first time!!) After Sapporo, we flew straight down to Fukuoka, where cherry blossoms were a bit late to bloom. We proceeded to make our way back up to Tokyo where we had tried to be in each city during peak or start of bloom - But of course, we ended up a few days early each time. So for most of our trip we missed the bulk of the blossoms - Aside from a stray, early tree here and there. However, when we finally got back to Tokyo, we were able to see the trees at their peak! So the FOMO I had that was brewing was dispelled by the last leg of our trip. Thank fuck. (I mean, I’m chill. It’s fine.)
Secondly, on the subject of learning photography on the fly and having a lot of bad photos: My first chance to use the camera was in Sapporo during the snow. Now, I’ve admitted that I have no idea what I was doing - But I’ve got to say, learning how to take photos while in snow feels like the extra deep end of the pool. I feel like I had to learn pretty quickly how to change settings to accommodate overexposure, depth of field, shutter speed etc, all while freezing cold and trying not to slip over.
Snow is very bright, it falls fast, its little flakes are tiny, and it melts quickly. It also has a tendency to fall on you and your new camera in large clumps and instantly turn to mush and make you question your weatherproofing. Snow is also a straight up hazard. Do you know how many salarymen I saw stack it? Do you know how many times I nearly stacked it? Anyway, I feel like Sapporo tested my on-the-job learning capabilities - Which was great! But the photos? Yeah. There’s a reason I haven’t edited them yet (and they’re not included in this bunch).
After Sapporo, we travelled to Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Miyajima Island, Osaka, and then Kyoto. By the time we got to Kyoto, it was clear to me that I needed a zoom lens. Up until this point, I had been using a Sigma 18-50mm which I picked up brand new in Sydney. It’s an incredible lens, but it wasn’t able to take the kind of shots I really wanted from the places we visited. This was a great lesson for me on the topic of compression, depth of field, and how to avoid crowds in your photos.
I picked up a secondhand Tamron 50-300mm in Kyoto, which set me up really well for our final leg of the trip: Tokyo. As mentioned, the cherry blossoms in Tokyo were in full bloom by the time we arrived. I had a lot of FOMO that I was going to miss all the cherry blossoms (as well as the Tokyo snow that occurred) and so to arrive just in time and with a new zoom lens felt really nice.
And here are some of the photos I took!
In retrospect, simultaneously experiencing Japan’s cherry blossoms and picking up photography for the first time feels, in some ways, rather typical for a tourist.
I know, I know… How many other gaijin like me take a camera to Japan, share their pics online, and wonder if they could take up photography professionally?
Jokes aside, it did bring me a lot of joy and wonder to explore both a beautiful place and a really fun and challenging hobby at the same time. In many ways, Japan feels like the easiest place to take photos - Everything is stunning. I really don’t have to do much! On the flip side, it made me realise that there’s a lot more to photography than I expected. I think the turning point for me was when taking photos went from feeling like “I’m just winging it” to “How do I tweak these settings to get exactly what I want”. Just like a fun puzzle.
That’s something I love about trying something on a whim - Sometimes you end up falling into an obsession, a passion, a fun past-time, a hobby. Doing stuff is fun. I love to do stuff! Go out and do stuff, even if you don’t get it perfect on the first go (or ever).