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’s an act of self-healing to just do things without holding myself to any expectation. Reclaiming the joy in just doing things instead of enjoying impressing other people is kind of the antidote to a fear of failure, decision paralysis, and imposter syndrome. “Oh, I kind of suck at a thing and everyone can see? Oh, I guess that’s a little embarrassing. Okay, back to having fun and learning new things.”
So when I was planning my Japan trip earlier this year, I also decided to pick up photography. My brother surprised me by gifting me his old Sony Alpha 6400. It’s a beautiful little camera that he bought second-hand and repaired himself. Both my brother and dad are photographers, but I’d never been behind the camera before. And so I thought to myself, “Perfect. I actually have no idea how to use this and I can’t wait to get pissed off trying to figure this shit out”. Genuinely though, I love being in the thick of a self-taught, trial-by-fire, creative challenge.
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. I could start to feel myself developing simultaneous trains of thought like “I can’t wait to try my best at photography and have a lovely time” and also “My sense of self will utterly crumble if I don’t achieve National Geographic levels of photography”. I am a recovering perfectionist.
There were also a few time pressures to manage: 1) We had 7 cities to visit in 21 says, 2) I don’t get to visit Japan often and wanted to maximise all our activities, and 3) I also wanted to align our travel to the expected cherry blossom season. As you may know, cherry blossoms tend to bloom on a predictably unpredictable schedule. So… The recovering perfectionist in me was starting to make back-up plans for the back-up plans. I tried to keep her away by starting a new game of Baldurs’ Gate 3.
In my mind, the worst case scenario would be either:
I completely miss peak cherry blossoms at every location we visit. This was looking to be very likely.
Since I’m a beginner, all my photos are so overexposed, underexposed, far away, blurry, etc, that they’re not 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 at a close second place). But, of course, both of the above scenarios kind of happened.
Firstly, we were in Sapporo when Tokyo started to bloom - Which was much earlier than expected. I had bad FOMO as I saw photos from my friends (who were also in Tokyo at the same time) share beautiful peak cherry blossoms, but Sapporo brought its own beauty which I was very happy to experience. I saw snow for the first time!
Sapporo was my first chance at trying out photos. And not just that, but photos in snow. Now, I’ve already admitted that I had no idea what I was doing on the photography side - But being in Sapporo during heavy snow made me feel like I also had no idea how to function. Snow, as it turns out, is freezing and slippery and also super dry and wet at the same time. It is very bright, it falls fast, and its little flakes are tiny and melt quickly. Snow also has a tendency to fall on you and your new camera gear in large clumps and instantly turn to mush and make you question your weatherproofing. More importantly though, snow is 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, here I am layered up until I look like the Michelin man and effectively relearning how to walk while also trying to get cute pics of snowfall on a camera I truly do not know how to use. Exposure? Sorry, don’t know her. Also, can’t see her with snow in my eyes and can’t even get to her with these frozen-yet-wet mittens on. Welcome to the trial-by-fire you “love”.
It was actually super fun, but yeah. Very cold and dry. Fingers HURT. My photos sucked. It’s okay!
[Empty space in memory of the photos from Sapporo I took that kind of suck]
After Sapporo, we flew straight down to Fukuoka, where cherry blossoms ended up being a bit late to bloom. We then 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 for the cherry blossoms each time. And so, for most of our trip, we missed the bulk of the blossoms. As you can imagine, the FOMO in me was ramping up with each city we visited, until I accepted that I had missed the thing I’d been waiting to see since I was a teenager. Oh well, there will be more Japan trips.
On our way from Fukuoka to Tokyo, we passed through Hiroshima, Miyajima Island, Osaka, and then Kyoto. While in Kyoto, I decided I needed a zoom lens. Up until that point I had been using a Sigma 18-50mm which I bought 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 topics of compression, depth of field, and how to avoid crowds in your photos. And my god, there were a lot of crowds. So I also kind of really wanted a zoom so I could dodge them a bit better (lol).
The zoom lens I picked up was a second-hand Tamron 50-300mm, which set me up really well for our last leg of the trip: Tokyo. At this point, I had accepted we would probably miss out on the cherry blossoms - But maybe I could grab some shots of birds, shrines, and all the other beautiful things that Japan has to offer.
However, by the time we got back to Tokyo… We saw cherry blossoms!! This trip wasn’t a waste! Just kidding, although I did feel a huge sense of relief. Finally, I could take photos of the thing and tick off one of those mental bucket list items of mine. Phew!! And not only that, but the cherry blossoms we saw were kind of peak season - Maybe just a little bit past the peak. So, in any case, we’d arrived just in time and also with a new zoom lens… Which was super exciting. And brought its own little challenges (it’s HEAVY) - More on that another time.
For now, here are some of the pics I took. Enjoy :)
In retrospect, simultaneously experiencing Japan’s cherry blossoms while 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 - And I understand now why people love it. I think the real 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”. And that’s actually the experience I really strive for when I pick up something new.
Doing lots of stuff means you sometimes you might end up falling into an obsession, you develop a newfound respect for something you had no clue about, or sometimes you just get humbled and write a blog post about why snow + photography = crazy. All of it is good. Enjoy :)