Will Robb Photography

The other night I went to Shibuya to photograph and video around the crossing area just out from the station.

Shibuya has the image of being young, hip and cool, especially for the young Japanese kids who want to become hip and cool. People go there to shop during the day, at night there are plenty of places to eat drink and party, almost every night of the week the crossing just in front of Shibuya station is rammed with people. It’s said that each time the lights change 1000 people cross. On a weekend that’s probably an underestimation, I took the photographs below on a Tuesday evening and it was pretty mobbed.

As well as the young kids hanging out in Shibuya, it’s also become a bit of a tourist attraction. There’s a famous scene in “Lost in translation” featuring the bright lights of Shibuya crossing, and I also think one of “The Fast and Furious” series of movies that was set in Japan featured Shibuya pretty heavily. You often see tourists there having the photos taken and then crossing over whilst staring up in awe at the surroundings.

I guess I am kind of used to the area, but it still has a bit of an impact when you walk out of the station, especially at night. You walk into visual mayhem, large advertising screens blast out commericals, the neon is so bright that when you photograph the area you really need to over expose your shots to get the foreground to be lit properly. There is a lot more to Shibuya than just the crossing, I shot a lot of video and photos down there, but I reckon it’s all too much for just the one blog, so I will just stick with the crossing and some of the streets leading to it just now.

The video below has been edited using iMovie 09 which I bought the other day as part of the iLife 09 package for Mac. It’s simple and easy to use, I used some of the software to try and reduce camera shake in a scene where I was crossing the street and it actually looks a lot shakier than it was. Guess I need to work on my skills there a lot and work on them I will. I think video is going to be a big part of every photographers future. Recently I have had two clients enquire to as whether I can shoot video as well as stills. By the end of the year I aim to be working in both mediums, I have a few bits of equipment I want to buy to help get there, I need a proper video tripod and I will probably have to get Final Cut studio software as well. I’m using an external mic to get better sound quality already and it makes a big difference.

One of my friends, a photographer in Singapore has a very good relationship with canon and he has been pushing me to use more video for a while now and I am taking his advice. Canon has already started merging it’s photo and video departments together. Already some photojournalists are being asked to submit 30 second videos to accompany their photos. Print media is dying, news is being increasing viewed on the internet, iphones and e-books. The future is rapidly approaching, it’s time we all get ready.