At this dazzling time of the year, it seems half of Japan's reputation turn into photographers journeying to their favorite spots or seeking out new ones around the city as they capture the myriad colors of autumn leaves.
Doing that, though, is not as easy as looks, and millions go away frustrated with photos, overexposed, burn out-strikes, blurry shapes and muted colors.
Whether you meander through Tokyo Parks or follow the crowds to the capital's outlaying mountain areas of Takao, Okutana or Saitama, photographing Koyo autumn colors, like anything else, takes both technique and imagination-not to mention cooperative whether and good equipment, such as DSLR (digital single -lens reflex ) camera.
Unless you have a momije (japanese maple) growing in your apartment , you will probably be shooting outdoors, and that means having to deal with problematic skies that enjoy fooling a camera's light meter.
If you must have a blue sky in the shot, try early in the morning, before clouds spill into the background and cause subjects in the foreground to be overexposed. Tokyo's morning skies in December can be bluer than at any other time of year, and can even be bluer than at any other time of year, and can even evoke a morning in Nepal or Tibet. This window of blue, however rarely stays open for long, so grab it while you can.
Since it's hard to control the sky, you can avoid it altogether by taking it out of the shot. You can stand on a pedestrian bridge overlooking the ritzy Omotesando boulevard, or on a bench in nearby Yoyogi Park, and shoot downwards. Or if you must shoot upwards , stand directly under a tree and shoot the comucopia of foliage directly above.
But don't forget , or fail to notice, that the trees themselves have striking shapes, and silhouetted branches can bring out of the color and pattern of leaves by contrast.
For wide angle shots of sakura (cherry-blossoms) trees-which I behold in their crimson glory along the Meguro River-try "bracketing" your images by shooting different exposures of the same subject. Alternatively, try holding the exposure-reading of the sky and then moving the camera down to take the shot. If this darkens the foreground too much, you can use a "fill flush"-even bright daylight -to illuminate tress, people , or pets in front of you.
Meanwhile , using the camera settings to " saturate" colors, or alter the "color temperature" and "color tones", is a great way to bring out the reds and yellows of say, tress at Koishikawa Gardens near Tokyo Dome, or city center Shijuku Gyoen Park- which is surely a contender for the most beautiful metropolitan park in the world.
Many Canon or Nilkon DSLR cameras, for example , allows sharp shooters to play with these levels to wild degrees. It's a great way to bring out colors in low light conditions under milky skies. The photo might not look exactly the same as what the naked eye sees, but it can often communicate to a viewer, the impression that color first made upon you, and how it made you feel.
As I cycle or hike around Tokyo in search of the perfect leaf , I find it hard to keep my hands still, due to the brisk weather and my racing heartbeat. The solution: a tripod. A tripod is perhaps the most important piece of gear, and the one most often overlooked by casual photographers. A tripod allows you to shoot comfortably and creatively in the low light that creeps into Tokyo parks around 4pm at this time of year, and even earlier in the mountains.
With a tripods , you don't have to worry about camera's mount , adjust the legs , compose the shot, and fire away. Better yet, set the timer , in order to reduce any lingering camera shake from fingering the shutter release. Be careful to detach the camera from tripod and carry it separately when walking to the next shot, otherwise, you might end up feeding your camera to the fish in a pond.
Thanks to my rusty tripod, I keep the ISO level, at say 50, 100, or 200, in order to retain the texture of leaves and bark , and still shoot at an unhurried speed of 1/30th of a second. At these speeds or slower, I can slightly blur falling leaving or passing pedestrians, while retaining sharp focus on an immobile free or temple. Best of all , the tripod allows me to capture unsusual colors-such as the crimson or orange carpets of fallen leaves in Yoyogi Park-as light seeps out of the sky.
By choosing your shots well and using a tripod , a high -ISO camera-such as Canon 5D Mark 11 or a Nikon D3S-you will be able to capture night-time colors the human eye cannot see. And incidentally, it will also give you an insight into how dogs, cats, birds, and soldiers can navigate in the dark.
That's because , by employing technology similar to military night vision goggles, a high ISO camera can illuminate a path and help you find your way down a dark forest track in areas such as Okutama, where hikers get almost daily at this time of year.
Even with a tripod and high ISO camera , however, it's still not easy to photograph just one tree, or just one leaf. There are too many trees and far too many leaves to choose from. It was much easier when we were kids, picking one leaf out of a file taking it have and pasting it to a book.
But whether taking one leaf or whole vistas of trees, the key thing is to relax and slow down and not fire off hundred of shots like Austin Powers at a fashion show. Instead spending minutes or even hours fine tuning a shot will , in a manner akin to Zen meditation, awaken your senses to a new world of pattern and light.
For intimacy , many enthusiasts and pros will use macro lenses to get superclose to a leaf against a contrasting background , such as a river or a tree bank in the hood of a black car. Since macro lenses can be quite expensive and heavy , you can try shooting a single leaf at a high speed -to reduce the blurring effect of camera shade-and then crop it closer later on your computer.
This is a great reason to watch world class photographer at work outdoors. I once saw a Japanese artist spending a whole afternoon setting up a shot of leaves falling from a tree in the city center's Hoyama Cemetery. He waited until the afternoon light was just right, and then caught a few leaves falling on a tombstone like angels visiting a deceased relatives.
Likewise, David Guttenfelder, AP's chief Asia photographer-wholives in Tokyo when he's not out in the field-reminds me of a heron stalking a fish. Whether peering into a forest of red leaves, he will study the subject and wait until the composition, exposure and expression are all just right to tell a story and have an effect on million of viewers.
Even for amateurs with mobile phones , patience and passion can often lead to interesting photographs. If an image really strikes you, and you feel very strongly about it, it's worth shooting it, because chances are others will feel the same. A good rule is to take the photo from exact place and angle the first struck you.
But don't stop there. Move your feet and test out other angles, which might reveal even better points of view. Many pros like so-called "fixed primes" such as 28mm, 50mm, 0r 85mm lenses -because unlike zoom lenses, they force them to move their feet and find more revealing vantage points.
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