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Book time with me in my photography studio! I have had my photos published so rest assured that we can make magazine quality photos in this session. Whether you need professional head shots or something much more creative. Absolutely no modelling experience required as I'll coach you to feel comfortable in the best poses that suit you and have you looking your best. Each session includes: - up to 2 hours shooting time - time prior to shoot to co-ordinate on style, direction and location - I use a combination of strobes, LED's and RGB's to achieve the agreed on desired photographs. Props are also available upon request. - 10 fully edited (including retouching), high quality, high resolution photos photos delivered in jpg format (extra photos 1000 yen each) - 25,000 yen per person payable in cash when we meet or via PayPay. * location is in my studio located in Nishiochia, Shinjuku, Tokyo. ** availability is subject to change. Looking forward to shoot with you!

Book me as your private photographer in Tokyo and let's capture some magical moments in photos of your time in the worlds largest metropolis. Absolutely no modelling experience required as I'll coach you to feel comfortable in the best poses that suit you and have you looking your best. Each session includes: - 1 hour shooting time - time prior to shoot to co-ordinate on style, direction and location - 10 fully edited (including retouching), high quality, high resolution photos photos delivered in jpg format (extra photos 1000 yen each) - 15,000 yen per person payable in cash when we meet or via PayPay. - For groups, each additional person is 11,000 yen per person. * location is within the central Tokyo area. Any locations outside this area will incur transportation and time to travel costs which will be agreed on in advance. ** availability is subject to change. *** this experience is also able to be booked directly on Airbnb however slightly more expensive to cover their percentage. Please visit my page at https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/3184449 Looking forward to shoot with you!

Ask a bunch of photographers who’ve tried their hand at various genres and a large percentage of them might tell you that street photography is the most challenging, especially for beginners. Without getting into the utter fear and apprehension most people have in pointing their camera towards the direction of complete strangers the challenge with street photography in comparison to most other genres is you usually get one shot. In most other forms of photography the environment is much more controlled and you can get set up and start shooting and if it’s not to your liking or you need some tweaking you have time to do so. Not so with street. You need to think and act fast because most times if you miss the moment it’s gone so knowing the right settings for various conditions is absolutely vital. Knowing how to change those setting quickly on the fly is even more critical. So, I'm going to break down the best settings for various conditions so you can come home with less accidental blurry, grainy out of focus pictures and more work you can be extremely proud of. Daytime Probably the most unreliable time of day to shoot as you are reliant on the whims of Mother Nature and the type of light she decides to give you. Unless you live in a place that has consistent weather conditions such as countries closer to the equator then chances are you live in a city that has varying weather patterns and therefore quality of light ...and light is the most important thing in any type of photography. Rain / Sun / Snow... wildly different conditions requiring knowledge of appropriate settings for each Typically speaking when I shoot street photography during the day I like to keep to a few standard settings. Mode: Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority or Manual? There is no RIGHT way as street photographers use all modes depending on their preference. Typically during the day I’m comfortable to go into Aperture Priority or AV mode. Why? I want to control depth of field and let the camera decide the rest so I have less to think about. However, keep in mind to check what shutter speed the camera is choosing. If it’s too slow you are best to up your ISO. Focus: During the day you typically have 2 options which would be Auto-Focus or Manual aka Zone Focus. Zone Focus as the name implies is setting a focus distance at a certain range and shooting within that range to ensure your images are sharp. It will take a lot of practice to get a feel for how far things are away from your camera or if they are in your zone or not however. What I tend to use more often is AF-C plus a tracking focus area set to wide. This ensures that I capture the moving subjects in my frame. It’s not going to be always 100% accurate especially if you have a lot of action in your scene but more times than not you’ll get the shot. Plus a lot of cameras now have spot focus which I use a lot day or night. Spot focusing is taking your camera off of auto-focus mode, and choosing where on your viewfinder to put focus thus prioritizing that spot as the most important focus area before taking your shot. This is great for more still subjects and cameras like my Sony A7IV have touch screen spot focusing so I can immediately place the focus where I want on the image to nail my shot! Aperture: The aperture stands for how large or small of a hole will open in your camera to let in light. The smaller your aperture, the more of the scene that will be in focus (small apertures are the higher numbers, such as F11, while large apertures are the smaller numbers, such as F2.8). By using a small aperture, more of the shot will be in focus and so it will give us more leeway to capture our main target in focus. So I usually default to an aperture of F8 and in pure sunny conditions around F11 or even F16. If the lighting conditions worsen and I need more light I could stop down to F4 or even F2.8 but be mindful that doing so will mean less of the scene is in focus. Shutter Speed: general rule of thumb is that for still images 1 over your focal length will get the job done so for example if I’m shooting a still image with a 35mm lens than shooting at 1/35 (or whatever speed is closest) will give me a sharp image. But it’s rare that in street photography that our subjects are not moving so in order to freeze the action and minimize blur I recommend to shoot at a shutter speed of at least 1/250 and preferably faster. ISO: During the day and especially during bright conditions you’ll typically want to keep this down as low as possible so we don’t introduce MORE light into your camera. Here I’m typically at around 200-400 ISO and under cloudy or darker shade conditions anywhere from 800-1600. Be mindful of your cameras capabilities here though. Most of the newer, semi-pro cameras can crank up the ISO no problem however if you’re using an older or cheaper model you might want to half my recommendations. Nighttime I can definitely say that nighttime shooting is much more consistent in terms of lighting conditions than daytime. We can show up to the same locations night after night and the same lights will typically be on giving us the same conditions consistently. No matter when I show up at night to these spots, I can rely on roughly the same lighting conditions However night photography presents its own set of challenges and most photographers really struggle in terms of getting quality images at night. Here are my basic settings Mode: Here I will almost always use Manual mode as I prefer to have full control over the camera under low light conditions. Many night photographers will use Aperture priority and that’s ok too but be sure to set a minimum shutter speed in your camera of around 1/250 and a maximum ISO of 6400 but perhaps less if your camera gets too noisy at those levels. Focus: I usually use Automatic AF with a Focus Area set to Flexible spot. On my Sony A7IV I can easily touch the screen of where I want the focus to be which is really important at night as we have such a shallow depth of field. On a Nikon you’re best to use 3-D tracking and on a Canon Single-point AF will get you the same results. *PRO TIP - when using any of the auto modes at night try setting your exposure compensation by -.7 or -1. This is because your camera might try to overcompensate a dark scene by overexposing your brightest areas and we must always remember to protect those highlights. By setting our exposure compensation down we are essentially pre-emptively making our photos darker so we can properly pull up the exposure later in post editing. Aperture: This is where a fast lens is going to earn its money. Having a lens that can shoot at 1.8, 1.4 or even 1.2 like my Sony 50mm GM is going to make night shooting a lot easier as we have much more room to let light into our cameras. Of course we don’t need to shoot wide open all the time but having that option is a key difference between a dark and grainy photo and a well lit and clean one. Shutter Speed: Keep your shutter speed fast enough to freeze any movement in your scene but slow enough to let in more light. If you want to capture light trails and purposefully add motion blur to your photos you can of course keep this number down. You’ll have to figure out what’s best according to your subject and style. And bring a tripod! Shutter Speed at 1/40 to capture lots of light and camera on a tripod ISO: newer cameras can really push the boundaries of ISO and if I’m going to give anything up in order to properly expose my scene it would have to be ISO. You want to keep it as low as possible but on my Sony A7IV I would be comfortable to take my ISO as high as 6400 under some conditions. Typically however because I use faster primes lenses at night I can keep this number much lower. And there you have the basics! There is a lot more to get into obviously but these core concepts will get anyone moving on the right path. The end goal is to practice so often that these settings can be changed instinctively on the fly with little to no thinking and of course hesitation. Too much time spent fiddling around on your camera and just maybe the moment you wanted to capture has already gone. Leave a comment below if you found any of this helpful or any questions on what we covered! Thanks always for reading and catch you on the next one when we cover DAY 4: What To Look For and Lighting. - d.

When you think snow and the great outdoors, a lingerie photoshoot might not be at the top of your mind but there I was, invited by model and friend, Miho-chan for an overnight excursion to the snowy mountain prefecture of Gunma to do exactly that. It was going to be a first for me, a new challenge and I had no idea what to expect but I can safely say I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. In this blog post you'll see the final shots of course and while I'm more than happy with the end results there were plenty of mistakes, mishaps and potential disasters. So read along while I list out the things I would definitely avoid and what I would do better. Like all good things, photography is an exercise in planning as much as it is execution. Lets dive in. 1. Scout your location. In short, if you're going to be on location, know your environment well. It's not always possible to pre-scout your location with a physical visit but the better you understand where you'll be shooting and in what conditions the smoother things will go. But more importantly, the safer you'll keep yourself and those joining you. We might not think of photography as dangerous but I can assure you that things could have gone awfully wrong for us both when we reached the top of the mountain after 2 hours of hiking and the model was to get into her lingerie and nude in -15 celsius weather! If you can't physically pre-scout, you can find plenty of info online and use things like Google street view to get a better understanding of your environment. In our case, we had found a few blog posts with a lot of information online. Also, apps such as PhotoPills and The Photographer’s Ephemeris can be helpful for timing the placement of the moon and sun at future locations to get that perfectly timed shot! 2. Prepare for the worst (to achieve your best). What's the worst that can happen on a shoot? Prepare for that! If you're doing a street shoot around your neighbourhood then that might be different than hiking up a mountain but at the minimum we should be prepared for the simple things like: - are my batteries recharged and ready? (remember that batteries lose charge quicker in cold so keep them in a warm place). - do I have spare batteries for not only my camera but any other electronics like lights? - what about time of day? Will it be full of people or will we have time and space for what we are trying to achieve? - what about temperature? Will it be too hot and I'll be working with a sweaty model? Bring a towel, change of clothes or and fan. If it's too cold, bring some extra layers, gloves, etc. between shots. If your shoot location is more extreme think about the above points but you'll have to be even more considerate and cautious. For example, I didn't factor in that we would be fatigued after 2 hours of hiking and already extremely cold. Having the model strip down for a photoshoot, we could have easily invited disaster such as hypothermia. In the worst case, where can you get help if need be? No need to take unnecessary risks. In our case, we brought a warm blanket which would be dually used as a prop. I had also bought a lot of heat patches (absolute lifesaver). Things I would have considered in retrospect? By the time I reached the top my one pair of gloves I brought were already wet and became frozen icicles making my hands pretty much useless with them on. The only other option was taking them off so I could hold my camera but let me tell you that my fingers were hardly functioning at freezing temperatures. Next time, bring a spare set. Small emergency items like water, band-aids and tape should always be in your pack. Energy bars take up little room and provide a quick power-up on the trail. Charge your phone fully before your trip and turn it off to save the battery for emergencies. 3. Keep it Light Do I really need 5 sets of lenses? Visualize the kind of shots you are aiming to produce that day and know exactly how and with what lens you will achieve those looks. Maybe carrying a bunch of extra stuff isn't such a big deal if you're in the city and close to home but bringing the unnecessary on a long hike is definitely burdensome. You may think you can't get through the shoot without X, Y, Z but in reality you can. At the most basic, all you ever really need is yourself and a camera no matter what you're shooting. Go into it with that mindset and add only the essentials from there. Hopefully these simple steps can guide you on your next outdoor shoot and help avoid any disappointment or worst, dangers. On to the shots! Our starting point was at the base of Akagiyama where we found a collection of ice fishermen angling for what I learned were small little sardine like fish called wakasagi or Japanese pond smelt on Lake Onuma. It is a caldera lake, or a lake formed in the crater of a volcano. I quickly learned that this hike was not going to be possible without Crampon spikes. Speaking of preparation, I almost opted not to rent these and if that were the case it would have been near impossible to get to the top and extremely dangerous. One way to feel like a complete noob! The journey to the top started here. According to our research this climb was supposed to be a beginner friendly hike. We find this claim to be quite suspicious! After nearly 2 hours of upwards climbing we finally reach the summit and find a charming Tori Gate...a reminder you're on a Japanese mountain afterall! When we reached the top we had to find an appropriate location that was a little bit off the main path and somewhat flat. We quickly found out that anything off the main path was far from flat and steeply rolled down the mountain. Realizing this, we had to settle for a spot just off the main path. And of course, just as we are about to start and Miho chan had gotten into her lingerie, a group of Japanese hikers started to roll in one by one! This was equally funny and awkward because we hardly encountered any people on the way up and thought we'd be safe. They absolutely knew with Miho chan's exposed bare legs under her big parka and my light stand setup that we were not usual hikers. With a sly smile and a quick 頑張ってください！(good luck!) they were off and finally we could start. With the freezing temperatures, my fingers like icicles and more importantly with poor Miho chan freezing her tail off and starting to shake we had to work fast and wrap up the shoot in less than 15 minutes! Yes, 15 minutes!! All the planning, hiking and expense for what would turn out to be the quickest shoot of my life! But there was little choice and my main concern was Miho chan not getting hypothermia. 1st set we did in a red lingerie and dark parka to contrast against the snow. Gotta say, I'm really happy with that choice. The thing that made these shots that much more magical was the frosted bushes and leaves that you can only get at the top of the mountains (as opposed to the base). And the 2nd set was completely nude (what a warrior!) with a white fur blanket. There was quite a bit of post processing done primarily to put colour back into Miho chan's skin and lips which were looking quite blue and pale in the original shots as to be expected but I'm more than happy with how they turned out considering how quickly we had to work! I don't know any other model personally that would have endured what she did so a huge amount of respect to her! And one last signature shot of Miho chan! Love it! We wrapped up quickly and started our descent down.... slowly but surely. This gives a pretty good idea of what the path looked like downhill. And finally that's a wrap! お疲れ様です！かんぱい！！ Hope you enjoyed the write up. It was definitely an experience I don't think I'll ever forget but next time, I think I'll rent a car ;) Thanks for reading! Let me know if I missed anything in the write up or what you thought of the shoot in the comments below! Stay creative (and stay warm!) - d.

AKA What's in my bag? Alright gear heads This is the part of the course I feel a lot you are most curious about am I right? If I’m being honest, I think a lot of people like to talk about gear because it’s the easiest thing in their mind to level the playing field. Want to shoot like Monaris? Hey, I’ll be one step closer if I buy a Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master lens right? Well, not really. You see when it comes to gear it’s not about having the latest and greatest and most expensive. It’s what you do with what you have. So for anybody getting into street photography or photography in general I like to throw out a disclaimer here that in no way do you need any of the gear that we have in our bag. We’ve been shooting for a while and I know myself personally I’ve tried a lot of things in terms of camera bodies and lenses to get a collection of gear I’m happy with today. Am I missing some stuff I’d like to add. Sure. But this is truly a never ending and expensive game of gear accumulation and you’ll quickly realize that to take great shots you really only need a few workhorses in your bag. So don’t worry about breaking the bank for now and master the gear you already own. So what do I shoot with? Let’s start with my camera body: Sony A7IV - I’ve only ever seriously photographed within the Sony ecosystem of camera and lenses including my first mirrorless, the a6000 which I upgraded later to the a6400. Years later when I decided to take my photography more seriously I took the plunge and bought my first full frame and have never looked back. I had been using the A7III which had been an absolute beast for me with 24MP full-frame BSI sensor, fast AF system, 5-axis stabilization and 4K HDR video. That was until last summer when my shutter broke right before a shoot :( Soon after I upgraded to the Sony A7IV. Thicker grip, 33MP sensor and better subject tracking, what's not to love? I also often had to apply fairly significant corrections to the A7 III images as they sometimes gave a magenta or yellow tint depending on the lighting conditions. The A7IV not so much. Having said that, If my shutter hadn't broke I'd be more than happy to continue creating images with my former camera. In general my advice when it comes to gear is find a camera body that does what you want and get to know it inside out. Upgrading to the latest and greatest is so far from the necessary but I will say that the biggest bang for buck in terms of quality improvement in your photography will come from your lenses. This is where I might say, if you’ve got the coin don’t be cheap and spend on a good quality lens over an expensive body. As I do a lot of night photography the most important thing for me is to have a wide enough aperture to let in the most amount of light without having to decrease my shutter speed or crank up my ISO (and introduce a lot of noise). Zoom lenses won’t do that job as the widest you may get will probably be about 2.8. As a comparison, my SONY 50mm GM is a 1.2 which is almost a full 2.5 stops lower. The difference is where the lens will be at its most sharp. Any lens is probably most sharp 1-2 stops above its maximum so a 2.8 is probably most sharp around 3.2-4. But a 1.2 is most sharp around 1.8-2.2, a huge difference when shooting at night. In terms of focal length for street photography I like to work within a range of 24mm - 85mm depending on what style of shooting I’m into in the moment and that can change really quickly. I use a SIGMA 24mm 1.4 when I want to shoot more environmental cityscape style shots, a SONY 35mm 1.4 GM when I want a more pure and traditional street aesthetic, a SONY 50mm 1.2 GM when I want to showcase the subject a bit more (and shoot wide open at night) and at times a SIGMA 85mm 1.4 when I really want to isolate the subject and show more detail. Carrying around a bunch of single focal length zooms might seem cumbersome but the more you shoot the more comfortable you get carrying these in your bag. Also, before going out to shoot I have an idea of what sort of images I want to create as per the above, and only carry 2-3 at a time. The added bonus of shooting in prime is that it forces you to move while on the street. Unlike a zoom where you can change the composition with the turn of a dial with a prime you have to actively think and place yourself in the best position. This will, in my opinion, make you a much more critical and ultimately better photographer in the long run (but there are others who may debate me on that). As for extras, I like to keep a little magic kit of sorts on me at all times including an array of prisms and glass to make the ordinary into something a bit more unusual with light leaks for example. RGB lights if I’m shooting at night and need some extra light in a certain location and varying lens filters including a 1/8 or 1/2 blackmist filter and a 6 point cross filter. These types of photographer tools are a really fun and inexpensive way to make a big difference in the final look of your photography. I hope this can give you some ideas. Again, this is just what I personally use a lot in my style of street photography and you'll have to experiment to find the tools and gear that works for the style of photography you want to show the world. I'd love to hear what you use in the comments below or any other questions or feedback! As always, thanks for reading and look out for DAY 3 SETTINGS FOR DIFFERENT CONDITIONS to be posted within the week. - d.

VISUAL STORIES FROM JAPAN Deniz デニズ / Tokyo Photographer client work city nights people urban events nft Bio DENIZ DEMIR IS A PORTRAIT AND STREET PHOTOGRAPHER IN TOKYO but more than that... ...in 2015 I lived out a longtime dream to come to Japan. That's also when I decided to buy a 'real' camera for the first time before my trip hoping to get some great travel photos as a keepsake. Fast forward several years and many stories and well, I live here now and I haven't stopped taking photos since. ​ Here you'll discover how an inner curiosity about a far away unknown place lead to my discovery and deep passion for visual storytelling and content creation focused on travel, street and portrait photography. A fascination and obsession of documenting the places I've traveled and more importantly the people I've met along my journey of life. How I also help others convey their message through client work, coaching and community building. ​ I'm Deniz Demir and I'm a visual storyteller in Tokyo. LETS WORK TOGETHER Reach out with any questions or ideas and let's make the magic happen. First Name Last Name Email Subject Message Submit Thanks for submitting! Contact

published works some of my works in print publications I've had the honour of being featured in

studio "you don't take a photograph, you make it..." - ansel adams ​ with the opening of Tekumi studios I've been fortunate to start honing my craft indoors. starting always with a blank slate and inspiration from my daily life and other wonderful creatives, my journey into the studio environment in many ways is only just beginning. here are some recent portrait photography studio works.