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After a little hiatus over the holidays we got right back into it in the new year with back to back studio shoots. I'm going to keep this one a bit short and let the BTS video wonderfully captured by Andy @andwack do the talking. I also breakdown the studio lighting how to below so keep reading! For this shoot, the inspiration was definitely glitzy, glamy, retro and disco 💃🪩 I strung up some shiny silver balls that I had ordered from Temu and to be honest what I had in mind and what I actually received was a bit different. They looked much larger in the online photos so the impact of the hanging silver balls was a bit less muted for my taste but setting them in hanging from the ceiling at various distance from the camera added a nice little sense of depth to the photos. We had the talented and expressive Nickko @kunnickko gracing us with her modeling so a big thanks to her. The setup was as follows: Main Light = Godox AD300 with a silver beauty dish with diffusion set in the center-right of the model. Fill Light = Godox V860III speedlight set to the left side of the model. Background Light = Godox V860III with pink gel on the white background + Amaran P60x set to orange / pink hue. Fog machine (of course!) Sony A7IV + Sony 24-70 GM II Cross star filter + Black Mist Pro 1/4 Whole lot of sas from the model to get those killer poses! Check out the BTS below to get a good feel for how it all went down and the photos in the gallery for the results! If you're in living in or just traveling through Tokyo and want to join the next event please contact me. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Also, if you got value or loved reading this please consider sharing with others and giving me a follow on my socials! d.

So we’ve covered the basics! Congratulations on getting to Day 5🏅 Now lets get into some more of those juicy advanced techniques that will help any budding street photographer take their photos to the next level. First, let’s cover some tools of the trade that I like to use when I’m out street shooting. Special Effects Lens Filters Lens filters can be a great way to not only elevate but completely change the mood and style of your photos. While there are a lot of them we’ll concentrate on the ones that can be used more effectively in a street environment especially for night photography. *PRO TIP : when starting to buy filters you'll notice they can get expensive. Always buy filters that will fit your largest lens diameter (in my case 82mm) and use step up rings to fit your smaller lens. You can always step down but if you step up you will risk vignetting. Star/Cross Screen Effect Filter These produce starburst light beam effects when used at night and most commonly bought with 4 point, 6 point or 8 point. I personally use a 6 point filter to great effect at night. Be careful not to overdo it though as the scene can get really busy if there are a lot of light sources. Black Pro-Mist Filter This is one I use quite regularly. It can definitely be used during the day but I think the best effect comes at night. It reduces highlights creating a soft quality of light that is said to take the edge off of modern digital cameras. I think it adds a completely dreamy look to your night photography. This can be purchased at 1/8 (what I use for a more subtle effect) all the way up to 2 but I think this is far too high for practical purposes. I use 1/4 quite a bit! Flare FX Filters Something I added to my arsenal more recently but I really love the effect these give. A blue flare camera filter creates a blue streak flare on images, emulating the look of the type of lens flare produced by anamorphic cinema lenses. You can also get gold however I use this a little more sparingly. Prisms Prisms are another great way to add interesting dimensionality to your photos. They are essentially refracting light through a piece of glass that is held in front of your lens. This can be used in a very obvious or very subtle manner. I love to use a hand held prism again mostly at night to subtly reflect light sources that are out of frame back into my camera lens. This not only adds nice pops of colour but also has the advantage of hiding things on the edges of your composition that you might not like or are just not interesting. Reflective Surfaces Reflective surfaces can be used to great effect to add an otherworldly dimension to your photo at both day and night. Windows would be the most obvious source and some of the worlds greatest street photographers utilized this technique to great effect. Google “Vivian Maier self portrait” you’ll find her favourite way of obtaining a “selfie,” by capturing her reflection in a mirror or practically any other reflective object. By using windows we can invite a completely new world into the one we are standing in front of to create compelling images. You can also use glass to create symmetry by placing your camera on the surface of the glass to get a mirrored effect. At night I routinely use the tops of post boxes or any other metal shiny surfaces to place my lens on top of. The light reflects off of the metal and back into my lens filling up the bottom frame with some very interesting effects and colours. Water Rain and more so puddles are another great element to use to bring reflections into your shots. Here are some tips. Get low to the ground and try different angles. Every angle of a puddle reveals something new. Look for symmetry Look for bright city lights after dark Use your maximum aperture for a nice bokeh effect. Usually works best with a wider lens Motion Blur This is great when we have a still subject and we want to show motion surrounding them. Mind you, you might need a tripod for longer exposures you can get some great shots using this technique with shutter speeds around 1/30 handheld in fast moving environments. This also works great with flash if you like that style. Positioning Finally I want to talk about position and when I say position I mean you as the photographer. It’s vital to add variety to your photography and an easy way to do so is to not always shoot at eye or hip level. This is the way we all see the world and our aim as a photographer is to show the viewer a perspective that they might not see everyday or are used to. As I always tell my students phone cameras are so good these days and everyone has one in their pocket. If you live in a city as beautiful as mine then pointing your phone lazily at eye level towards a scene will make you look like every other amateur. We want to have intent in what we do by showing a perspective that is uncommon and unique. Something that makes the viewer stop and look at our work because we are showing them a world they don't normally see. Get low. Get so low your camera touches the ground and shoot upwards. Or find a position where you can elevate yourself, maybe from a nearby ledge or stairs and shoot down. Try getting really close to your subjects, like macro close (always being respectful of others space). The key is to play around with your perspective and try different view points. There are of course a lot more techniques and tricks to use out on the field but what we talked about here, when used with intent, will definitely get you moving in the right direction and take your photos from amateur to pro looking. Thanks always for reading and if you are in the Tokyo area and looking 1 on 1 time with me as a guide and/or photography teacher you can book my Street Photography Workshop here. d.

Been some time since my last post and moreover my last event / workshop. Anyone who has lived in a foreign country knows the stress and complications of waiting for visa renewals but with a new visa in hand it was time to start the Experiments in Light | Colour | Form series once again and this time we had the beautiful DJ Hina in studio. Lets dive in and take a look at some of the studio photography tips and tutorial from that day. During my downtime I had a lot of time to refine some ideas and techniques and wanted to put them into practice and also wanted to try out a new red backdrop to create a bit of an edgier look for one of the sets. I have been influenced a lot lately by some top notch global photographers like rifflex and moodydarkroom both entirely different styles of photographers but both with their own unique style and vision. While these workshops focus primarily on lighting I want to start building out more conceptual and elaborate sets as we continue to move the series forwards to make them the best in the city! Now lets get to the photos and some behind the scenes insights into one of the main sets. Terminator Red With the red backdrop up the idea was to create something a bit more striking and full of contrast. To achieve that we decided to use godox projector and gobo attached to the new Zhiyun Molus G200 Cob light I recently purchased. This little light packs a serious punch with a max output of 300W! I always found it difficult to pair a gobo with strobes as the projector always decreases the light output of any light source you are using and strobes can easily overpower them. Not with this light though as I was able to use 2 strobes with the projector quite comfortably. Lights as follows* Amaran P60c lighting the backdrop in a red-orange to give more depth and richness Godox AD300 on a 90cm softbox with grid to lightly fill in shadows from the left side front. 2 x Godox TL60 RGB lights set to red to light the other side of the backdrop Godox V860iii speedlight in a vertical stip box with grid set behind the model to give separation from the background. Godox SA17 projector with gobo illuminating just the model attached to the Zhiyun Molus G200. And here are the results! More from this set including some pretty awesome projector series will be up on my instagram denizdemir.photos. In the meantime, I'll leave some BTS shot by one of the participants to give some idea of what we were doing as well as one of the images. Shout out to Bob @tokyotruebeautyphotography and the other participants for a very creative day of shooting. If you are in the Tokyo area and want to join any of the future events please sign up at the group Meetup page to keep informed of the next one! Thanks for reading! - d.

If you ask me, 90% of photography is perception and 10% is the rest. That’s why I’m convinced that a photographer who can train their eye to perceive the world through a creative and artistic lens can make amazing work no matter the conditions or gear he or she is using. This is great news because no matter what your situation, you too can be a great photographer. But it will take a lot of practice to train your eye to look for the things that will make your audience stop and truly admire your work. So what are some of the things we should look for when out on the streets that will make for great photography? Lets break it down to a few simple techniques and tips to get things started on what to look for and lighting. Composition Composition at its most basic is the arrangement of elements in your photo. Every time you snap the shutter you make a conscious decision of what to exclude and what to include and where in the frame those things will be. Composition is vital. When starting out I highly recommend you to familiarize yourself with the compositional rules. Just understanding these basics can take your photos from something ordinary or even unpleasant to something that lends power and emotion. Once you feel comfortable in shooting within the rules though I’m an advocate of feeling comfortable enough to break them and create images in the say you see the world. This is especially true in street photography which for me should be much less rigid than other forms of photography. Photos should be presented like a journey for the viewer and the more you understand how our eyes flow through a photo subconsciously the better your composition will be. By changing the arrangement of some elements here and there, you change the photo’s entire structure – and therefore how a viewer’s eye flows through the image. My top 7 Composition tips Cropping - cut out the unnecessary and put focus where its needed. Also, be mindful of where you will use your final image. Instagram? 4 x 5 crop, so remember to take your shot with your final crop in mind. Rule of Thirds - is all about dividing your shot into nine equal sections by a set of vertical and horizontal lines. Place your elements where these lines intersect. Frames - look for elements on the street that you can use to frame your subjects Leading Lines - our eyes are naturally drawn along lines so think of where you want the viewers eyes to start and take them through a journey until the end. Background - watch out for distracting elements in your background that pull focus away from your subject. Sometimes these distractions can be edited in post but save yourself time by being mindful on the streets. Symmetry - repeating patterns that lead to an ending focus point. Depth - add 3 dimensionality to your photos by having elements in different focal planes. For example, a foreground, mid ground and background element. Contrast When we say contrast, think opposites. This applies to lighting as well as subjects. When we discuss contrast in lighting there are 4 different types which we’ll touch on briefly: Tonal contrast - which refers to the difference in brightness between the elements of the image. The most obvious example would be a sunset image with a light sky and a dark foreground. High contrast - which have bright whites and dark blacks without a lot of medium tones. Low contrast - which have very little tonal contrast, so instead of whites and blacks, you will see a lot of grey tones. Color contrast - which makes use of other types of contrast (tonal, high, and low contrast) to create an image with varying degrees of contrasting colours. In terms of subjects I think this is just as important to create photos that go beyond a visual style and more into creating a photo that makes the viewer think. One of the reasons I love photographing in Tokyo for example, is the stark contrast between the ‘future of the city’ type of vibe sitting right next to old and traditional landmarks. This contrast invokes a certain sentiment of intrigue and gives the viewer more to consider than just a pretty picture. Think conservative/liberal, ugly/pretty, or young and old. Emotion Whether it’s the gesture in a persons body or the expression on a persons face, emotion can be the foundation of an entire image and this is especially true in street photography. If a photograph doesn’t make you as the photographer feel anything then how do you expect the viewer to. To portray emotion you might need to be close enough to your subject to do so or as famed photojournalist Robert Capa said "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough” "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough” - Robert Capa The most common emotions captured by street photography are feelings of impatience, boredom, frustration, anxiety, embarrassment and amusement. The (right) Light Day or night, it can’t be stressed how important the right light is to your photography. From a purely aesthetic point of view it can add depth and an almost 3-D effect to your photography making your subjects pop. From an emotional stand point it adds drama and intrigue. The right light can completely stylize your images such as high contrast midday light or a warm golden hour sunset. Night Light At night, look for any sources that can light your subjects. This can include lights coming from a store front that are typically large and act as a massive soft box. Conversely, small directional lights can be used to great effect to invoke a certain emotion and drama. Neon lights, my personal favourites, not only stylize your shots but can also add great colour effect. When you do find a good light source at night pay attention to how that light is hitting your subject. For example, a subject leaning against a shop with a lit sign above will be hit with a striking light with beautiful colour. Also look for how light is reflecting off of surfaces. For example, how light shines and creates effects when hitting metal or other reflective surfaces. Or when it rains the way light reflects off the wet cement to create all sorts of beautiful colours that wouldn’t otherwise exist under dry conditions. Also look for how light is reflecting off of surfaces. For example, how light shines and creates effects when hitting metal or other reflective surfaces. When you do find good light, wait. Work the scene and be patient and wait for the right subject to come into the scene if one is not already there. I know some photographers who will work a scene for 2-3 hours to get the right shot but everyone is different. Flash For those wanting to go beyond the light afforded to them on the streets, some photographers will bring a flash. When starting out, however, I might not recommend this as it draws a lot of attention and can lead to confrontations. Leave the flash for guys like Bruce Gilden for now. TIP: Blur can be your friend so don’t be scared to experiment. People don’t have to be tack sharp, your focus doesn’t have to be spot on. Adding motion blur or out of focus subjects can turn out great if done with intention. But I will gladly admit I’ve had some great happy accidents as well. In any case, I firmly believe that night is the perfect time to experiment with mistakes. NOTE: Night is my favourite time to explore but it should go without saying that you have to be careful. Cities like Tokyo are so fun to shoot at night because of the low crime rates but this is not the case for a lot of you. So please know where you are going, be safe, be street smart and when in doubt, bring a friend along for the experience.

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.

We all know the turning over of a new year is full of promise, goals and resolutions and I want to do what I can to help give a little push to anyone that might need it. Because becoming a better photographer is one of your 2023 goals, right? 🦾 In this 7 part mini-series which I'll be releasing periodically over the coming couple of weeks, I'll break down in a quick and concise way the core of what I believe can help any photographer become a more wise and seasoned pro out on the streets as we'll cover everything from the obvious like gear and settings to things less obvious but equally important such as mindset. In no way, is this complete and you might read this and think I have no idea what I'm talking about but this is just my thoughts after 7 years of working the streets with a camera and an endless obsession of study and learning from various sources and people. So take it for what it is 😊 MINDSET Needless to say that before embarking on anything in life your approach and mental mindset will be what sets the tone and in my opinion make the biggest difference to your results. Photography is no different here and before we can even attempt to talk about the HOW in terms of what gear and settings we use, we need to understand our WHAT and our WHY. Having a good understanding of your purpose will go a long way in maximizing your time out on the streets. Is it ok to wander around aimlessly pointing your camera at anything you find interesting hoping to get a good shot here and there? For sure and when you’re starting out without an idea of what interests you in terms of subject matter that’s totally normal. But with purpose we can be efficient and you’re here because you want to level up your street photo game so my number one advice would be to be clear on what you want to achieve before going out and then when you ARE out there to get in the ZONE! So what’s the ZONE? Well, lets break it down like this. Your mindset can take on a few states but to keep it simple we’ll narrow it down to three. Negative mindset Engaged mindset In the Zone NEGATIVE - A negative mindset is as it implies. You’re cranky, you had a fight with your friend or lover that morning or you’re just having one of those someone pissed in your cereal kind of days. Take that mindset out onto the streets and guess what? Chances are that you’ll come home with a bunch of bad shots and none the happier. ENGAGED - Now, an engaged mindset is when you’re feeling it. You feel good and you see plenty to shoot but hey, why don’t I check on how that post I did this morning is doing. And while I’m there let me respond to a few DM’s. Oh and I’ve been out for an hour already and got some good shots, maybe I’ll go take a break in a cafe for a bit before heading out. You see, when you’re engaged the potential for greatness is there but you’re letting your mind wander in too many directions. I’m going to take a guess and say that the majority of us go out shooting in this state of mind. IN THE ZONE - Now this is some Michael Jordan Game 6 ’98 NBA finals vs the Utah Jazz kind of state. There is nothing that can distract you and this is as close to zen meditation out on the streets as you can get. You are one with your environment and all 5 senses are engaged. This is where the masters of photography have spent their time in creating the worlds most inspirational works and this is where each and everyone of us should aspire to be whenever we go out to shoot. Realistically, this is not a switch you can just turn off and on nor is it something we can give a quick fix solution to. But being mindful of staying well away from a NEGATIVE mindset and keeping distractions to a minimum with an ENGAGED mindset and we can start to have those days where we truly feel IN THE ZONE. In simple terms, learn to quiet the mind. What I can say is the less time spent thinking about anything other than taking great photos the closer you can get to this state of mind. This includes the HOW, which we talk about later on this course such as knowing your camera and gear inside and out as well as correct setting you can change on the fly. The old adage stays true here, practice makes perfect so there is no substitute for going out and shooting as often as possible. I know this is a photograph blog but again on Jordan, listen to what he has to say about practice in this video below. It applies to anything we do in life. So while our first step here is having a clear understanding of our WHAT and WHY when we combine this with our HOW we can get closer to this state of photographic nirvana where we are truly IN THE ZONE. Next post, DAY 2 - GEAR ... stay tuned and thanks for reading. I'd love to hear your comments or questions below so hit me up. LASTLY, if you are looking for a photography coach for a couple of hours or longer I'm doing tours and photography lessons / workshops in Tokyo. Please visit https://www.denizdemir.photos/street-photography-workshop and send a message through my contact form on the site or directly to hi@denizdemir.photos Thanks for reading! - d.

A few weeks back I came upon a photo on Instagram that had me intrigued. It was a studio portrait taken of a model with a snake wrapping around her arm and I knew in some shape or form that this would be the inspiration for the next studio series. Most of the time all you need is that one piece to build an entire theme around and so with snake in mind the set I was imagining would start to resemble something inspired from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). With the jungle theme decided it was time to shop for props. I ordered some fake vines off of Amazon and knew I could use my real indoor plants to add to the greenery. I also asked our wonderful model for the shoot, Mia (https://www.instagram.com/mia__haruno/) if she had any snake print outfits and lucky for us she had a couple of great looks to choose from. Now, all we were missing was a snake 🤔 I don't know how evident it is from the photos but I opted for a fake snake that would look real enough in photos and while it may lack a bit in scale-y authenticity it made up for not having to deal with a wild reptile on set for the day. Maybe I'll circle back to this theme in the future and use a real one, who knows! Below is what it started to look like which was pretty close to the final set. We did manage to pull the vines away from the backdrop and have them more hanging in it's own space between model and backdrop to add some more depth. For lighting, I wanted to create a very mystical, in the jungle, treasure hunting (did I mention Raiders of the Lost Ark as inspiration?) vibe using a more retro styled colour theme of red, orange, yellow as the primary and blue as an accent. The Godox SL200 constant light in the top left with the blue gel was positioned there to give a magical moonlight feel to the overall scene. I used an RGB in yellow as a rim light and an orange RGB as a fill light for the model. The Godox AD-300 Pro with grid and 90 cm softbox was the key light set off to the left side of the model. And finally, the look couldn't be complete without a bit of hazy smoke. Lets take a look at some of the studio events participants in action. And below are the final images from this set. Shot on a Sony A7IV with a Sony 50mm 1.2 GM. I did use a 1/2 blackmist pro when shooting to soften the image as well as editing with grain to achieve a more retro look to the final images. Looking back at the images I think I would have liked if I had asked the model to try more various poses and to shoot from different camera angles but my shooting time was a bit short. Overall, however, I think the end result was pretty cool and it was a ton of fun to imagine and put together. I can't wait to see the photos from the other participants as I got a preview in camera and they looked real good! Thanks to Micah, Mike and Bill for coming out and bringing your good energy and ideas. What do you think? I'd love to hear any feedback in the comments below! For the 2nd set, it was much more simple and I wanted to revisit the use of tulle fabric in studio. I think this fabric gives off such a beautiful and sophisticated look to the image and it's a lot of fun for the model to play with. I bought red for this set as I wanted to incorporate a red rose as another prop to harmonize the colours and really make the image pop with contrast and colour. I initially had planned to do a series with shutter drag but in the end I went with a 1/250 shutter speed and kept the images more classic looking. After editing and retouching in Photoshop I really like how these turned out. What about you? Let me know in the comments! Well, that's a wrap on another studio session at Tekumi Co. If you're in the Tokyo area and want to join in the next one there are limited spots available but you can find all Tekumi event info on the Meetup link here. Thanks always for reading and catch you in the next one! - d.

Mylar. That was the main focus for this event. Well, actually it was supposed to be the main focus for the event prior but the mylar I ordered ended up being a full month late! For those that don't know what it is, mylar is a super reflective material commonly used as an electrical and thermal insulator, reflective material, and decoration. I got the inspiration to use mylar from Lindsay Adler, an NYC based photographer who I really like for her creative use of colours and she had a full YouTube tutorial breaking everything down. Of course, it always looks a lot easier in theory but in practice there were quite a few challenges. As it was my first experience with this material, I can only now assume that not all mylar is the same. For some reason the material is super expensive in Japan so I ordered from a supplier that would import from China (hence why the delivery was also a month late!). The mylar I received was very thin in contrast to what Lindsay seemed to be using which seemed a bit more thick like in the above photo. The issue with that is the amount of wrinkles you need to work with in your final photos. The second challenge was setting up the lights in a way that would bounce off of the mylar on the floor and reflect back on to the back drop like a glimmering ocean. Well, that was the aim. In practice it was another story. I first tried on a black backdrop and try as I might the effect was pretty underwhelming. Then I tried a setup where instead of relying solely on the mylar on the floor I would set up a second light to bounce mylar off to the side of the backdrop. This seemed to magnify the effect. Lastly, I switched the black for a grey backdrop and this got me pretty close to what I was looking for. The haphazard view in the video below is pretty close to what the final setup looked like on shoot day however I ended up bouncing a speedlight off to the side instead of constant light from the front. To maximize the effects I asked our model, Kaguyah Mandalia, if she had something shiny and reflective to wear and she absolutely delivered on that front bringing with her a beautiful glimmering dress and boots. Lastly, the final touches. This was the perfect opportunity to pull out the 6 x cross filter to give those magical star effects. Also in a few images I toyed around with the use of a centerfield split prism filter to add even more surrealism to the images. Here were some of the results from that shoot! I think this was my favourite image... what do you think? For the final two setups we went for a couple of different themes. Staying on the reflective series we went for a more fashion editorial look in one scene and a more S&M bondage look for another using an optical snoot. Here are a few pics including some BTS but I'll be adding more to my instagram in the coming weeks! Stay tuned. That's a wrap! Let me know what you think in the comments, I love to hear any feedback you got! Lastly, I've already got the next event on the books so if you're in the Tokyo area and would like to join we will be hosting a new model, Mia Haruno, for the next edition of our Experiments in Light | Colour | Form series. All the details and signup can be found on the meetup page here. Thanks for reading and as always, be sure to do something creative today! - d.

I took some time off of the studio series but we were back this past weekend with another instalment. A lot of planning goes into each shoot from finding the right model to having enough creative ideas to fill the 3 hours and this event was no exception. This was also the first event where I had to deal with a last minute cancellation from our original planned model! Not good, but the show must go on and I was fortunate to find a more than suitable replacement with Azumi-san. I actually had a shoot planned with her later in the month so I was more than thrilled to get her to participate in this group setting. My original concept was more befitting the original planned model and I knew for Azumi-san, a bold and tattooed model, we needed something more edgy and cool. I had recently seen some another photographer on YouTube cover some lighting concepts and for one of his shoots he had used tulle fabric which is a super sheer but highly structured material. Not only that but it's quite reflective and I thought we could have lots of fun with lighting achieving creative results. So I bought a white and orange fabric and decided to run with a teal and blue setup for the first set. I had a blue gel on the main light, a Godox AD300 pro with a grid and an orange gel on both the kickers in the rear. One Godox speedlight off to the side of the model and another on the other side giving more of a rim light. To get the really dramatic look it was important to use a black backdrop. For camera settings I wanted to use a slightly slower shutter speed to give a more ethereal look to the fabric moving. The results were immediately impressive and it's a technique I'll definitely use again. For the next set, I had bought a vintage TV from the eighties and had a more vintage cyberpunk vibe in mind with the lighting and edits. I also used a projector in this set but admittedly with the strobes popping off it was hard to get it to show to definitively in the background but it does add well to the overall aesthetic nonetheless I think. What do you think of the results? Leave me your feedback in the comments! For the last set I bought some illuminated cyberpunk glasses that I thought would work really well with Azumi-san's style. I just ran out of time in the end and didn't get much of anything to show from this concept so I'll probably use that again in the near future. I did see some results from some of the other photographers and it looked pretty cool. Here's one shot with some BTS. I'm planning out the next shoots and got some interesting ideas and inspiration in the works! If you're in the Tokyo area and want to participate either as a photographer or a model let me know! Till the next one! - d.

I've always been fascinated by an individuals journey into photography. Where people started and where they are now kind of thing. With platforms like Instagram sometimes the journey is quite easily witnessed through someones posts over the years. Personally, I started with a simple curiosity of snapping photos of strangers on my travels to Japan and over the following years that curiosity developed into an intense passion for all things street photography. My home was on the streets and in the small alleys seeking out the most interesting lights that the city had to offer. When I eventually moved into portraits I remained on the streets, however instead of using whatever available light I had, I started to bring my own and this is where I first started to understand how to shape light to create the images I desired. Fast forward many years, and while I still love to get outside and shoot, my photographic path has brought me indoors and into the studio. A place where you start with a blank canvas and create almost from scratch. Intimidating? Oh yeah! Nothing like getting into a studio with a bunch of equipment to make you feel like a complete noob all over again. But with each session more questions get answered and new ones arise and its through this experimentation where I can confidently say my photography has taken a definite step forward over the past year. And it's with this in mind that I started to offer the Tekumi Studio Sessions to other photographers who have a curiosity to expand and grow who might not get the opportunity otherwise. So this past week we were back with the second edition of our Studio Series and we invited our fabulous model You-gi along with some talented photographers to push some boundaries in light experimentation. The first half of the shoot we concentrated on projector images and some of the graphics worked so well it almost looked like a second skin! We then turned our focus to something I purchased very recently utilizing a Godox SA-17 Projection attachment snoot with various gobo’s using a Godox SL200 constant video light as our light source. @tokyosirens was kind enough to bring out a second snoot/gobo to give us some creative leeway to help achieve our final images. Lastly, having our fill of RGB’s and constant lights, we had some fun utilizing a 2 light strobe setup with coloured gels to finish up the day. Below are some of the photos and BTS as well as some of the equipment we used on the day: Soonpho P20II RGB LED lightstick Rotolights AEOS 2 Pixel G1S RGB LED Video Light Godox SL200II LED Video Light Godox SA-10 GOBO Holder for SA-P Projectors Godox SA-17 Projection Attachment BenQ DLP Projector Thanks for reading always! And if you're in the Tokyo area, join the Meetup group and a growing network of other creatives at Tekumi Tokyo Portrait and Street Photography We have a pretty vibrant LINE group chat where other photographers can share their work and it's a great chance to network and learn some new skills. - d.