A Tokyo film and a Berlin slideshow

Due to the amount of stuff I've tended to load onto my plate, it's taken me two years to complete a project that runs to a total of just 21 minutes. I will bring the complete fruits of that project together in another post, but in this one I'm delighted to finally be able to present the last film in the 'Japan Shorts' series.

Above, you can find 'The Crossing', the fourth of the four short films I've been making with footage shot using a Flip Ultra HD camera on my last trip back to Tokyo (in 2010). This film incorporates footage from around Shibuya Crossing, probably the world's busiest pedestrian intersection and a heck of a place for standing and watching the people flow from. All of the films make use of Creative Commons-licensed music for soundtracks, and 'The Crossing' runs with Mario Mattioli's 'Granados: Spanish Dance n.2', sourced from ccMixter. There's also a reading (by me) of a really old Japanese poem (in translation, of course), a first attempt at voiceover in one of my recent films, and a few new editing styles that resulting from upgrading my video editor to a more recent version.

Hit me up in the comments below if you like or loathe the film. This page features the YouTube version, but it's also available to view with larger in-page screen estate on Vimeo. Ahead of the post that features all four, follow the links in the brackets to find posts on the other three shorts ('Makes The World Go Round', 'In Motion' and 'J-Journeys').

This short film really concludes a period of work that has been heavily influenced by my time in Japan. This period included three CD albums, one book, hundreds of photographs, and these four short films. Coming to the end of this period is really exciting as it means that other ideas which have been bubbling under in my mind for a long time are finally going to start having a little more space. However, it's going to be quite a while before I can get going on any more of these new projects. I have another year of my MA to go. I have another film project I'm working on, which is going to be four minutes longer in playing time than 'Japan Shorts' but will need to be finished in about an eighth of the time (it's a wedding movie). There's also, y'know, other life stuff going on too :-)

As I'm not sure when I'll be able to get the next post up on this blog, I thought I'd cheekily combine two posts into one and finish this with the photo gallery of pictures that I took in Berlin earlier this year (hadn't got round to putting them up here yet). A fantastic city with a great vibrancy combined with the deepest, darkest historical shadows - take a look at a few of my grabbed moments below.

Double trouble on a Thursday Night

Last weekend, D2's birthday drinks led to finally meting up with a few of the fine folks that make up the rest of The Thursday Night Show, including resident VJ (and gifted photographer) Whispers and Digit3, the man that brings the night to a close each week. Some fine fellows indeed. It's always good to put faces to avatars and chatroom comments, and having had the first off-air Thursday Night social should help with making proceedings a little slicker. There's talk afoot for a live social on a Thursday night itself at some point. Nothing's quite set in stone yet, but watch this space.

I'm somewhat thrilled this week to also be a featured photographer as well as having the set on the show. Tune in tomorrow night and see a few treats from my Japan image vault up on the canvas - as usual I'll be live in the chatroom throughout most of the evening too. 

One more exciting thing to announce for the D1 Radio set on tomorrow night's show - I'll also be chatting with my first guest interviewee! I'll keep his/her identity under wraps for the moment (gotta try and build a little suspense), but I can reveal that my guest is pretty multilingual and will be bringing a bit of sunny California to the show.

For those that missed it, here's last week's show...

D1 Radio > Live on TheThursdayNightShow.com > 20-09-12 by D1 Radio on Mixcloud

Images from Sydney and New South Wales

Last year (and to my very great surprise), I was asked to go to Sydney on a business trip during the first month into a new job. I stayed in the Central Business District, slap-bang in the heart of the city, and although I worked fairly solidly throughout the two weeks I was there, I also managed to make good use of my moments of free time. Got a few friends there and a relative or two as well, so I made sure I caught up with a few folks and saw some great sights while I was at it - the Opera House, sunset over Harbour Bridge, Bondi and Manly Beach, the Blue Mountains. 

As I thought it would, Sydney shot up the list of favourite cities in the world to somewhere right near the top. I also got to set foot on Continent  # 6 for the first time - just Antarctica to go!

The job's been super busy ever since then and I also started my MA when I got back, so there's been all sorts of stuff that I've not had much time to catch up on. This summer's turning out to be a good chance to do some of the catching up that has been on hold for so many months. Last month, I finally managed to get a selection of the Australia photos online. Take a look at the slideshow above (link) and drop a comment below if ya dig 'em. As with most of my Flickr photos, these are free to use as long as I receive an attribution in return.

Moments from a Catalan summer

It was a three-year wait, and ultimately a short city break. But this summer, my wife and I finally managed to get what we could call our honeymoon. We had a long weekend in Barcelona - her first visit, my second - and it was well worth the wait. 

Day One was a Gaudi day, with visits to Sagrada Familia, Park Güell and La Pedrera. I'd been outside the remarkable building that serves as a cathedral before, but this was my first time inside. It was fascinating to gain an understanding of how much Gaudi was inspired by nature and how that informed his work. This was demonstrated even further with the park, where the architecture was fused with the natural environment rather than just inspired by it. The roof of La Pedrera was unlike anything I'd seen before, and was a most striking example of what can be done with a building when the architect's imagination is the only limit.

Day Two took in the ocean and the hill that looks over the city. We started off with the wonders of La Boqueria, Europe's largest food market, then strolled down La Rambla to the sea, taking in an exhibition on Latin peoples at the Museu Marítim, the sights of the marina, then a cable car ride up to Montjuïc. The whole trip ended up being heavily loaded with with museums and galleries - up on the hill, we took in another two. These were Fundació Joan Miró  (an artist whom I was intrigued to learn had spent some time in Japan and been greatly influenced by his time there) and Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, a seriously impressive building housing 2,000 years of Catalan art from Roman times to 20th Century photography. The day ended with a fountain show set to lights and music, in the grounds of the museum, which amusingly was also flanked by a Spanish bikers convention.

Day Three saw a longstanding ambition of my wife's realised - a visit to the Picasso Museum. With that one under the belt, we took in the neighbouring Chocolate Museum, where I learned of the role that the cocoa bean has had in the Spanish Empire. On the way out, we were rather shocked to be standing around in the street an witness a police altercation. Two cops appeared from nowhere on bikes, one started shouting at a man with no shirt on, then chased after him and knocked him to the floor - with the motorbike he was riding! The man was still on the floor when things began to flare up with other onlookers, and we decided to slink away.

The photo gallery above contains images from some of the highlights of the trip, plus a few other sights not mentioned above. Really a fantastic city, I could easily go back again and again.

A Coca-Cola crown

A Coca-Cola crown, a photo by Globalism Pictures on Flickr.

Sometimes, you throw a bit of content out into the wilds of the web and it comes back with surprises. There's often no way of knowing which bits will be a hit and which'll be a miss. This one seems to have become a surprise hit.

I'm not quite sure what makes this picture such a special one, but as it's not been up long and as of today, it's my sixth most viewed picture on Flickr. Took it in Shibuya last September.

It's got a certain symmetry to it that has an appeal, but it's also just an office building with a Coke ad on top of it too. It's not a great use of light through the canvas of a camera lens either, but it's always a pleasure to go down well somewhere.

This post is my first one coming direct from Flickr. An experiment, if you will. It might need a little formatting afterwards, but it could well be an interesting place to blog from...

Moments stolen from last year

Kicking off this year is a gallery of a few moments stolen from last year. Contained in the above slideshow are a selection of Brighton pictures that never made it online last year, including of the Children's Parade that kicks off the festival, the Brighton Beach Boys from their concert at St. George's Church in Kemptown, snaps from Hove Champagne Festival and a few obligatory ones of the beach.

Over on my Flickr site, there's a few new pics of Tokyo too, coming before a stack more that should be due soon.

Dear readers, the stats tell me there's quite a lot of you out there, and from all over the place too. Do drop by and say hello from time to time - I'd love to hear from you!

Happy 2011...

New photo website launch

I'm pleased to be able to announce the launch of my new photos website - Globalism Pictures - containing images taken from my travels around the world over the last five years. Although some regular viewers of this site may be aware of it already and viewed some of the sets, I've finally completed work on it and got it up to date.

Since 2004, I had been using Sony ImageStation's services for displaying images from my travels. A few months ago, that service announced a pending closure, which encouraged me to switch to the far superior Flickr photo sharing service.

On the downside, this meant a lot of work transferring existing images and albums over to the new service. On the upside however, the new one is a much better service that allows far greater flexibility, display options and networking opportunities.

I have moved all existing albums over to Flickr now, updated a few albums with some new pictures and added seven new sets that cover some of my activities during 2007 - including the trip to Argentina (my first time in South America).

Below are some of the new images on display at the site. Clicking on the image will take you straight through to the relevant set on the new site.

If you are already a user of Flickr and would like to join Globalism Pictures' network, please add me to your Flickr Friends.

Iguazu Falls

Buenos Aires

Colonia, Uruguay

Toronto & the CN Tower

Yokohama Fireworks

Dance For Peace Japan

'A window seat, please'

Albums updated with new images are Images Of Britain, Tokyo and The West Pier.

All original albums can also be found at the site, including a large number of sets of photos of Japan, plus pictures from Korea, China, Barcelona, Dubai, Tanzania and Nepal.