Blackbone Music's photostream

I live and listen and watch and play in Tokyo, Japan. I shoot Nikon.

My main hobby is concert photography. I've been honing my skills with a new 17-55 F2.8 DX lens and SB-800 flash for my D70 and wandering the streets of suburban Tokyo from midnight to 8:00am to see things, think, and find some new and interesting shots and learn how to use the flash for other-than-concert low-light photography while enhancing the images and not blowing them out or making them look like cheesy flash photos.

Its coming along well I think.

I've been shooting on and off for about 20 years, but when I left school and didn't have anywhere to set up my own lab, the art started escaping me, but it all came blazing back when I finally found the Digital SLR I had been looking for. I had waited almost 10 years for digital cameras to get to my price range and quality requirements in an SLR, and I found the Nikon D70 hit the target at the time.

I've outgrown it now, for its just too slow for concert photography and I need the better metering, faster shutter, wireless, faster auto-focus, etc. of the D2Xs, but I'm also somewhat disappointed with the high ISO noise, so I'm considering an EOS 5D to go along with my Nikon kit, thought I hate the ergonomics of Canon, and find that noise is only really a problem if you need to print huge images. At standard sizes, the noise difference between Canon and Nikon seems to be relegated to urban legend status.

Keep tuned in here and send me info on new groups that I might find some interest in. I'm new to Flickr thanks to Carlos Noboro.

Please enjoy the photos and if you see me on the streets of Tokyo it is requisite that you say hello and introduce yourself.

3-16-2007
I just picked up the 10.5mm Nikkor Fisheye and am having a great time with it. One might think that taking curvy shots would get boring, but with Nikon Capture NX and the normalization to rectilinear wide-agle this lens goes beyond the call of duty and can be used for a lot more than fisheye artisticness. The wide angle panorama views generated by Capture NX are also amazing. The quality of images produced by this lens in fantastic, but some magenta fringing can be seen around the outer edges in brightly back-lit scenes, however Capture NX also manages color abberations well and this can be dealt with in most cases. I give this lens a 9 out of 10 for quality and performance and would recommend it to anyone.


3-29-07
I have just joined as a Pro Flickr user now and expect to spend more time updating my site and organizing things better, and of course take more pictures as well.

6-6-2007
I found a great little Ricohflex New Dia (1956) TLR at a little recycle shop near my house. I can't wait to put some film through it. Apparently, from my research, this is a great little high quality camera with good glass and should be an outstanding performer. I paid 10,000 for it, which may be slightly cheaper than can be found online, but it also has the bayonet mount hood and daylight Y2 filter included. The only missing was the manual, but I'm not complaining. I hope the weather is nice today.

Cheers,
John