I am trying to stay principled about my photography, I really do, but more often than not I feel overtaken by reality or some other realisation catching up. To counterbalance my previous insights about keeping things interesting here is another aspect well worth noting. When we are younger and finances are tight, there is quite naturally a limitation... 

This camera probably has 'it'. If you had asked me about the importance of my camera’s appearance ten years ago, I would have probably laughed at you. As we know, most photographers are technically-minded people; they have to be. The camera is our primary tool to work the technical medium of photography and generally speaking people need... 

Text by Dan States for Japan Exposures After 10 years in the rangefinder business, Cosina, manufacturer of Voigtländer and Zeiss 35mm camera lenses quietly rolled out a factory tour program this March. The tour is open to Japanese speakers who can flex their schedules to match available tour dates. Officially the tour can be in any of their manufacturing... 

It is well known that since the proliferation of digital photography the amount of images being printed has decreased substantially. This should no longer surprise anyone, especially if you shoot a lot of film and get those stacks of prints back, when all you needed was a decent contact sheet (not an “index print”). So here comes Canon... 

I have missed it last year, for some reason, so wanted to make a special effort to see it this year: the Tokyo Photo Imaging Expo 2009, a consumer-oriented photo trade fair held in the Tokyo Big Sight complex on the Odaiba artificial island, a little off the centre of town. Here are some impressions and very personal subjective highlights: When you... 

I am not sure if I am drifting off somewhere I should not be, whether I am exploring or just wasting my time. Well, anyway, I think time spent taking pictures is always a good time. We went on a little trip to the Japanese seaside this weekend. Since I have accumulated a good handful of Contax G Lenses for our Contax G to Leica M conversions I thought... 

In my Islanders post I said that every photographer can learn something by trying out another than their usual format once in a while and while at the time of writing it I did not have the intention in mind to do this myself, a new 35mm rangefinder came my way (originally intended for our Camera Spare Part service) and I could not resist trying it... 

Photo by John Sypal On the weekend we visited Roonee photo gallery in Shinjuku where the closing exhibition of Shintaro Sato’s workshop was held. Over the course of ten weeks the participants got to grips with their loaned 4×5 cameras and worked towards this culminating show, which also included our current cover artist Igarashi-san. In... 

A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through the latest issue of the photo magazine PHaT, which stands for Pretty Hot And Tempting. (Since the magazine’s cover always features without fail a fetching female model, I wonder if this double entendre is intentional or not.) Although not exclusively about Japanese photographers, on the whole it’s... 

This being the New Year’s holiday season in Japan, the bookstores seem to have been taken over by large displays of every manner of 2009 calendars. Although there are a few tastefully designed ones, as well the old Hokusai and Hiroshige standbys, there are also disturbingly large amounts of “Lighthouses of New England” types as well. The...