Tokyo is a very old and historic city. Scenes like this are not uncommon in this city. Here, one of the Imperial Palace’s guard houses sits in contrast with the modern city’s skyscrapers. Traditional rule by the monarchy versus today’s importance of the economy and capitalization.

Due to the Allied bombing in World War II, much of the city has been rebuilt in the last 50-60 years. This makes Tokyo a fantasticly modern city, but at the expense of its historic roots, even despite the preserved temples and gardens that tourists tend to flock to.

On my way out the door to catch an early flight, I noticed the sun rising over the city. The sky was a brilliant orange-red colour and I just had to capture it. Screw the waiting taxi, I thought. And I grabbed my camera.

Just as luck would have it, a flock of birds flew across the scene, adding some life to the image. I’m really happy with this one!

This image is unaltered, except for being cropped. It was shot through my living room window, in manual mode (which is rare for me to use, but was a lesson learned from my shots of the sun rising over Uluru in Australia). I basically set the aperture and adjusted the metering until the results met my liking. My lesson learned from this shot: I should have used a better lens, like my 70-200L. Oh well, next time…

Manhattan Island as seen from the ferry to/from Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Part of the Manhattan skyline as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Empire State Building. New York City.

I shot this after watching China’s contribution to Ontario Place’s Festival of Fire–a week-long exhibition of fireworks from around the world. The shots of the fireworks turned out ok, but a longer lens would have helped. I’ll post more later.