Rushing through the rain, with heads held low under umbrellas, we sometimes miss the obvious.

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.

My hotel was located in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo’s more livelier prefectures, and was about 4 blocks away from this shopping area.  The area consists of about 3 blocks of brightly lit stores that are actually just one store: the Yodobashi camera store.  I can’t remember what happened when I realized this, as my brain had gone into overload thinking about all the camera gear surrounding me.  I was in the Mecca of photographic technology.

The main Yodobashi store (pictured above) consists of about 8 stories of technology ranging from cameras, to laptop computers, to books, to rice cookers and home appliances.  The camera selection at this particular building was the mainstream point and shoot variety.  Down the street was a more professional camera store that carried SLRs, medium format, lighting, developing, etc.  Basically a mini B&H Photo, but in Japan.

As for prices, they were very similar to those of B&H Photo in New York.  I probably could have saved $150 on a Canon 7D bought in Japan, but everything would have been in Japanese, including the warranty so I decided not to bother.

As for this photo, it was shot hand-held in manual mode.  It was difficult finding a good exposure that balanced the neon signs and the ambient light on the street, but I think I got it.  I think the Japanese couple walking in front of me adds a bit of character as well.

Every Sunday Tokyo shuts down the main street in Ginza (a prefecture of Tokyo) to allow the masses to go shopping in this high-end shopping district.  The streets are lined with designer shops from around the world.  You name it, it’s here.  Consider this the equivalent of New York’s 5th Avenue, or Toronto’s Yorkville, but on a much, much larger scale.

This particular Sunday was warm for December, which I suspect drew a lot of people out to take advantage of the nice weather.  However, Tokyo is so populous that this could be the norm here and just as many would be out on a cloudy winter day too.  But I don’t see too many shopping bags, so maybe it’s the weather…

A Scottish Terrier pulls on his leash next to the Rideau Canal, in Ottawa.

Another shot of bicycles in Amsterdam.  This scene was fairly common in the city, so I figured I’d capture it.  The bike racks are always overflowing with bikes, it’s amazing that anyone can find theirs in the mess.

I’m not really one for using selective colour on my monochrome images, however I figured this one lended itself well to the technique.  The image on its own was a little boring, and the background was overexposed.

The image was converted to black & white using an adjustment layer in Photoshop. The red areas of the bike were erased from the layer mask, letting the red show through.

A young dog nervously watches a man about to cross the street.  The man was quite nice actually, but when he went to pet her, she backed away.