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My Adventures in Japan

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I went over to Japan initially for a small trip to work out some paperwork but it turned into being a 4 month trip of creative opportunities. My brother, Jon Levy, recorded an album while I was back home in Japan, and I was recruited as the cameraman. I did all the photography and video work for the album and ended up going to the studio everyday, watching the whole project come together. It was fascinating to witness, and an honor to be the visual historian of the project.

So I'm back in Melbourne, Australia again and l have a lot to share with you guys. Photos and thoughts I haven't released to the world yet! So in the upcoming weeks there will be posts sharing some of my experiences from this latest trip to Japan. Here is the first one for you.

 

The last week I was in Japan, Jon and I did a few photo shoots before I left. In my mind we were celebrating what we'd accomplished in the last couple months as well as preparing ourselves to part ways for a time. One of the photo shoots we did was out in the forest near our childhood home in the mountains of Shiga.

It was a new and different type of shoot for me since it was the first time I used off-camera flashes and took time to mess around with lighting setups. It was a fun time of experimenting with different lighting techniques but it also produced some pretty neat photos. I had two speed lights setup on stands and used some wireless triggers to use them as portable strobes. So I was experimenting with three light sources. The sun, and my two flashes. It was just coming up on dusk when we started the shoot, so I got some really interesting different light throughout the next couple of hours. Here are four of some of my favorite shots. I may upload a few more from this shoot later on.

 

I'm especially proud of the lighting on this one, and the backlight that outlines his left side.

Gold Antiques - A Portrait of Luke Fujii

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Let me tell you the story of how I met my friend Luke. We were 3 years old and I'm in the sand pit pretending to be a dinosaur, when the new kid pounces onto my back. In the process of jumping on top of me he also used my head as a bit of a crutch, resulting in my face suffocating in the sand. I can't recall whether he got tired of drowning me, or if a teacher came along and pulled him off. Luke, my now longtime friend, doesn't recall any of this. Probably because it wasn't traumatising on his end of things. Despite our interesting first interaction with each other, we still ended up being the best of friends.

 

Luke, like myself, grew up as an international kid always in different parts of the world, so it's very rarely we get to see each other. Luckily our schedules have collided and we're currently both back in Japan. Naturally we've met up. While we roamed the city we grew up in, I had my camera in hand taking photos along the way. We wandered down into the depths of an antique shop. Little did we know how awesome the place was. I unfortunately didn't take any photos inside the store but I did get a few on the way down. One of the reasons I love this shot is the lighting. The mix of the warm backlight and the smidgen of natural light from the doorway creates a really interesting contrast between the background and Luke. Not to mention the cool stairway that makes this shot a lot more interesting.

One thing I've always struggled with is color. It usually takes me some time to make my mind up on whether I prefer the monochrome or color versions of a photograph. I guess I couldn't quite decide with the next images so I'll show you both. Let me know which you prefer, color or B/W? Don't forget you can click on the images to see a fullscreen version of each photo.


Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed!

-Daniel Levy

Exploring Kyoto

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Since being back in Japan I have spent most of my days out walking the streets of Kyoto. Sometimes with friends, sometimes on my own, but always accompanied with my camera. Even though I grew up in Kyoto there are always new hidden gems to find in this beautiful city. It's been great to just wander the city with no direction. Here are just a few photos from the other day I was out in Kyoto.

I will be getting a roll of film back tomorrow. Not sure how they'll turn out but I'm hoping my thumb doesn't make an appearance in any of the photos. I will try to post some of the photos, that is if they turn out all right. Still unsure whether the camera was working 100% so we'll see how the photos look tomorrow. Anyway thanks for reading, and I've got some new and exciting things happening in the future. So keep checking back for more things soon!

 

-Daniel Levy

Meeting with an Old Friend and PIZZA!

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I'm back in my home country at the moment, Japan. Since being back I've been meeting up with old friends who I haven't seen for aeons. It's been great reminiscing about years past with 'em again. Just recently I met up with an old school mate of mine. It was great catching up and hearing what's been going on in his life. Not much has changed though. We're both still the same kids that went to school together. Just with a taller perspective of the world, and a little more stubble on our faces. One thing has changed though, his hair! He had recently just got his hair dyed so I hadn't seen his new do. It was RAD! Loved the look, and instantly wanted to take some portraits of him and his mane. We walked by this little pizza place and decided to check it out. It was a pretty neat little hole in the wall place. Ended up eating there and taking some photos of the joint. So here they are!

The sticker on the hot sauce says "やべー" which roughly translates to danger!

Everything on the menu was super cheap. Most expensive pizza was ¥530 which is around $5.00. Granted they aren't giant but they tasted good and only cost a fist full of change. 

Tiny place as you can see, but I liked how claustrophobic it was. The next two photos of my friend I got a little carried away and pretty much transformed into my paparazzi form. Don't think he approved of my stalking ways, but the photos turned out good.

So there you are, more photos! Hope you enjoyed and I'll be posting more in the future. Check back soon!

-Daniel Levy