A photographic journal
After a hiatus of about three years, I’ve resumed attending meetups. The pandemic and subsequent family hardships led me to withdraw from socializing. I’m uncertain if I’ve fully recovered from the trauma. Nonetheless, I’ve noticed a significant change in my mindset recently – I now crave real in-person interactions, moving away from exclusively online ones. …
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson This is the 191st post of my blog. Since I have left only nine more posts to achieve the 200th, I thought maybe this is the perfect opportunity to reflect on my thoughts, which are my philosophy for life. And please look forward to the 200th post that is going to be a special edition to celebrate my blogging journey for the past five years. For those who don’t know what this blog is about, let me explain a little bit about it. I’ve begun writing this …
“Without suffering, there’d be no compassion.” ― Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember Dear someone in the world, If you run into this post by chance, nice to meet you. Wherever you’re now at this moment, I sincerely hope you’re doing well. Especially under the current circumstances where our lives are significantly restricted due to the global pandemic and are a far cry from what it used to be, we may need to pray for and support each other spiritually despite our distances more than ever. Think like this. We all are the crew of Spaceship Earth. We’re all together here. What is happening on the other side of the …
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” ― C.S. Lewis We’re already in 2021. Still, the pandemic shows no signs of slowing in every corner of the world. The same is true in my neighborhood, and I can’t travel across Tokyo, Yokohama, and Shonan, to enjoy urban photography to document our daily lives. Since we’re in a second covid state of emergency, our lives are restricted. And this current circumstance brought a significant change in my blogging style. Fewer photos from Tokyo/Yokohama and more photos from my neighboring areas/my room. And I’ve had enough of them. So, I need something I can get my …
“What we wait around a lifetime for with one person, we can find in a moment with someone else.” ― Stephanie Klein, Straight Up and Dirty Son of a bitch. Motherfucker. Womanish. There are a lot of phrases and words that disrespect women in the English language. Even in my native language, Japanese, you can find a certain number of phrases that ridicule them. But when it o comes to men, there are many phrases that praise being a man. You’re the man. Men’s man. And this trend is especially true among baby boomers who grew up without any notions of gender equality. Although I’m a man, I feel sick …
“War is what happens when language fails.” ― Margaret Atwood I do believe learning a language is a life-changing experience. According to a Google search, roughly 6,500 languages are spoken in the world today. It’s an astonishing number! So, there are 6,500 opportunities to view the world differently and 6,500 chances to understand those who have different backgrounds. They may have different perspectives and beliefs than yours, but it doesn’t mean you have to disagree with them. We, humans, can understand each other through words. That’s what apart us from other types of animals. Languages could be as harmful as a knife and hurt our feelings, at the same time …
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” ― Abraham Lincoln If you are an enthusiastic Trump supporter and are going to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election, please think twice… I know I’m not an American citizen and don’t have any right to participate in the upcoming election in November, but I want to share my thoughts here. And this post is especially dedicated to my international friends in North America, because the White House’s directions heavily influence its allies, including my country, Japan. When I was a kid, I grew …
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” ― Andre Gide, Autumn Leaves This world unnecessarily makes us unhappy. It seems that our generation is more likely to experience stress and pressure than previous generations. That’s because there are so many reasons why we’re likely to be depressed: pressures at home, school, and work, worry about financial issues, global warming, and pandemic. In particular, social pressures we face every day likely to cause emotional instability. Our world keeps asking us who we are: What’s your job? What’s your educational background? Where are you from? They keep asking us to …
“Every reader wants the same thing: to open the cover of a book and watch the words explode like fireworks off the page.” ― Kim Lehman Here is the final part of the photographic series Early Summer with Handheld Fireworks. This post’s main focus is long exposure photography. If you’re into photography, probably you’re familiar with this technique. Usually, I use this technique in urban areas, where city lights are growing and cars are turning into red lines. This time, though, I took advantage of this skill to capture people swinging handheld fireworks, having them look like wizards. It was right that I brought my old tripod on the day. …
