Place de la Marne, Noumea

I hope everyone’s had a fantabulous Christmas. Wishing you all a safe and memorable holiday season. May the joy and happiness continue through to the new year.

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This is  another photo taken at La Place De La Marne. I prefer the Christmas tree in this photo than in my last post. Maybe because it seems more traditional in green. Another long exposure, 5 seconds this time at an aperture of ƒ/11 and ISO 100. A vertical shot which I like quite a bit. I left out all the distractions and captured just the tree and it’s illuminations. I got this shot at the very end of blue hour and was lucky no one was in front of me. Post-processing was very basic too. Nothing fancy, brought up the Shadows, dimmed the Highlights slightly, a bit of Texture and Clarity, a slight Camera Calibration and that’s it. Quick and easy. Very glad everything was captured in-camera.

Take care over the holidays everyone. Have fun but be careful on the road and, please, don’t drink and drive.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

A quick photo sharing before Christmas Eve dinner. I took this shot last night at La Place Des Cocotiers, where the City of Noumea has it’s Christmas illuminations. I have to say, they’ve done a magnificent job this year. I went with my friend and her two girls, and they were so excited and happy. You could feel the magic of Christmas, it was wonderful.

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Now for those interested, this photo was taken at blue hour with a long shutter speed of 3.2 seconds. Everything is sharp at ƒ/11 except the crowd but that’s expected with shutter speed used. ISO 100 to keep things clean. Not one of my favourites, something is bothering me in this image and I don’t know what it is. The edit was pretty quick, nothing fancy. But all that doesn’t matter.

What matters is I wish every single one of you a very Merry Christmas. Whether you called it that or something else, whether you celebrate it or not, it doesn’t matter either, my wish to you is a merry one. And whether you spend it with your family, friends or strangers, I hope this moment together fills you, and them, with joy and happiness. And don’t forget the little ones, for this time of the year is magical so help them dream and be in awe. Let’s all be merry.

MERRY CHRISTMAS | HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Tokyo, Japan

As this is our last evening and opportunity to do some shopping in Japan, we decided to spend it in Shibuya. Apart from the shopping, there are a couple of other reasons we wanted to come here. The world’s busiest crossing and the world’s most loyal dog.

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And you find both at the exit of one of the busiest train stations in the world, Shibuya Station. A popular meeting place and a symbol of enduring loyalty and fidelity, the Hachiko Statue is of a Japanese Akita dog. It’s the story of the dog, Hachiko, that gives significance and importance to the somewhat unimpressive statue. Every day at Shibuya Station, Hachiko would be waiting for his master from his commute home. This continued until the Akita’s death, nine years after his master, Hidesaburo Ueno, died at work from a cerebral hemorrhage. An endearing story that has been turned into movies and books.

We got very lucky when a lady showed up with her Akita to pose in front of the statue. What a gorgeous dog. She was hoping that he would sit still long enough to snap a photo in front of the statue but he was too excited. You can’t blame him though. With hundreds of people in front of the statue, snapping photo after photo, there was no way he could be calm. So glad I got this shot though.

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Shibuya’s Scramble Crossing is probably the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection. At peak hour on a Friday or Saturday evening, there can be up to 3000 people crossing this mind boggling intersection at once. It’s quite an experience being in the middle of it all too. The start of the crossing happens fairly quickly with people darting in all directions and you think to yourself “It’s not so bad, there’s plenty of room”. Nearing the centre though is a different story as the pace slows drastically, almost to a halt. People avoiding collision from every direction and now your thinking “There’s no way we make the other side before the cars get the green light”. After what seems like minutes have gone by and you haven’t moved much, the pace pick up and people disappear in different directions. And no joke, cars were already on their way across the intersection as we stepped onto the footpath. Never thought I’d get excited about crossing an intersection.

There are places all around the Shibuya Scramble Crossing to watch the chaos. The Shibuya Station footbridge, the Occitane Cafe, Starbucks, Mag’s Park, just to name a few. We got a coffee at Starbucks and settled on the second floor to capture some images and footage. Also got a quick time-lapse from the footbridge on the way back to the hotel.

Not only a commercial and business centre, Shibuya is also a huge shopping district, a major nightlife area and one of Japan’s fashion hubs for young people. It’s just one of those place you have to visit.