An opportunity to get out of Tokyo for the day and scout locations for an upcoming shoot with a trucking company.
On some location-scouting days, I shoot a lot of test shots with the ‘real’ cameras, to get a feel for what the place will look like when I get back there for the proper shoot. Last Friday was more about going back to places I know very well and just looking at them with the specifics of the shoot in mind. Mainly how the locations would work to swallow the 10-tonne truck I need to shoot there soon.
So, yes, I took some cameras but actually did most of the location research snaps with the panorama function on my iPhone.
In between looking at spots that myself and my client knew we’d be coming back to try with the truck, we had some time just to walk around a couple of spots.
Between one of the first locations we wanted to check out, on the shores of Lake Sai, and another spot we wanted to check out on Lake Kawaguchi, we passed a place I always like to stop and take a look around. Often in the autumn and winter it’s a great place to stand by the lake, get a great view of Mount Fuji and wander through the very tall ‘susuki’ grass by the water’s edge. At this time of year, though, you can often find lots of cosmos flowers there and the display of flowers this year is stunning.
So we spent a little time there.
After a spot of lunch, we headed to a shrine I know near Kawaguchiko. The area around the shrine will almost certainly feature in our forthcoming shoot.
It’s a beautiful shrine, out in the forest on the way to Lake Yamanaka. I’ve been there a few times and it was a nice place, this time, to shoot a little with the Kerlee lens.
Here are the shots…. a few from the cosmos flowers, some from the shrine.
All are straight out of the camera and all shot using either my Ektachrome P, Monochrome 2 or Portra picture controls, which you can read about and download here.
Nice day out, ‘job-done’ on the location hunting front and it was just so nice to get some fresh air and see the mountains again.
