Japan | Myles Katherine

My husband and I have always wanted to travel to Japan. When we moved to the West Coast from Virginia, we were that much closer. Yet 6 years went by and we still never visited Japan.

Last summer, we found out that the house we had been renting in Portland, Oregon was sold to a new owner and we had to move out. In Oregon, if you receive a no-cause eviction, the owner has to pay the tenants a moving fee. When we decided to move back to the East Coast, we realized this would be our last chance for a long, long time. So for my 30th birthday, we booked a 10 day trip to Japan using the $3300 in moving costs. It might not have been the most responsible decision, knowing that we had to move across the country too. But I’m not the type of person to allow myself to have regrets in life.

Looking back, it was definitely the right decision, regardless of the fact that it was the most stressful few months of my life. Three days after we got back from Japan, we had to pack up our house and drive 3,000 miles back to Virginia.

As a full-time photographer, I had to bring at least 10 cameras with me on our trip to Japan. But the only camera that truly means something to me is the Holga - a toy camera manufactured in China. If I had to choose one camera to use for the rest of my life, it would be this one. And while I take a million photos with other cameras on my trips, the Holga photos always end up being my favorite.

At one point, I dropped my Holga in a river in Kyoto and my husband had to jump in and get it for me. The camera was soaked inside and out, but I continued to shoot the roll, hoping for the best. It ended up adding a dreamy, foggy effect to the images on that roll of film. 

I’ve been obsessed with the Holga for 10 years so naturally; I’ve grown bored of taking straightforward photos with it. I’ve collected various filters, prisms and fabrics over the years to make the images more unique. And after my first accidental double exposure, I started using multiple exposures to add another layer of interest to the photos.

The Holga is known for the dreamy, vignette it adds to images. Most of my photos end up being self-portraits or photos of my husband, Chris. My work is often described as lonely or surreal because I tend to use single figures in an empty setting. As a person with anxiety and OCD, it’s easy to feel alone and fearful in any situation. I use photography to express that loneliness and to conquer my fears of travel and being in new places. It’s an interesting juxtaposition – as an anxious, obsessive person, I’m absolutely terrified of new places and new experiences, but as a photographer, new places and new experiences are exactly what I crave. In this way, photography forces me to live my life to the fullest and not allow my anxiety to control my life. 

Even though I was photographing every second I had on the trip, I still feel like I didn’t take enough photos. I guess that means I need to go back! 

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Photographer & Fine Artist Myles Katherine is currently based in Virginia. See more of her work on her website and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.


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Toronto and the Nikon FE2 | Bill Smith

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I’m going to be up front, there are times I have to agree with the late Anthony Bourdain: Toronto isn’t a pretty city, like, say, London, or Paris. Its charm is on the ground, in the streets, and most importantly in the neighbourhoods and park systems providing a never ending wealth of photographic opportunities. 

Skyline Riverdale Park

So you’re planning to visit Toronto: if you have any leeway in timing take a pass in the winter and head up to Quebec City instead, they have winter charm cornered. Spring Summer and Autumn are much better times to visit. I’ve told friends we pretty much share Chicago’s climate minus the snowfall. In fact in some ways we’re a Chicago, tilted sideways, and with exponentially less gun crime. If you road tripped up from the US, just park the car where you are staying: Toronto rush hour isn’t for the weak, especially on the Gardiner Expressway, Don Valley Parkway, or the 401. Buy a PRESTO Card which you can buy at any GO Train Station, TTC Subway Station and Shoppers Drug Mart, load it up with money. You can use PRESTO on any public transit system in The Greater Toronto Hamilton Region including GO Transit. Fares will vary on each system. 

Friday Morning on the DVP Northbound

Logistics are out of the way: we’re downtown, it’s morning and we will be headed east on the 504b Street Car, and enjoying the ride through Toronto’s downtown core, crossing the Don Valley and up Broadview Ave. We’re not going all the way up to Broadview Subway Station on Danforth. Get off at Withrow Avenue, why here? Across the street is Riverdale Park, and there’s a reason why we start here, there’s a great skyline view of downtown Toronto. The other reason, and when I plan photowalks, is they have to start with decent coffee, in this The Rooster Coffee House on Broadview. 

The Rooster in the Shade

From here you can go in multiple directions, like deeper into the east end through Chinatown East and down into Leslieville, or, go down into the valley and take the pedestrian overpass into Cabbagetown. This is just a few examples with just one starting point; you can even stay downtown and wander around, or go down to the harbour. I do strongly recommend, if you’re coming to Toronto, connect with one of the local film photography communities like The Toronto Film Shooters Facebook Group; they are filled with local knowledge. 

 Now that’s my town.  For your consideration, the one of many cameras I own that I take with me on my urban adventures is the Nikon FE2. At first glance it looks like its mechanical stablemate of the FM2, but under the hood the FE2 is a different camera. 

Produced between 1983 and 1987 as a replacement model for the FE, the FE2 was marketed to advanced amateurs during a very dynamic time in camera evolution. Unlike the FA stablemate, the FE2 was quite conservative in features, with just aperture priority, bulb to 1/4000 shutter speed, and a mechanical 1/250, and that’s it. Under the skin there were a lot of shared electronics, particularly with the TTL Off The Plane Flash metering system. 

Unlike the Canon AE-1P and Minolta X-700, the FE2 was all metal construction built to take a ton of abuse. Of course, that reflects in the original selling price. Nikon did respectably well with the FE2 but by the late 1980s with autofocus bodies being introduced by all the major camera brands, Nikon streamlined the product line in favour of cutting edge technology. 

That’s the history lesson; what’s the Nikon FE2 like to work with? 

 Short answer: much like the FE but with higher shutter speeds. To expand, the FE2 has a great match needle display which is the opposite of the FM2, which was LED, or the FA, which is LCD like the F3. Nikon was shrewd to have an auto exposure capable camera for advanced shooters who don’t need multiple modes, which is pretty much me. 

I love this camera for multiple assignments be it in the city or out hiking, and it would make a decent camera for travelling. Batteries shouldn’t be an issue as Energizer 357’s and S76’s are pretty much common everywhere, but it’s wise to pack some spares just in case. 

The next question is, should I get one? 

Well, that depends. If you are a Nikon shooter with with a large stable of Ai, Ais and even AF-D Nikkor lenses, I would whole-heartedly say yes, the FE2 would make a great addition to the camera bag. If there’s one Achilles heal, you can’t use Pre-Ai Nikkor lenses on the FE2 like you can with the FE, and meter stop down. If you try, it will end in tears, regret, and a repair bill along with a stern glance of condescension from your go-to repair tech for being dumb. So yeah, don’t put Pre Ai lenses on the FE2, the same goes with the FM2 and the FA.

To wrap this up: Toronto is a fun place to visit, in the spring, summer or fall. There are tons of places to photograph and explore, and do start your photowalk with a decent coffee and end off with beer. The Nikon FE2 is a great camera to add to your kit if you’re a Nikon shooter and is one of my go to bodies in my Nikon kit.

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Bill Smith, an Ontario-based film photographer, specializes in landscape, street, architecture and portraiture. Follow Bill on Twitter or Instagram.

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In the Place Where the Winds Rest | Shin Noguchi

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Friends, today I (Amy Jasek) would like to present to you film photographer Shin Noguchi, who graciously agreed to share one of his projects with us. I have followed (been captivated by, and admired!) his work for a while on Instagram, and was particularly beguiled by the photographs he shared recently from some time spent in Hawaii. In my mind, having never been there myself, it is an island paradise punctuated by dangerous and fascinating volcanic activity. What I saw in Shin’s photographs was even better: a poignant reality, populated by interesting people. The icing on the cake for me, as a lover of words as well as images, is his expressive, evocative writing, which you can read below.

In the Place Where the Winds Rest

I reached here again. When I was walking on this island, sometimes I met the wind resting without being tied to anyone, and without worrying about time. Additionally, I also met the “winds” who chose this island as their land of the end from where they were born and raised, such as England, Texas, New Jersey, Florida...

Cheerfulness, beauty, rest and quiet.. among with them, and political issues, poverty, persecution, discrimination, disparities.. that can never be separated from them, were also flowing on this island: the island of Oahu in Hawaii is known as "The Gathering Place.”

I will definitely come back here, in the place where the winds rest, and want to be close to them. As a person who came to this land before asking myself why.

Below is our interview, via email; words in bold are mine, Shin’s responses follow in plain type.

How did you get started with photography? Specifically, how did you get started with street photography?

I grew up surrounded by many arts, foreign movies, and Jazz and Rock music because of my parents’ influence, and I wanted to record it using something when I noticed that the extraordinary moments I saw in my childhood were existing in our daily life, our ordinary life. In my teens, my father gave me an old Fujica camera, and I would shoot, shoot, and shoot my own life and other people's lives. I really love the candid / unposed photographs of people from long ago. It has been around ten years since I came to focus more deeply on the concept of human beings / society, and now people call me a "street photographer" in this society.

What do you enjoy most about street photography?

I think that street photography always projects the "truth". The "truth" that I talk about isn't necessarily what I can see, but what also exists in society, in the street, in people's lives. I always try to capture this reality beyond my own values and viewpoint / perspective, and I think, in addition to catching the truth, visual and emotional depth appears in the photographs as a result of being particular about the details. To shoot people with a camera is, for me, is like saying "hello". Sometime I use my mouth for it, sometime I use my eyes, and sometimes my camera, that's it. I just really enjoy "talking" or making conversation with people in the street, and if I use a camera for it, I always use the viewfinder; I never use hip-shots to hide myself.

Do you feel like your photography evolved in the time that passed between your trips to Hawaii? Did you find yourself looking at the place in a different way during your most recent trip, compared to when you visited in the past?

23 years ago, when I was 20 years old, I went there for the first time to visit my future wife, who was living and studying in university alone. I took some photos, but it was my first trip abroad and I could only record the superficial part of the land like other tourists. I really wanted to see and know what kind of life the locals were living, and I was able to visit there again in 2016 for the first time in 20 years. I enjoyed walking and shooting in the local streets better than last time, and this time, I tried to click the shutter by following the flow of the wind with which the locals were spending.

Why do you choose to use film?

I use Leica M6 and MP for personal work, and digital Leica M9-P for some assignments mainly. I really love the tone of the atmosphere that the film has over digital, especially Kodak Portra 400 that I have been using always. A digital sensor may be able to record almost every bit of information in the frame, but it can not capture an atmosphere, and I think the most important element in expressing human beings exists in this layer. In this layer that I call "the tone of the atmosphere," which also includes the photographer's own thoughts and process until clicking the shutter, that just existed before the photograph was born, and that arises from the fusion of "content" and "form".

Your family is obviously a big part of your life (I love the photographs of your daughters!). How do they feel about your photography?

While I'm scanning/editing photographs, my lovely three daughters watch and they give me some response, like "Dad I know this place!", "I was here when Dad captured this moment!", and they talk to each other about these moments. I think it's a very important thing / moment for the family to spend together, as well as making money to support my family, and I'm also trying to increase the time of parent-child communication through photography.

How great that they enjoy it so much! Do you ever let them borrow a camera to make pictures of their own?

If you’re asking “do you give your Leica to them when they want to use it to take pictures?” my answer is no, it’s too heavy for them, but don’t worry I give compact cameras to them, (not my smartphone!) and not just one: three cameras that I choose for each of them. I’m sure every father does this for their child; they choose amazing moments we never see with adult eyes.

Thank you so much for sharing your work and some of your story with us! I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you do next.

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See more of Shin Noguchi’s work on his website (the full story on his experiences in Hawaii is here) , and on his Instagram. Also, be sure to check out Eyeshot Magazine; he is featured in the June issue! He is a member of the UP international photography collective. His new photobook will published this year in Italy, so be on the lookout for news about that as well.