Street shots from Tokyo

schmoo

My attempt at a few street shots/portraits from a walk around Harajuku district and Yoyogi Park:

Goth girl (she reminds me a lot of myself at that age :lol3)


Cosplay girls


Regular kids


Most of the cosplay crowd have a signature pose for when a tourist asks to take their photo


Smoke break


Sketching


Love and AIDS


Hyper Kitty Hyper (they weren't bad, if you like that sort of stuff)


Rockabilly greasers

Moni

These are all great but I LOVE the first two.
The colours of the soft drink with the outfit in the second one seem like it is part of the outfit
And the eye is great in the first. I love the framing of the girl in the shot and the eye on the face.

The man sketching is very different from the rest. I like that he is "caught in the act". I also like that we can see what he is working on.

I am still really timid about taking pictures of people in public. I think I just need more practice.

Awais Yaqub

Cool photos and chracters

schmoo

Thanks Awais and Moni! The goth girl was really quite striking and the imperfections of her lipstick really made me sympathize with her.

I was very pleased to see the old men (there were two) sketching at the park in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Maybe it's where I live but you almost never see anything like that around here. A ways back in the water fountain there was another old man fishing for guppies with a twig.

I am terrfiied about taking street photos, too. I get very shy and embarrassed when I take the photo and they look right at me - then I pretend to be photographing whatever it is they're standing in front of.

jcp

Great photos. I love the streetlife in Tokyo, many people who haven't been there has this impression that Tokyo is little more than Salarymen, when this couldn't be further from the truth. Your photos provide great evidence of this.

cwphotos

Very nice madame. My hat is off to you. Such an interesting culture. I always find it interesting that while so many american teens want to be like japanese teens that japanese teens try and americanize themselves. Very odd mix. The goth girl is kinda scary looking. I couldnt see you dressed like that....

schmoo

jcp, I have to say that yes the vast majority of Tokyo were people in suits and I tried to photograph them but by golly out of 4 days I have almost nothing to show.

Oh I forgot, I did take this one of my husband trying to get street shots by a metro station. Pretty typical I guess! Suits blurred by motion.



Dean - you bring up a good point! Yes I have a ton of friends who would like nothing more than to be in Japan and do the Japanese underground culture thing but over there they do a lot to incorporate Western looks and phrases. It's kind of frustrating when the only things I can read are the Japanified English slogans on clothing and product labels... because it makes NO sense whatsoever!

(I'll not post my old blackmail photos, then....)

ChrisJ

Great shots! I especially like the Goth girl and Sketching. You definitely captured the feel of the place.

Giphsub

Great pics Schmoo! Pretty typical scenes here and you caught them all very well! Those rockabillies are great aren't they? Did you sit and watch for a bit? Was there a group of them?

I do the same thing when caught in the act photographing someone - pretend to be photographing something nearby!

ob81

Great shots!! I must go up to Tokyo and get some shots of my own!

schmoo

Heheh yes there were about 6 rockabilly dudes but they wouldn't dance in front of neat backgrounds so all of my photos are pretty bad. :giggle There were two separate groups right next to each other. Their competing music was very much like dueling banjos!

I looked on Wikipedia and there's a photo from years ago about them up there... the same guy is still dancing! I noticed they were definitely not young, but it's awesome that they are getting to do something they really love.

Here's one of the guys from the Rockabilly club walking past us while we were enjoying breakfast at a cafe. I didn't realize until I'd downloaded my photos and got a closer look that this was one of them!



Definitely get some street shots if you can. I knew Tokyo would be The Place for it because of the concentration and unique variety of faces and fashion.