Took a few long exposures from outside the Lambo dealership window tonight. Could not get away with this during daylight. Wonder if I can take one out for a test drive. This shot has both Ferrari and Lambo.

I’ve been meaning to upload this series for a while. I love the troubled looks on all of their faces. I don’t know what exactly propels them, but it wouldn’t surprise me should it turn out to be some otherworldly force.

My wife just got accepted to her first choice of business schools for her MBA. I’ll be traveling with her during the one year program, which will take us through Singapore and France. We celebrated tonight with a glass of white from Kenzo Estate down the road from us. Kenzo Estate is owned and run by Kenzo Tsujimoto, also the CEO and founder of Capcom, purveyors of fine video games such as Street Fighter and Megaman.

I need to get out more. This hermit lifestyle just doesn’t suite me. I also need to ditch this unwieldy tripod of mine, it’s a bitch to carry. It’s time to put some cash into something better, smaller and very lightweight.

Hit Map Camera in Shinjuku once more to play around with their manual focus ais lenses. Waki took an interest in the 35mm F1.4. This shot was taken using it on my D300. I quite like it, but not sure how often I’d use it. Wide open at 1.4 wasn’t as bad as the forums claim. I thought it produced an acceptable degree of sharpness near the center, and the bokeh wasn’t half bad either… Yes, I’m a hopeless lens addict. Save me.

Testing my 50mm F1.2 lens on a D700 body in the sanctity of the Shinjuku Nikon Service Center. It’s the most sterile environment to try Nikon’s most expensive lenses and bodies without little kids sneezing on you or customers aimlessly bumping into you as you screw on your lens. Great view too from their floor, and great photo gallery as well.

Took the 85mm F1.4 out for some “shooting from the hip” photography in Shibuya.

Changed phones from the AU Infobar 2 to the newer AU Ply. Loved the beautiful Infobar 2 display icons. Hated the rest of it. The Infobar 2’s “lock” button was it’s center key, pressing it for a few seconds locks it, do the same to unlock it. All that was need to complete the recipe for disaster was to slide it into your front pants pocket, then sit down while resting your arms over your legs, elbow atop the phone in the pocket. It would dial out as frequently as it could because of the pressure releasing the hold button. Few days would pass without hearing, “Hello? Hello?” coming from my pants pocket. Ply doesn’t have this issue as it’s keys are hidden within the slider. Really unfortunate as I do greatly appreciate Naoto Fukasawa’s ID work.

Experimenting for my first time with light painting. Decided on standard 200 yen sparklers from Donki Hote for the light source. Exposure set to 20 seconds, F16 on 85mm. No one was burned in the process.

Awa Dori festival in Iidabashi. Took my new 85mm F1.4 out for a test drive. Frustratingly discovered after shooting over 100+ exposures that my D300 developed a big red hot pixel in the dead center of the sensor. Subsequently took it in to the Nikon Shinjuku repair shop for remapping. Irritating, but thankful for the free service in Shinjuku.

Sat my D300 on the bar counter and shot this at F1.2 via the 50mm. Caught just the little beads of water on the glass edge, this really shows just how shallow F1.2 really is. If I were to take a portrait with this, I would catch just the tip of the persons nose.