Random photos of stations I have visited

[kuro68000]

 

Slowly processing some wallpapers. Here's Funabashi in Chiba. Might have dialled up the film look a little bit too much with the heavy contrast, not sure. I like the really contrasty look that the Fujifilm X100V produces. Actually the Google Camera does a decent job too.

[kuro68000]

For comparison, here's the cropped and resized output from the JPEG produced by the Google Camera:

 

 

It's arguably a bit over-sharpened, but does look good. I'm starting to think that I may as well not bother with the RAWs because I'm just not good enough at Darkroom to do a better job than the JPEG. Really I should focus on composition, and especially just standing back a bit further so I can crop more effectively. Now that you can save 50MP files from the Pixel camera it's not problem to crop in a fair bit.

[kuro68000]

 

Outside Ofuna Station, north side.

[kuro68000]

 

Hiratsuka.

[kuro68000]

 

Akihabara.

[kuro68000]

 

Omiya Station.

[kuro68000]

 

I made this one more of a showcase instead of a mood thing like the previous one.

[kuro68000]

Next trip booked.

 

 

Yachiyomidorigaoka Station (try saying that three times fast).

 

Maybe the crop could be better. By pure fluke the colour composition is nice, with the orange lines and little bit of green on the right. Straight out of the Pixel 8 Pro.

 

Which reminds me. Google... I'm gonna need you to not upgrade the cameras this year, okay? I have to stick with this phone a bit longer and my trip is too close to the release date to see serious discounts on the new one. Seriously, do AI or something.

[kuro68000]

 

Takao Station, just passing through. It was a dull day but I did my best.

[kuro68000]

 

Higashi-Matsuyama Station. One of the best but also most awkward Hard Offs to get to.

 

The wide angle lens is definitely a bit softer than than the primary one, but the composition is better from this location. This is the processed RAW. The JPEG out of the phone was a little under-exposed I think, but very contrasty.

[kuro68000]

 

Wakaba Station on to Tobu-Tojo Line. Not sure if I should rotate this one a bit more. It's level but somehow still looks a little bit like it isn't, probably because the ground isn't level here and the mountains are in the background.

[kuro68000]

 

Sagami-Otsuka Station.

[kuro68000]

 

Ebina, about 20 minutes walk from Sagamino Station.

 

I thought this was a fairly residential area, but it's actually not far from a Mega Donki complex. Tokyo doesn't really do single use areas, but it's hard to get your brain out of that mode of thinking. Or at least it is for me.

[kuro68000]

 

I follow this guy on Twitter who is always doing these pleasing geometric shape kind of photos, so thought I'd try it. I don't have a good eye for this stuff, but somehow I find the shapes here pleasing. Kita-Senju Station.

[kuro68000]

 

Another attempt, with a kind of flow from the two triangles. I only made this in Paint.NET, I think it would be better if I edited the RAW files in Darktable first to improve the colours. It's a bit advanced though, I think I'd have to do it in such a way that both are adjusted the same so the colour grading matches.

[kuro68000]

 

I improved this one. It was way too flat. I think I'm slowly getting a hang for the colour controls, but I have trouble getting them to look realistic. The Google Camera app looks very natural. I think this has a bit of an early HDR overdone look still.

[kuro68000]

 

More geometry. Could do with a better crop, but the angle I took it at limits what I can do. I had the camera horizontal, but to make the wires give this pleasing shape I needed it at an angle. So I ended up cropping more than I wanted to. Otherwise this one is straight out of Google Camera, which tends to over-saturate the sky, but in a pleasing way.

 

Taken near Hanyuu Station.

[cteno4]

Photoing electrical/communication lines in Japan can be quite fun. It’s a wild and sometimes pretty dance between very organized and geometrical lines and then at times absolute chaos, back and forth and mixing around and at times both at the same time. We tend to sort of ignore them and block them out in our usual looking around and not big in our visual memory. I was surprised one trip to Japan I started looking up at the wires everywhere and saw lots I never noticed. The density and organized chaos can be quite interesting. I’ll have to dig out the old drive and find my folder of electrical/phone line photos from that trip, it was really fun!

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

On 5/29/2024 at 8:27 AM, mojo said:

Ebina, about 20 minutes walk from Sagamino Station.

I'm sure I've never seen this building, but somehow it's extremely familiar.  I guess there's a lot of this out in the 'burbs.

[cteno4]

I thought of OHDAN, right away…

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10126408

 

jeff

[kuro68000]

On 6/10/2024 at 12:29 AM, miyakoji said:

I'm sure I've never seen this building, but somehow it's extremely familiar.  I guess there's a lot of this out in the 'burbs.

 

I know what you mean, that kind of random angles building is not uncommon in Japan.

 

You can see it in 3D on Google Maps here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tMFnAuVwjgotCBJP6

 

It looks like it was custom designed to fit that triangular shape area between existing roads. Maybe they started with a typical house style building and then added the store front part at an angle.

 

I love buildings like that. There was another one I recall, but I'm not sure if I have a photo of it. It was a rectangle, but entirely on stilts. For no apparent reason, there wasn't anything under it. It was on a little traffic island like that too. Must be a story behind it.

[kuro68000]

 

Hanyuu Station.

[kuro68000]

 

Tatebayashi Station.

[kuro68000]

 

At Tatebayashi Station. I had to fiddle with this one a bit to get it to expose nicely, with the gantries on the left not blown out, but also not causing the white train to look weird. I'm getting a little better with masks in Darktable.

[kuro68000]

 

Sano, near the station.