TOKYO ROAD SHOTS FROM MY WORKSHOP IN TOKYO, WITH A SIDE OF KYOTO & YOKOHAMA

IT WAS MY SIXTH TRIP TO TOKYO

And when I was there this past October, it really hit me what an incredible destination this would be for a travel photography workshop. Tokyo has it all, and it's often it's best and most vibrant at night (especially if it rains, which sadly it did not the entire week), but we had an incredible time (and our photo crew of 12 Americans joining Erik Kuna and I on this journey made some truly outstanding images. I'm going to share some of mine here, but next week, when I share the participants' images on "The Grid" (my weekly podcast), you'll be amazed at the images they created.

One thing Erik and I commented on again and again during the workshop is how amazing it is that a group of people, all shooting and traveling together to the same locations, came out with such strikingly different images. I think a lot of folks probably feel that everybody comes away with similar images, but it couldn't be farther from reality. The choice of lens, shooting angles, and how you frame up the shots makes all the difference in the world, and when we're doing our in-class critiques, you see this unfold on screen and even though I know it's true – I've seen it workshop after workshop, it's still fascinating to see how different everyone's images look.

Erik and I arrived on Friday, and did all day (and night) scouting trips to the locations we'd be taking our photo crew (that's what we call the workshop participants) during the week. This helps make sure an area we're taking them is open and accessible (there's no scaffolding or obstructions), and we find the best shooting angles to start from. Eirk and I get our own photos done during these scouting sessions so we can focus on the crew once we get them out on location. On Sunday night, we have a fun casual dinner for the whole group where we get to know one-another (though nine of these folks knew each other from being on my previous workshops), share a great meal, lots of laughs, and we get ready for a very busy week, (Erik and I joke that we put the "work" in workshop).

We were also fortunate to work with Tokyo-based photographer Laurence Bouchard, whom I met through a photo tour last October. He's a fantastic photographer, and knows all the cool places to shoot, so we hired him to assist us during our workshop, and he was with us three of the five days and was super helpful (he's British, but married a Japanese woman and moved to Tokyo, so he speaks perfect English and pretty darn good Japanese, which is super helpful). If you're thinking of going to Tokyo, he's your guy (follow him on Instagram at or on his website at www.laurencebouchard.com - I can't recommend him enough.

I'll tell most of the rest of the story in the captions, but essentially, we shot in and around Tokyo, day and night on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday we took a day trip to the town of Kyoto by Bullet Train (just 2 hours and 8 minutes at around 180 mph), and we took a different train on Thursday afternoon to Yokohama (about 40 minutes away). Friday we were back up early shooting in Tokyo. We wrapped up the week with a group meal at a beautiful Chinese restaurant (we had a LOT of Japanese food during the week, and yes, we made one obligatory tirp to McDonalds. Don't judge. Sometimes you just need a meal where you can pronouce what you're having). OK, onto the images.

Above: This one is from our day trip to Kyoto, it's the famous red Torii gates at the Fushimi Inari shrine. How did we get to where there are no tourists in sight at one of Japan's most popular attractions? This is actually the exit, and I stood right behind this point and asked people to hold up for just a moment so my photo crew could get their shots. What's nice about this view is that the front side of the gates doesn't have any Japanese characters on it, unlike the backside view, which makes for a more interesting shot (at least, I think so). I could only hold them up for around 30 seconds, then they started backing up, and eventually, they would ignore me and walk right through our shot, but I did it a number of times, and it worked out. Here's the key to stopping crowds: smile as you do it. :)

Another one from our Kyoto day trip, taken in the Gion District. This woman was a bit above the crowd, standing up on a few step (I had to remove some tops of heads in the foreground) on this famous street in Gion.

Above; Here's a young priest (or priest in training) at the Fushimi Inari shrine. He wasn't crazy about us taking his photo, but we got this shot before he shared his thoughts.

Doing a location portrait shot

Back in Tokyo, and with Laurence's help, we arranged a portrait shoot on location with a professional model dressed in a traditional Kimono. Laurence helped me find Mary, a great model based in Shibuya. He found a wonderful place for us to rent a really lovely quality Kimono (a lot of places do rent Kimonos, but a lot of them look cheesy), and I chose one that I thought would contrast nicely with the location Laurence sent me (seen below). In the most densely populated city in the world, Laurence took us to a garden where we had the entire place to ourselves. It was beautiful, serene, colorful, and Mary was fantastic (and very patient). Here's one of my favorites below.

Above: I chose her outfit to contrast with the images Laurence had sent me of the location, and it worked out really well. I bought an umbrella back in the US and took it with me, but when we got there, Laurence pulled out the umbrella you see here, which was just perfect.

Above: This one's an iPhone photo, taken through the glass from the 4th floor of a bus depot and this guy's running late to cross the street to the Shinjuku Train Station before the "Don't Walk" sign turns on (if the "Walk" sign is not lit, they absolutely do not cross the street, even if there's not a car in sight for miles, and his guy is rushing to make it while it's still on "Walk."

Above: There's a great backlit escalator in Tokyo Station and the light from the street above falls in your subject's face as they move upward toward the street level.

Here's another from that same viewpoint. Note: We're stadning on the far edge of the non-moving stairs inbetween the two escalators. Everybody kept looking up to see what we were shooting.

Above: this was taken in Kabukicho, just a short walk from our hotel and it's known as the area with the most lighted signs (as seen above). It's also right next to an area with a ton of very small bars (Bars that only hold between 8 and 12 people, and it's just bar after bar in very small, tight, yet utterly charming lantern-hit alleys.

A Shoot Gone Bad at the Hakone Shrine, in Kanagawa

There's a spot about 90 minutes outside Tokyo with a torii gate just off the shore of a lake near Mt.e Hakone Shrine. W Fuji, called the considered taking the photo crew there, but we wanted to scout it first. When we left Tokyo, it was beautiful, but in the five minutes before we arrived at the site, all hell broke loose. Sheets of fog seemed to fall from the sky, and there was so much fog that it made the trees soaked with water, andliterally pouring down on us like a rain that water was storm. Suddenly it was cold, rainy, windy, and just some really awful shooting conditions. We thought it might improve, but we were there for about an hour, and it didn't get any better. It was a mess, and believe it or not, in this cold, rainy mess, there was still a line of people behind us waiting to shoot in this awful mayhem.

What made it worse was we wanted to do a long exposure, so everybody waited patiently in the rain (the Japanese know how to stand in line with no one fussing whatsoever patiently), and we're all soaked; I can't keep rain drops off my sense, it was just miserable, and even though we were there for an hour, I only was able to take four shots, and three of them are a disaster. One was passable (seen below), but I had to remove water drops and other distractions in post. Overall, I'm glad we didn't waste a whole morning with the crew on what would have been a total bust. That's why we scout these locations beforehand.

A long exposure (using a 10-stop ND filter) in the worst weather – rainy, chilly, windy, gray, and a long line of people behind me waiting to shoot in this awful weather (see the video below). This "gate" is about 1-1/2 hours outside Tokyo. Mt. Fuji is nearby, completely covered in fog.

Above: Here's a short video of the shooting conditions at the gate.

An unexpected portrait shoot

We took our crew to the Roppongi Hills observation deck, which gives a great view of Tokyo (better than many of the other decks), and when we were done, and waiting for the rest of crew, some of us in a row of benches looking out on the city, and this young lady and her friend were taking photos of each other, and I thought the light was fantastic, and she had a really interesting face (and cool glasses) so while she was posing for her friend, we were shooting away.

I converted the first four images to black and white, and then I increased the highlights to blow out the sky behind her, so the focus was just on her, not on where she was. We shot for about 20 minutes, and neither she nor my friend ever noticed we were shooting them (or they did, and did an Oscar-worthy job of making it look like they didn't notice us). My favorite is the last shot, intentionally left in color, where her friend is showing her one of the shots she took on her iPhone.

Above: This is a spiral (well, rectangular) staircase inside a very modern Buddist Temple about 6 minutes walking distance from our hotel. This is the view from the fifth floor looking down with a wide angle lens.

That's Laurence with a perfect umbrella walking through a crosswalk as we shoot down from a 2nd floor perch.

Tokyo Design and Color

I have a love affair with the Japanese Kanji letters (though some Japanese letters can be called either Hiragana or Katakana, and I'm mentioning this so that somebody doesn't rush to the comments to let me know). Each letter or word is like its own work of art, and when you match it with the Japanese sensibility for design, it creates something I find so beautiful. Here's a handful of my favorites, which feature either type or where color and design are the subject.

Peace out, Ya'll.

Doing a little show shutter speed shooting.

The Alleyway Restaurants of Omoide Yokocho

Smoke-filled, crowded, hot, and absolutely awesome (and incredibly delicious). These smoky alleyways are right near Shinjuku Station, a short walk from our hotel, and these lantern-lit alleys have some amazing little eateries, and they are cheap as anything. We loved it (shooting and eating there).

Here are a few shots from Omoide Yokocho (below)

Above: one from our day trip to Kyoto – the famous bamboo forrest in the morning.

Up close with a wide angle at a very cool, ultra modern museum.

Here's a pull back shot of the The Sumida Hokusai Museum.

As part of our first morning shoots, we stopped at an architectural wonder – the The Sumida Hokusai Museum. It's small, but mighty cool!

Shooting from the 2nd floor down to the street's crosswalk.

If you get to the Sensō-ji Temple in Asakusa early enough, you'll miss about 10,000+ tourists that start arriving shortly.

This is the Metropolitian Government building, which was directly across the street from our hotel. This view is from the inner courtyard.

Above: She was posing for her friends on this backlit set of stairs, and went up and asked her if she'd mind posing for us with an umbrella, and she was happy to do it. One of our crew got an amazing photo of her, and a perfect pose. I missed it, but at least I got this one.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Here's some behind-the-scenes shots courtesy of Mr. Kuna (see below), including some shots of our classroom where we spent time each day editing, learning, and laughing.

The Kuna Man – making the scene in Tokyo.

Above: That last shot is Miles Smith winning his 2nd "Best Image of the Week" Award, as voted by the entire crew. He had a killer image of the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto. He used a slow shutter to pan up the Bamboo, and then he added some really nice post-production (don't judge by the image you see on screen here – the colors on that screen are off). Well, they are here – they weren't in the classroom.

One for the road – from the pier in Yokohama.

Above: Here's our photo crew from our opening night dinner (which was super yummy). On the left side: John, Betty, Ken, Shawn, Lara, Jen, Sharon, Kuna Man, Michael. From the front right: Miles, yours truly, Diane, JP, Jeff, Susan, and Kelly.

Thanks for letting me share my trip with you. :)

These workshops are something I look forward to all year. It's getting to spend time with a great group of people, seeing wonderful places and different cultures, trying foods from around the world, and getting to make some photos throughout it all. It's just about the most fun thing I get to do, and I feel very blessed to be able to do it all. It really is a treat, and I'm grateful to the great group of folks I spent the week with, and to Erik Kuna for all his hard work, ideas, and help, and to Laurence Bourchard for being our "man on the ground" there in Tokyo. It was a week I'll never forget. :)

Note: All photos taken with a Canon R6 II with a 24-240 lens, and every once in a while, using a 10-20mm lens (maybe twice). Also, a few of these were taken with my iPhone 16 Pro, including the group shot above, taken by our server.

CREATED BY

Scott Kelby

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