Yokohama Architecture Evening

Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of work on my landscape imagery, refining shooting technique and post processing etc… That left little time for my other photographic obsession: architectural imagery. Buildings, urban development and all that. I really love it, heck that’s what my website is actually all about. To be honest, I think the reason I stepped back from architecture work for a while is that I felt there was nothing to shoot in Yokohama. Of course there’s subject matter everywhere around us, I’ve just been feeling sightly un-inspired as of late.

I forced myself out the door the other day and headed into the city around dusk to work on some architectural imagery. I shot around Minatomirai for a few hours and came away with the images you see here. After working on these for a while, I found myself smiling at the screen, happy with my results as I began to feel my creativity returning. This is why I do what I do :-)

This is the main entrance of Central Tower in a very well-developed area of central Yokohama. I love the use of rectangular glass in the structure, it makes the entire facade appear light and open. And I’m a sucker for brushed steel on buildings. This was a singe frame made around sunset so as to capture the glow of the ambient light and the building illumination at the same time. There is a large steel sculpture on the left that I decided to leave in the frame to add some interest. I do think now that the image feels a little “crowded” because I was forced to squish everything in one frame, but I’m happy the way the lighting turned out. There is one more version I made using multiple images that I’ll stitch together and eventually add to my portfolio, so take a look at my website in a bit and you’ll be able to see it there.

Just a few metres down from where I took the Central Tower image I came upon this simple yet interesting stairway. I decided to frame it with the entrance to the right and the giant bonsai looking tree on the left. A long exposure helped bring out the green colour on the glass on the left, coming from some lights beside the stairs. Those towers in the background add context and they also help illustrate the type of neighbourhood this is. I really like the lighting on the bottom of the planter of the tree – I’m a sucker for long exposures.

I’m really happy to have gone out that day as I came back with some killer images. It was a great confidence booster as I was feeling down and out concerning my architectural images. So get out there, its hard for sure when you’re not feeling at your best. But just kicking my own butt and pushing out the door is exactly what I needed  to get me back into the groove of things. And let’s be honest , no one likes the “self loathing” artists thing anymore – no one cuts off their own ears because of artistic depression these days (that’s right Van Gogh, that just happened!) so none of us have an excuse anymore! :-)

Best of luck with your art this week, and please leave a comment down below or catch me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter or my website if you want to get in touch.

J