ONE OF MY BEST PHOTOS OF JAPAN: PETRI CAMERA, 1962

ONE OF MY BEST PHOTOS OF JAPAN: PETRI CAMERA, 1962
Originally uploaded by roberthuffstutter

ONE OF MY BEST PHOTOS OF JAPAN: PETRI CAMERA, 1962


SHORTLY AFTER ARRIVING IN JAPAN, I PURCHASED A PETRI at the Navy Exchange in Yokohama. It had the "new magic eye" or built-in light meter, a feature I thought would make a great difference in that I would not have to worry about Fstops and all the technical aspects. It was, in reality, a forerunner of the AUTOMATIC FEATURE. In other words, it was a point and shoot.

I shot many slides to begin with due to the high cost of color film. Hopefully, they are still in good shape, and I will be able to transfer them into photos and thus transfer them to my Flickr photostream. If there is a method for using a scanner to enlarge slides and get them into my system, I have not yet figured it out.

Through a contact in Flickr, I have been presented a Petri and am eagerly awaiting its arrival to see if it is still as fascinating as I recall. The best way to prove this, however, would be through board a JAL for Tokyo and then start shooting great photos. Maybe, sometime, I hope to return. It would be a second adventure of a lifetime.......Robert

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SAILING INTO FUJI

SAILING INTO FUJI
Originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba

SAILING INTO FUJI
Beautiful.

THIS IMAGE is one of several examples of a largely ignored facet of Old Japanese Photography -- a genre called "TAISHO ART" or "TAISHO PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY". The pictorialism movement in Japan reached its peak during the reign of EMPEROR TAISHO (1912-26), thus the name attached to the genre. See the extended comments at the set link for PICTORIALISM IN OLD JAPAN just to the right of this picture.

Uploaded by Okinawa Soba on 28 Mar 08, 12.48PM PST.

STANDING IN AIR OVER MT. FUJI -- Japan's Sacred Mountain Subdued Under a Bridge

STANDING IN AIR OVER MT. FUJI -- Japan's Sacred Mountain Subdued Under a Bridge
Originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba

Your photograph is very special. It is one of my favorites. The colors you captured are magnificent; your framing is artful. To summarize, your photograph is a masterpiece, a work of art.

MT FUJI CANNOT BE DEFINED BY WORDS. This is my opinion and the opinion of writers throughout the world. Nevertheless, writers continue to describe its beauty in poetry, in long and elegant streams of prose and in brief but powerful text in geography books. When all is written and read, the sight of this sacred symbol in Japan, the sight of this most famous mountain throughout the world leaves the viewer almost breathless and bewildered; its beauty is beyond description in graphic text or letters; there is no poem powerful enough to create the emotion that sight of this mountain creates in one's heart and mind upon seeing Mt Fuji for the first time.

A MOST SERENE AND BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPH...of my favorite mountain. Most people I talk with tell me it is impossible to see Mt Fuji from Yokohama. I tell them that in the early 1960s, I could see Mt Fuji almost any day from Atsugi, and quite frequently while in Yokohama, I could see the beautiful symbol of Japan.
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STANDING IN AIR OVER MT. FUJI -- Japan's Sacred Mountain Subdued Under a Bridge
What can be said here ? Odd and unusual. Arty in some kind of way, because of the non-standard arrangement of the objects in the view. Any photographer worth his salt in Old Japan would place Mt. Fuji OVER the bridge...and UNDER some overhanging branches of twisted pine, or branches of flowering Cherry Blossoms. But not this guy. He stuck the old volcano under a Bridge...with people in the sky, instead of Fuji's majestic peak. Good Show. It's nice to find old stuff like this...at the bottom of the box where nobody wanted it. However, I'm sure there are plenty of nuts on flickr (just like me) that will immediately like this shot. Ca.1900 albumen print.

Uploaded by Okinawa Soba on 1 Apr 08, 11.03PM PST.