There it is I am finally in Japan, jet-lag free (mostly) and in the mood to update that ‘’blogue’’ (sorry the French accent took over for a second). What I did so far is walk around town with my kids took a couple of snapshots of the city and I came to the conclusion that there is not a lot of white guy with no hair and a beard around; but I knew that from my last time I was here.
So I see a lot of respect-tradition in the air hum… How can I explain this customer service is A + + + peoples bowing to you as you enter and leave the shop, everybody wait before crossing the street (Something that Montrealers should learns). The street are clean and mostly people and business will clean in front of the entrance if there is dust because there is none to little garbage on the ground it is just like that in Japan. I could go on…but

Okay
Before you tell me that I am in ‘’Japanese’’ mode I have to tell you few things that I did not like no changing table in the male washroom so I had to change my two months old in the hallway of a shopping mall and there is still smokers section in restaurants it did get better over the last few years in the way that now a lot of smoker section are enclosed in glass box like lab rats which I do not mind to tell you the truth.
I am located in Nagasaki and let me tell you something that if there is a place on earth were there are not afraid to build on mountains it is here. You’ll understand once you see the photos attached to that post. Amazing that in a place with so many earthquakes they found the mean to build in place that I would not even rock climb.
I will try to do a post later this week solely on the small techno things that make life better on a daily basis not big things but it sure make you thing why we do not have this in Canada.

Many reasons would come to mind when you want to purchase a new camera or a second camera body.
First let’s consider time and space when you need a camera you ‘’need it’’ now. It was in 2008 I was coming back from a 7 months tour around the world with the Canadian Navy on the once beautiful and not so hot HMCS Protecteur.

I was 23 years old and just spend all those months photographing the life onboard the ship with two Nikon D3, which I was lucky enough to have has most of us where still shooting with D2X or D2H. Nikon did not disappointed me, from 50 degrees Celsius with 100 % humidity to AC inside the ship the camera did show me the might of the brand and the power of the new digital era ( remember back then it still was a big deal to some to say that your where shooting just with a digital camera ).
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So where was I going with this basically…. Oh Yeah Nikon had a new slave, when I got back home I did what was sounded to me like a great idea I purchased my own Nikon D3 with a 50 mm 1.4 and some more that same year.

About 6000$ and some potatoes taxes if I remember well.
Back then I was like Mr. Schwarzenegger ‘’Go big or go home’’. Well when you are at home and you can put all that gear on a nice shelving unit or you have the extra gear in the car when you shooting that wedding it is a good motto.

With 2 kids you don’t take less photos you just take more with you IPhone or whatever Kodak your wife brought in her purse and let me tell yeah there is nothing worse than uploading those files into LR and realizing that they are garbage for quality print….. but at least you get to put them on Facebook right!!!
So now I think you’re starting to get where I am going with this… or at least I hope you will by the end of this post.
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When I started photography, I wanted the best gear to be the best, in reality the person behind the camera have a bigger impact on what makes a photo a photo.
The megapixels, full frame sensors, image stabilization, quality of glass comes with a price.

There is no perfect Kodak but the one you have with you to capture that moment, having that in mind I realize that I will to make sacrifices. I will have to trade my versatile zoom lens for a leg-zoom that will make me think about getting the right distance. I will have to change batteries after 300 shots not after 1500. I could go on and on with some specs but at 440 grams I can take those limitations and shoot in RAW and plays with the variables in post knowing the limits of that little fuji X100T. I feel more confidant in my skills to achieve more with less equipments.

Shortly I will be going to Japan with the whole family and will be carrying my son on my back using a baby-carrier which will replace my big camera bag that I brought the first time I visited Japan. I will be able to documents my journey in Nagasaki I will try to bring you an interesting visual perspective from a French- Canadian who want to share is story abroad through his photos.
Thank you and I hope you can read more on this blog soon.
Pier-Adam