I am back home from my photo trip and tired. I will be going through the haiku contest #3 entries tonight and try to pick out some winners, but before that I have to grind through all the photos I took on my (work) trip. Duty calls. Gotta do what pays the bills before we have fun, eh?

Around 2006 I relaunched my website as a look into Japan and I ran that site until 2017 when I lost the domain. How I lost it is a tale of woe not to be recounted here. 11 years is a pretty good run at any rate. During that time, I received emails nearly daily asking for "photos of everyday Japan". I tried to oblige sometimes, but everyday things just always felt too boring to me. I remember one time I took a video of a boring drive to the supermarket and posted it. There was nothing special, just billboards, cars, road, ugly modern buildings. Yet it got tons of hits and was an extremely popular post. Clearly there is a lot of demand for boring everyday things.

All that is a long way of saying, I thought I would finally try to do this "everyday Japan" thing. If I can remember, I will snap a random photo, probably with my phone, everyday. If I come across something more interesting (a shrine, a statue, a geisha, etc) I will likely take the photo of that, but if it is a normal day and I only come across normal everyday things, that will be our photo.

I will call this series...

Random Japan

Today I did come across a more uniquely Japanese thing: a shrine. To make the photo more interesting, I used the rolling shutter technique. I've mentioned this a few times but I haven't explained it. Due to how cheaper camera sensors (like the ones on your smartphone) record data, you can get some interesting effects if you move the camera at the exact moment it is being exposed. In this case, spinning the phone at the exact right moment will result in the image being bent. My photo buddy Takahiro named this technique "Rolling Shutter", so that is the name I always use.

Almost makes the torii look as if it is dancing, eh?

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I post one photo everyday, as well as a haiku and as time allows, videos, more Japanese history, and so on. Let me know if there is anything about Japan you would like to know more about or would like to see.

Who is David?
	David LaSpina is an American photographer lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time.