Mike's Blender - Japan

Flowers for Cath

Long time no update! School has been busier than I expected and leaves little time for anything else, and unfortunately that includes personal projects like painting and this website. I have a few paintings I'm working on, but they're on hold for now. Hopefully I'll be able to finish them before the end of the year. Here's the first new piece I've finished since coming back from Japan, another flower commission! I've already mentioned that flowers aren't exactly my thing, but I'm happy to do them if people want me to...

Atlas Rocket

If you're not familiar with the Ottawa area, and find yourself driving down St. Laurent Boulevard, you might be surprised when you pass an open park-like area and see what looks like a large missile on display. What gives? Is it some sort of cold war deterrent against the Russians? A warning to the Americans or to the French people of Quebec? Not to worry, war is not imminent; you're just passing the Canada Science and Technology Museum...

Star Photography

No doubt you've had it happen to you at least once. You're out in the countryside in the middle of the night, you look up into a perfectly clear sky and see millions of stars. Amazed, you try to take a photograph of this wonder. You point your little digital camera up into the sky and click, but all you get on your LCD is pure blackness. Shooting the night sky is surprisingly difficult. To do so there are a few things that are a necessity. You'll need a tripod at the very least, as well as a camera that allows you to: take long exposures, change the aperture, and adjust the ISO (sensor sensitivity). Of course it also helps to be in an area that is not drowned by artificial light, such as in a city or even a whole country (if you've ever seen a satellite image of Japan at night you'll know what I mean). Other factors are things like clouds and haze. Clouds will of course obscure any stars, but even atmospheric haze (from hot muggy weather or pollution) on a clear night can obscure stars and make them seem dim and fuzzy. However even if you've got the above equipment covered, and the air is clear and crisp, you'll soon realize that there's another problem which is a bit more difficult to deal with: the Earth's rotation. When you photograph stars, you generally have to use a long exposure. However if your exposure time is more than about 30 seconds, you'll notice that the stars begin to look more and more like lines instead of dots. I found that an exposure time of about 25-30 seconds is the maximum that you can use before the stars start to show some obvious motion blur. To compensate for a shorter exposure time, you need to increase your camera's ISO, and widen the aperture...

Ontario Wildlife

One of the things I was looking forward to doing when I got back to Canada was taking photographs of Ontario's wildlife. Tokyo doesn't have much in the way of wild animals, unless you consider pigeons, crows and cockroaches exciting photography subjects. Anyway I've been back for a month now and haven't been disappointed. Here are some of the more common, and easily seen, subjects around me...

Time-lapse - Silver Lake Provincial Park

One of the first things I did when I got back to Canada was go camping. I've been going to Silver Lake with my family since I was a kid, and after a 10 year absence, it was nice to see that the place hasn't changed in the slightest. Days were spent swimming, canoeing, hiking, taking photos, etc., but mostly just relaxing. This is my first time-lapse video, something I've wanted to do for a while, but I've a new respect for people that do longer, more in depth ones. I used a shooting interval of between 10 to 30 seconds for my shots, and when 1 shot equals only a tenth of second, that translates into standing around for a really long time while your camera takes the necessary shots... Anyway enjoy!

All Good Things

Mike's Blender would like to thank: -Japan, for always having just one more interesting and beautiful destination to go to, one more bizarre food to eat and one more insightful or infuriating situation to be in. -The city of Tokyo, for being itself. I sometimes loved you, and sometimes hated you, but life within your borders was never dull. -All the people that passed through my life during the 10 or so years in my adopted country. I will never forget any of you, and I will miss most of you more than you probably know. -And of course, last but not least, all the wonderful people that stopped by to have a look at these pages over the years, whether you commented or not. It's been a great ride.

Abandoned Ginza

What if one day, for no particular reason, nobody at all came to Ginza? Photographic proof that the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction...

Tokyo International Forum

Upon entering the Tokyo Kokusai Forum, your first impression will probably be that of awe. Far more impressive looking on the inside; when you look up from the bottom floor far below, you might get the feeling you're looking up at the ribs of a whale, or perhaps the skeleton of a massive ship. Your second thought will probably be something like: 'So what exactly is the purpose of this place?' Good question. After sniffing around a bit it's hard to credit it with being any more than a massive waste of extremely prime real estate, and of course money. The forum has other sections which are used for exhibitions, conferences, various performances and the like, but this particular building (below photo) seems to exist almost solely for the purpose of just looking good. Oh there are a couple restaurants on the top floor (right hand side) and some small conference rooms below that which can be rented out for extraordinary sums of money, but for the most part they remain empty...