Looks like I’m on a roll with Japanese titled posts this week. Today’s title Hamatteiru, is the Japanese word for “being addicted to something” or “infatuated with something”. It’s often a term the Japanese use when they’ve got a strong interest in something that consumes a greater amount of their time than usual. I use it here because that’s how I’ve been about the Ricoh GR-D III I picked up recently.

Why so crazy about it you ask? Hmm, good question. Mostly because it’s a camera that I’ve wanted for a long time now, and now that I have one I want to learn about and use it as much as I possibly can. I’m sure you know the feeling and have experienced it with something on your own, so it’s not such an odd reaction. In my case, it’s something that I frequently do with a variety of things. It’s the Jack-Of-All-Trades syndrome and I’ve had it in spades ever since I was a kid.

Getting back to the camera, one of the things I wanted to try with it was some street photography. The reason for this is that the camera is amazingly well-suited for it in a number of ways – the low-key design avoids attention; it’s very small; the lens is wider than average (28mm) and very fast too (f1.9); it has a snap-focus feature that makes for almost instant shooting, and the output at high ISOs is very usable and has a good amount of character. Together, these add up to a very able camera for off-the-cuff shooting. Further proof can be found in the fact that the famous Japanese street photographer, Daido Moriyama (森山大道) uses it regularly for his work, as well as a fair number of other very loyal pro and amateur photographers around the world.

With that in mind, this past Saturday I had a chance to give it a go when we went down to the Pittsburgh Strip District for lunch and some shopping. Always lively on a Saturday, it was the perfect environment with lots of opportunities. For shooting technique, I tried using Moriyama’s style of minimal framing and frequent stealth shooting from the hip. I didn’t want to copy him as much as simply try a technique that’s atypical for me and looked interesting and possibly useful. Results-wise, it was pretty fruitful I must say, and a relatively refreshing way to shoot that was very free, easy, flowing and candid. No one knew I shot their picture and often I was very close, maybe only a yard or two away. And while I admit I’m not a street shooter in general, it was good day’s shooting and I got some excellent photos.

With that, the proof’s in the pudding. My absolute favorite shot is the opening shot above, where the emotion of the subject just couldn’t have been captured better, bringing a big smile to me when I saw it. The rest are presented below, and while some are better than others for sure, all carry a good feeling of the atmosphere of the location. I hope you enjoy them as well. Cheers!

First up, a few B&W abstracts for fun:

And a nifty selfie with help from some exhibit at the museum:

The Ape gettin’ his digital freak on:

Someone famous ^_^:

Mr. Rogers’ Lobby:

Strip District:

And . . . . a Bitchin’ Camaro!

I did take a few others, but mostly nothing worth keeping other than for snapshot use. I did, however, have another opportunity this week to do a bit of experimenting around the house with the E-420 while the wife and son were out.

A while back while playing with my son, I noticed some views of the interior of the house that I thought might be worth capturing. I scooted around from various angles snapping this and that, and then after culling over and editing the photos last night came up with the following images. I guess you could call them architectural as they’re based off interior shots of a building, but after editing them I’d say probably best not to. I could’ve kept them as straight interior detail shots I guess, but it felt more natural to edit them into something completely unique, so I did. Here’s the ones I liked the best, leave a comment and let me know what you think.