Theme: Telling Stories in Travel Photography:
Tokyo’s shopping streets:
Satake Shotengai

Learning to visit a location and quickly figure out the way to tell a story about that place is a key skill for the travel photographer.
We will be looking at how to turbocharge your ability to see the big picture and the details, to create a creative set of photos with a strong narrative flow.

About the location:
Satake Shotengai is, according to some history books, the second oldest shopping street in Japan. And dates back to Edo times. It’s glory has faded somewhat now but it is an interesting area to explore. The street begins near Shin-Okachimachi Station and runs south towards Kuramae. The southern end of the street is far more neglected than the area near the station.

What will be photographing?
Our aim here will be to capture something of the flavour of the area. It could be people, it could be the shop signs, a set of pictures that capture the kinds of things the shops are selling. Or, it could be smaller details: textures, colours, details of lettering and signage, details of the architecture. The set of pictures each of us will create will. No doubt, be as different as each of us. But the base aim is to tell a story of our walk through this area, that transmits to someone looking at our pictures a flavour of the street.

Gear?
If you’re interested in street photography (people and the streets themselves) maybe 35mm, 50mm or 85mm could be good. Or a zoom that covers these lengths. If details are what you like, maybe a longer lens or macro.

iPhone would also be ok.

This is not really about gear, it’s about learning to see the story – even somewhere you’ve never been before – and shoot a creative and informative set of photos in a short amount of time.