When Tokyo Photographer, John Sypal isn’t literally eating, sleeping, and breathing photography, he is out serendipitously stumbling upon an exquisite little ism in Tokyo that piques as much curiosity as does a two-headed prairie dog. Its called “Tokyo Camera Style,” the notion that cameras are as much as personalized style accessories as they are “tools with which [their wearers] can express their personal taste and private sensibilities”…[and that]…”the relationship one has with their cameras affects their approach to making a picture.”

I was always eh, kinda like consider myself kind of a pioneer of the pentaprism, a camerateur if you will. I’ve wined, dined, sipped and shopped in some of the most demonstrably beamer epitomable camera shops in the Tokyo metropolitan region. Yeah, I’ve bought strange looking Fujipets at Alta. I’ve had dangerous pinholes from the the Camera Box. Well what you get is a gaffer-taped Holga in a UFO catcher loaded with a provocative roll of expired Velvia, and uh, rust. Processed with Campbell’s tomato soup. See I have kinda of a uh…well I ordered my Leica Titan, Christ it was so tough it left the box and it walked down to the end of the counter, camera gal wearing those rhinestone glasses with the little pearl thing clipped on the sweater. My Leica come down, tried to beat the shit out of my digital camera battery. Battery just wasn’t strong enough to defend itself…

Anyway… I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love a good gadget. I managed to acquire a whole used car of of ‘em and drive a different one (or three) everyday depending on how I feel. And inasmuch, I’ve managed to elbow my way on to John’s site a couple of times. Here, here, here, and a few other places. Go check out Tokyo Camera Style to see what the rest of Tokyo is sporting. I guarantee you it aint your mama’s rainbow banana pudding…

Tokyo Camera Style is a post from: Zōkyō

Macromeo and Julief-stop is a post from: Zōkyō

Taken with “the world’s most expensive toy camera” ™.

Last Memory is a post from: Zōkyō

Junior Yaks is a post from: Zōkyō

And one big one.

Little Doods… is a post from: Zōkyō

Bet your camera can’t do this…

0.95 is a post from: Zōkyō

… is a post from: Zōkyō

New Hokkaido series up at brianscottpeterson.com

Hokkaido is a post from: Zōkyō

Chimpanzee

This was taken with a Leica M8 on loan from Joi. I have been having a lot of fun with this camera a enjoying the ease of workflow that comes with working in digital. I’m quite impressed with how similar the photos from this camera look when compared to the film versions although I find that I am shooting ten times the amount of photos with it and perhaps tend to not take as much time to get it right the first time. While its a same form factor as my M6′s its a totally different shooting style, but one I am quite enjoying. Looking forward to using it more…

Chimpanzee is a post from: Zōkyō

Raccoon Dog and Blowfish

Tanuki and Fugu is a post from: Zōkyō