The Artful Engineer

The image above was taken about half a block from Tokyo’s famous Shibuya Crossing—also known as the Shibuya Scramble—the busiest pedestrian crossing on the planet. Diving in to the experience without hesitation, I ended up there on my first full day in Japan, which happened to be a Saturday. Being a Saturday, it wasn’t going to be a quiet afternoon, although it was raining. I suspect that any thinning of the crowd due to the rain was offset by the fact that everyone had umbrellas which made each of them occupy more space. Trying to maneuver your umbrella through everyone else’s was kind of fun:

I do not typically do much of what is traditionally considered “street” photography, which usually involves a lot of timing to strategically place moving people in an overall composition. In fact, I usually time my exposures to have people out of the composition entirely. That simply wasn’t possible here. But the constantly-changing position of umbrellas does offer the opportunity to make interesting compositions. Indecision, however, is not allowed:

My daughter knew of an interesting rooftop garden a few blocks away that was probably ten or more floors above street level. It was a peaceful spot—doubly so on a rainy day—from which to watch the activity far below. This next image is sort of “found” image; it is a tight crop out of larger one. The fact that the one lady happened to be looking up at the garden I was standing in is purely serendipitous:

Busy crosswalks in Tokyo are still quite orderly. Everyone waits for the green pedestrian light and no one jaywalks. It is a very different experience than Rome, where everyone just relies on cars to stop. I think this image is a lot more interesting than it would be without the umbrellas:

From the same elevated vantage point, there was a nice view across the rooftops. I like how the buildings fade away into the rain.

Next week I’ll have a very different set of images of a temple in Kamakura south of Tokyo, featuring interesting architecture in lush, green surroundings. I look forward to sharing them with you!