I mentioned last week that my previous trip to Japan had taught me the power of having the *right* person in your scenes.  Sometimes, though, places are just crowded and flooded with people, which isn’t what I’m after.  So, how do you photograph extremely popular spots, without getting the crowds in the image?  Well, sometimes you just have to go when the people aren’t there (see below), and sometimes you just have to work around them.  For the image above I was on the hill going down toward the famous Yasaka Pagoda (pictured above and below) and was able to simply zoom in over the heads of everyone else (a benefit of being an American in Asia).  This is one of the most photographed spots in Kyoto, so I really had no thoughts of creating anything unique here, so I simply waited for good light once I found the composition I wanted.  Luckily I was rewarded as the sun was setting and lit up the one face of the pagoda. 

Even still, I did want a shot of the street, but without all the people.  I decided to go to dinner to let it get dark (and I was starving) so I could try my luck later.  Sure enough, well after dark the streets were all but vacant.  Another photographer and I had the place essentially to ourselves, with only the random passer-by (you may notice a few of them stopped for a selfie further down in my scene).  That was definitely the experience I was hoping for!

More next week!

–Dan Thompson