Absences and apologies

Apologies for the lack of posts this week. I've been flat out trying to get new images up on the web as well as look after my two young boys - who take great delight in making a huge mess straight after I've cleaned everything up!

Maybe I need to be stuck in one of these. This is a bona fide homemade electric chair! I found it for sale at a flea market in Japan.

Not any old flea market mind you but the biggest flea market in the whole of Hokkaido. And, for someone who's not the biggest shopper in the world, I was very tempted to go home with this little beauty. It would sure come in handy for those little brats of mine. :)



A good tip when you're travelling is to try and get yourself a copy of the local English newspaper. You can often find them at embassies and English language schools. The great thing about local newspapers is that they point you in the direction of events that may be great to photograph, but which the tourism people don't tell you about.

Tourism bodies often have an agenda to send you information about the products that pay to be members of their societies. As a result they often have a great knowledge of the major events and products but might not be up to date on the little things happening in town. By getting your information locally you can bypass this little problem and find some not often visited events to take pictures of.

This is the entire flea market inside the dome of a giant indoor sports stadium. I shot it from up high in the seating stands with a very wide-angle lens. There was such an exposure difference between the roof and the floor below that I had to choose which part I wanted to expose properly. I ended up deciding to let the market go a little bit dark and retain the detail in the roof.

Anyway I hope to be posting as normal real soon. The weather is gorgeous here in Cairns at the moment and it's just too tempting to be outside! :)