Visit Asuwa River

July 8, 2019

Photographer / Tomohiro Takahashi

The Asuwa River is a representative river in Fukui Prefecture. Ikeda Town is a mountain village whose upper reaches border with Gifu Prefecture. The water flowing through it is crystal clear, and it is surrounded by greenery, making it my favorite place where I can bathe my whole body in negative ions.

Going down to the riverbank next to the Kazura Bridge, which is rare in the Hokuriku region, the abundant Asuwa River flows gently.

In the evening, light suddenly poured in between the trees covering the refreshing Asuwa River. It was just an "angel's ladder," and I felt the mystery of nature so vividly that I forgot about time in this fantastical scenery and could not move from the spot until it disappeared.

One of my companions, the Markins ballhead, was indispensable for capturing such a sudden, fantastical and mysterious scenery.

I almost always use a tripod when photographing landscapes, and I'd like to explain why.

Today's digital camera situation. With the rise of mirrorless cameras, which are small and lightweight, and powerful image stabilization functions, it has become easy to take high-resolution, high-definition images. Until now, there was a rough standard that camera shake would occur if the shutter speed was slower than one part of the focal length. This was even more severe with high-pixel cameras, and with digital SLR cameras (with mirrors), camera shake could also occur when raising and lowering the mirror when taking a photo.

In landscape photography, cameras with camera shake will not be used, regardless of the composition or the quality of the work. However, thanks to mirrorless cameras and powerful image stabilization, it has become possible to take pictures without camera shake even at shutter speeds slower than the standard shutter speed mentioned above. And while high-pixel cameras were extremely sensitive to camera shake a long time ago, powerful image stabilization is now effective in this regard, and you can now take pictures without worrying too much about it.

So maybe we don't need tripods anymore? Many people may think this way, and if you are using a tripod solely to prevent camera shake, it is natural to think this way. However, I believe that a tripod should not be used solely to prevent camera shake.

When I shoot landscapes, I use spot metering. Spot metering is a method of shooting only the brightness of a certain area in the viewfinder as the correct exposure, and even a slight deviation will result in a work with a completely different brightness. So when shooting handheld, the brightness often does not match what you intended. Also, when taking several shots with different brightnesses with the exact same composition, or taking several shots with different shutter speeds with the exact same composition, you cannot do this with handheld shooting. It may seem obvious, but it is extremely difficult to take an image that is exactly the same with a handheld camera, or rather, it is impossible for me to do it. Even if you try your best, it will always be off by a few millimeters. No matter how hard you try, this is impossible.

And one more thing. When shooting landscapes, I focus manually 99% of the time. Just like with blur, works that are not in focus are not worth working with. When you want to focus, you roughly adjust the focus, then zoom in on the focus position in the viewfinder to refine it, so it is impossible to do with a handheld camera.

The above are the reasons why I use a tripod most of the time when taking landscape photographs, and therefore I will never remove the tripod from my equipment in the future, no matter how light the equipment becomes or how great the image stabilization functions become.

I use a sturdy tripod, and in the same way, a ball head needs to stay in place. It would be useless if it sagged down while I was shooting, but still, "light is good." Humans tend to use things that are easy to use and continue to use them. Something that is sturdy, lightweight, and above all, something I can trust. For me, the ball head from Markins meets those conditions.

And once you use it, you'll never want to let it go - it's the L-shaped plate, which is so useful that you'll never want to let it go. It dramatically simplifies the movement of changing the composition vertically and horizontally. It's important to go out and shoot with as little stress as possible, because that's what's important when it comes to creating works.

I've strayed from the situation on-site, but let's take a look at the work that was created that day.

Tomohiro Takahashi

In 2011, swept away by a tsunami while reporting at Onahama Port in Iwaki City, but rescued by a member of the Japan Coast Guard and survived. Since 2015, has been the official photographer for the Soto Zen Buddhist Headquarters. Was the official photographer for the WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup 2016 in Iwaki, and has been involved in a variety of photography projects, including documentaries, natural landscapes, snapshots, portraits, and sports. Work has been used in magazines, newspapers, television, corporate advertisements, and calendars. From April 2015 to March 2017, was a regular commentator on Ishikawa Television's Ishikawa-san Minna no News. Continues to create scenic photographs with themes of "coexistence with nature" and "voices from nature" without forgetting the feeling of "photography." Also works as a "disaster prevention advisor" to raise awareness of disaster prevention. Won the Excellence Award at the Ise-Shima Summit Photo Contest hosted by the Cabinet Secretariat and Cabinet Office.