Portraits, snow and houses: photos shared in February 2023

Photograph of a snow covered shopping street in Japan with people walking from left to right

These are some of the images I shared on social media, with a little of the history behind them. February was a little thin on the ground thanks to cold weather curtailing my usual ad hoc wanderings, and a couple of epic photo walks.

Sorry, I’ll do better next time.

An old portrait

Photograph of a woman with red hair leaning against a tree.

An old photograph from years ago. There’s a few stories attached to this shoot, not least because of costume changes, getting lost and the model being a huge amount of fun to work with.

Definitely from the more “glamour” end of my portrait spectrum.

Snow, snow and more snow

There’s been a few dustings of snow this month. I wrote about the chaos it brought to Kobe, and how it vanished in a day (more or less). A week or so later it snowed again, and blanketed the nearby town of Myodani. OK, maybe not blanketed. More like a light dusting. Still, it was a lot of fun for the kids who were out and about.

Flowers in Awaji

Photographs of purple flowers on the island of Awaji, Japan, with a woman walking across shot from left to right

An impromptu visit to Awaji Island caught me out. I didn’t have my camera with me, so had to rely on my Nokia Smartphone. To add to my woes, the camera decided to only save RAW versions of about half my shots.

Drawing over photos

Portrait of a woman with her hands on her head. The photo has been drawn over using various pen and ink effects

Maybe a little inspired by a visit to an Andy Warhol exhibition earlier in the month. I took an old portrait and started drawing over it. The style’s often used in early Soviet Propaganda images, and I’ve done it before with mixed results.

This one’s at the ‘not so good’ end of the scale, but worth a try.

Man walks in front of clock. Kyoto 2023

I usually take a test shot of some random object before I start shooting. Sometimes people get in the way.

Watching the rain in Leicester Square

A woman stands by a window in Leicester Square watching the rain fall

Can’t remember why this one popped up. It was a spring day when I took it, I’d taken myself down to Leicester Square for a spot of lunch. A couple of minutes in and the heavens opened.

Anyway, across the street was an Italian place and the waitress was stood watching the rain come down. I guess most people had found somewhere to hide.

Another old portrait

Photograph of a black woman in jeans and a white shirt standing side on with her hands on her hips

Yet another bit of old work that popped up and I thought worth sharing on Tumblr.

The orange house

Photograph of a typical Japanese plastic house on a street, except it's bright orange.

Came across this gorgeous house that stood out amongst the other grey and off-white properties around it.

To be honest, I’m a little surprised they got away with it. Areas can have rules about what color a house can – and cannot – be painted. For example, mine can’t be painted a bright color.

And finally…

We’ll finish where we started.

Photograph of an attractive middle aged woman in black with her tongue stuck out

Filed under:
Play: photography, road trips, art etc
#japan #photography #photos of the month

My name is Ross Hori

I'm a freelance writer, designer and photographer. By day I create articles, features and reports. At night I take photos and write fiction. Find out more.

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