has a retro vibe, like a 90’s filter written all over it

I'm generalising, but their society values and prioritises "aestheticism" and beauty like few other places do. That mindset just naturally blends into pretty much every aspect of their life and environment.
I'm not saying they don't have ugly shit, terrible places, bad people and other places around to world aren't beautiful too. My point is just when the baseline of their society values beauty at the level they do, then you see it pop up everywhere in a natural way. It's not hard to understand why so many people fall in love with the place. Kinda how people used to fall in love with Paris back in the day.

It gets repetitive because of the amount of tourism they have. I saw a guy post a few photos from Taiwain on (dare I say) Reddit the other day saying something like "Is Taiwan the new Japan?" and everybody commenting on it went absolutely nuts about how racist that was to say and fuck white people and all that shit, when the guy clearly meant it was about photographer hot spots changing now that Japan has been overrun for a while. It was the most stereotypical comment section you've ever seen. It was almost like a caricature, but they were totally serious.

I like the colours in the photo too, what's the source on that image?

>>4484406
I kinda get what you are saying. I can't deny that they have a good sense of natural aesthetics. The way they treat and decorate with potted plants for example.

Yeah, isn't the Reddit community also often very pro China? I read comments of something like "if Taiwan isn't part of China, then Okinawa should also be disconnected from Japan"

Photo is from Adrien Sanguinetti. A french(?) that married a Japanese, living there and doing said photo vlogs.

>>4484424
Yeah, I've been there a few times, but that was pre 2020. But I just noticed it everywhere. That natural awareness and presentation of beauty even in related to completely mundane things.

I don't know, I haven't looked at Reddit enough to see if there's a big pro China sentiment. That thread was more "Don't you know the history between Taiwan and Japan you incensitive white bastard with exoticism fetish!" "I'm x-race and I think what you said is bad because of a,b and c!"
The handful of comments that correctly explained what the photographer's point was all got thumbs down, minus points, bad karma or whatever that shit is called. I just had a look over there because I'm too old for 99% of the shit I see on this site, but it really is fucking ridiculous.

Thanks, I'll check his stuff out. I know there are tons of other photographers getting the same look. I just really like the colours in that image.

>>4484375
Your brain can immediate tell when a place has few niggers, and wants to live there. Usually it's because there isn't any rubbish on the floor.

>>4484375
>What makes Japan such an desired place for photography?
Nipphilics

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>>4484375
Kind of this >>4484455
It feels like there's a sense of civic pride you don't really see in a lot of places; streets, houses shops are usually well kept, mainly because most people own the house/shop they occupy. Most street level businesses are sole traders, not chains, which gives them a less commercial more local feel, which is quaint if you're from the west.
They have seasons, they have topography, they have a mix of new and old.
People generally are too timid to interrupt a foreigner taking photos even if they wouldn't want you to.
Also the dominance of any western currency, and the prevalence and affordability of public transport and alcohol, make any trip there fun, easy and pretty cheap.
Just do it bro.

>>4484375
Because it looks exotic. And they have a lot of LED lights, which looks cool.

I’d say a not inconsiderable amount of it is how safe Japan is. You can wander around taking pictures all day feeling 100% confident that you won’t be assaulted or that your camera won’t be stolen. That makes the process so much more enjoyable and relaxing

>>4484375
the light is really special.
i was on a train at about 5pm between nara and osaka and the light was legit anime tier. something special about the air and sun there; i meam there are no other islands nations at that lattitude to compare. maybe azores

the hue is very warm while being crisp, can't describe it

>>4484573
That's only in specific areas. My country has an area known for very special light too that attracted a lot of painters back in the day. The paintings and lighting was so popular it basically became a style/genre of painting in itself. But it's mostly just that one area that seems to get that sort of lighting, not the entire country.

I do think what you're talking about could be what I see as them having four seasons, but every season seems exaggerated compared to most other places. That slight exaggeration makes for very scenic photos

Probably because it lets you take photos that look different to the photos you normally take. I don't think it's objectively better (or worse) than Western places.
Case in point: Japanese people all want to visit Europe and take pictures there.

>>4484375
DUDE cinematic film street japan photography cinematic. Overrated and overdone

Wow I wonder why the country that is the headquarters of Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Sony, and Olympus and is the global leader in used camera equipment sales is such a popular photography spot.

I also wonder why foreigners would be interested in taking pictures of a place with well-preserved architecture and nature preserves, manicured gardens, clean streets, minimal crime, and non-confrontational citizens.

It’s almost as if film and the chemistry surrounding it were optimized to take pictures of such scenes and monopolized the global film market as a result.

Wouldn’t it also be wild if electronics being an integral part of Japan’s economy during the digital photography transition years certainly had nothing to do with the worldwide advertising campaigns that continue to this day.

The cherry on top would be if tech bros with disposable income and no personality were to become interested in an elitist, gear-focused creative hobby and had $500 round-trip flights to Japan available to them.

>>4486072
It's overdone, but it it does look nice

>>4486081
>be Germany
>OG country of camera headquarters
>only Leica survived til now
>taking photos in public is illegal if other people are captured
>people get suspicious and into defence mode if you take out your DSLR
>weather is grey most of times
>towns are ugly, destroyed with 60s/70s communist blocks
>nature is fully artificial
sad

>>4486309
Would have been great minus the weather had not the cursed United States interfered in ww2.

Asia lite

Exotic without being challenging. It's a safe place, everybody takes the same photos, nobody puts in the effort or research to find something else to shoot. Which is a shame because there is undoubtedly some interesting things to do there.

>>4486686
I'd call Singapore Asia lite or a safe "My first trip to Asia" because everybody speaks and everything is written in English. It's also like a fusion of a lot of different Asian styles, so you can get a taste of different cultures very easily there. I absolutely loved it there, but obviously very different.

I haven't been to Japan since 2018, but I found you still had to have some "adventure spirit" even in the very touristy areas because of language differences.
Also, it may be different due to the level of tourism they're getting these days, but I found the whole "it's so overcrowded with tourists!" to be a bit of a weird statement. Because the touristy hot spot areas were still 90% Japanese people, 8% Chinese and 2% were the rest of us. I was even there during the cherry blossom season one time and it was the same deal.
And you pretty much didn't see a single foreign tourist if you walked one or two streets away from the absolute mega hots spots. Seriously, you could be two streets away from Senso Ji in Asakusa and it'd be like you were in a different country. I found it HIGHLY exaggerated at the time, but it may be different now.
I'm also generally tired of the whole anti-tourist sentiment. Especially when it's people who behave well.

It's the only place outside of the western world which is modern and highly developed while also having been so for a long time.
China/Singapore/Korea might be more futuristic because it's newer but Japan is the only place that can mirror Europe and the USA in terms of having old wealth.

>>4486081
I don't even work in a techbro company and like half my coworkers in the 25-40 age range have visited Japan or will visit Japan between 2023 and 2026.

>>4486692
I'd call Singapore Asia lite

Correct

>so you can get a taste of different cultures very easily there.
Incorrect, you can get a taste of great Indian food, but you certainly don't get a taste of India

>>4486941
I know comparing Little India in Singapore to actual India is like comparing China Town in London to actual Chinese cities, but it's the closest I've been. And only getting that nice little snapshot without actually going to India is fine with me.
I always tried to get some Indian food at all the hawkers I went to. It was fucking amazing. I loved being in Singapore.

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>>4484375
>What's your prefered location?
Otaru, Hokkaido

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>>4487722

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>>4484375
Germanbro who spent the last 8 years in Japan.
It's that it looks exotic and has nice mountain ranges everywhere. I'm pretty bored of generic shrine #9762321, some ramen shop sign, etc. and much more excited about taking pictures during my trip back to Germany, because that's more exotic for me now. It just depends on what you're used to and most people are not used to Japan.
Great place to be if you're into photo. You'll find a lot of elderly men taking macro shots of flowers and such. Very few prime lens shooters somehow.

>>4488047
>Very few prime shooters
I reckon it's because a lot of people only get to travel to places like that once or twice and want maximum versatility of a zoom lens so they don't miss out on shots.
A prime is more "I'll go with my 24mm today" because you have time to just sort of do a wide angle day or a tele day. Not lugging around a ton of gear and taking in the sights is great if you have the time.

>>4488056
Nah, sorry, I wasn't clear. I was talking about the old Japanese guys. They're always walking around with zoom lenses, taking pics of flowers, trains, etc. I rarely see tourists with cameras nowadays, because I don't hang out in their areas. Saw a guy with a Leica once though.

>>4488070
Ah ok
I'm big into a lot of Japanese music and the latest fad I noticed when people shoot video at live shows is having a camera with zoom that they do these hyper in and out zooms, hyper moves to focus on different band members and sort of constantly tilting the camera from side to side in a wavy motion.
It's just something I noticed with camera stuff there and I don't know where else to mention it. It's honestly really annoying how insanely hyper that camera motion/control is with the constant fucking turbo zoom in and out. It's crazy how fast something just becomes the "everybody does it" fad. Then play some generic turbo 300 bpm jrock (why does it always have to be so fast?) and the crowd says "HEY! HEY! HEY! HEY!" on every off beat during the intro after the singer has screamed some performatively passionate monologue for 2 minutes straight while hitting one chord on their guitar.
Sorry for my rant, it's just something I noticed that's gotten really annoying to me regarding zoom lenses in Japan.

>>4488056
It's funny, I use a 24mm every day for Architecture work, and I don't even like it all that much, i's just what works 95% of the time on interiors. But seeing any other shots taken with a 24 just makes me wish they were shot with an 18 or an 85+. Normal shots maketh my ass twitch. So I get stuck walking w an 85 on body, and then an 18mm, a tubby little bitch, in my pocket, which I never think to put on. Everything I do is wrong.

>>4488092
If you're doing specific work, then using the right tools for the job is what's most important. But you can do whatever when it's not work related.
I'm getting more into the frame of mind where I just pick one focal length for the day and then stick with it. I've been using zoom lenses for the last 15 years and fucking hated carrying that big ass camera and lens around.
I got an x100vi recently with the two conversion lenses and I love how tiny and light it is. I just pick between the 26, 35 and 50 for the day and stick with it. Don't carry anything else with me. It's great. Yeah you're going to miss some shots from not having the versatility of a zoom, but having a camera that's so light around my neck that I don't even notice it massively outweighs the lack of versatility for me. It's a great and powerful little camera.
I'm looking at some Nikon stuff too though that I might buy in February or something. Those 1,8 primes look great, light weight and very affordable. The 26 2,8 pancake looks very promising too. I prefer 26 over 24. It's a subtle difference, but I think 24 juuuuust has a little too much lens distortion where I find the 26 to be a cleaner look that's wide enough to justify it next to also having a 35 which is my sort of primary "scene" focal length.

>>4487722
based, im spending a week in hokkaido in feb. can't wait

>>4488047
i was at a park in tokyo and there was a big group of ojisans with GIANT lenses hanging out drinking tea and taking photos of birds. i wish i could have bros like them.

>>4488154
>hokkaido
is the most fun city name to say. Every time I say it, it comes out my mouth with all this extra pizazz, like a samurai in a 70s exploitation movie, with a big long gravelly Hhhhhhhoooo KAIDOOOOOO. I love it.

>>4488155
Yeah, it's primarily two groups:
a.) Retired bros with zoom lenses
b.) Scrawny 20yo nerds with bigger zoom lenses taking pictures of trains
Pretty sure you can easily get buddy buddy with the former if you speak the language. In my experience, old guys generally like chit-chatting with foreigners in all manner of situations.

>>4486692
>Because the touristy hot spot areas were still 90% Japanese people
>2018
Well, now it's not anymore. Tourism areas, so anything along the golden route, is 90% Chinese tourists. And I don't only talk about Kinkaku-ji or such. EVERYWHERE. I was in Kyoto and it felt like being in Beijing because all I could hear was mandarin. It's not overreacted. You try to escape, get off the route, find qt little alleys and again a group of Chinese stands there shouting, spitting.
The only days I could hear mostly Japanese was when leaving the golden route to Gunma countryside by rental car. And even there I spoted a few.

Everything muh JDM and car meets is now at least 50% western tourists. But other than that western tourists are still a rare sight compared to Chinese.

It may have changed again now since their based Takaichi came in.

>>4484375
overrated dirty shit hole filled with indians. yawn

>>4486309
>>taking photos in public is illegal if other people are captured
That is not exactly correct.

>>4484375
Fewer niggers so no undesirable skin tones in the photos.

>>4491437
>Fewer niggers
Could have stopped there.

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>>4486309
yeah germany is trash. nothing new here. only idiots will defend this godforsaken piece of land. germans were a mistake. the lands should be split up between franks and slavs.

Are people in Japan even receptive to asking for street portraits? I'd like to give it a try but not sure how it would go

>>4484375
because it's foreign.. if you live in germany its scenery won't look any appealing or interesting most of the time while it will be desirable for someone across the world. But aside from that, it's just aesthetically pleasing. Even if the Japanese aesthetic sensibilities don't vibe with you, there's a reason why Japanese aesthetic was so well received in europe with the rise of "Japonisme" art in 19th century while other asian aesthetic like from China did not.

>>4496434
It's been a few years since I was in Japan last, but my answer would be "it depends" on who/where/when.
People generally don't really seem to care honestly, I never had problems with it. Lots of people even smiled when they noticed I pulled a camera up.
They do have a ton of places with "no photo" signs, and some of them are really fucking weird when it comes to covering their faces and shit.
The only people who were really weird about cameras were people outside stores, cafes, bars etc that were trying to get people inside. Not even in shady areas. Normal places with lots of people.
A lot of them would wear very "loud" outfits, but then almost run away if they saw your hand even near a camera. I mean you're standing in the middle of a busy street in a crazy Final Fantasy outfit and then freak out if people notice you or take a photo? get the fuck out of here man.
But in general nobody seemed bothered. Even struck up conversation with a few peeps through taking photos there.
But Japan isn't really different than other places in that regard, just be well mannered and behave normally like a regular ass person would and you'll have a great time.

>>4484375
It’s chock full of aesthetically pleasing places even ignoring historical places, because people in Japan are collectivist and give a shit more than others, and they have a great sense of aesthetics (just look at their kino normie fashion, cool and beautiful without vulgarity).

Plus it’s the only place on earth where I can walk with a huge blob on my neck with the strap screaming CANON LATEST EOS MODEL WORTH A LOT OF CASH ON SECOND HAND MARKET at the “most dangerous neighborhoods in Japan!!!!1!” at 3 am and have an infinitesimal chance of getting robbed. Even engaging in prostitution is safe here if you’re not brain dead retarded.

Not my fault everyone in the west went into “fuck you got mine” mode and the people who noticed are too retarded to understand the root cause and not fall for purposefully placed strawmen

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>>4484375
>overnight street parking is banned, so unlike europe where otherwise amazingly picturesque historic streets are lined to the ass with parked cars, the streets remain uncluttered by ugly vehicles
>japan's geography (the entire place being covered in enormous green mountains, cities coalesce in the flat lowlands) creates incredibly dense urban and suburban areas that are brimming with janky elements
>despite all its jank, the place is mostly very clean, which sets it apart from other janky places. this combo leads to the comfy feel.
>zoning laws: people in japan are allowed to open small businesses from their homes in residential areas, like cafes, barbershops, clothing stores etc., as a result, these parts tend to have more things to explore compared to the typical european suburb of commie blocks or endless family homes centered around a generic local pub+supermarket
>you would never find a shrine to the virgin mary on the roof of a european high-rise, yet shinto shrines are found in the most unusual places