Hey everyone! These photos are pretty nice! In addition to being interested in all things Japanese I also am a amateur photographer. Thomas, you mentioned previously in this thread regarding your camera equipment. If I could suggest, creating great photos isn't always dependent upon spending hundreds to thousands of $$$ for the best equipment; although it helps, there's not always a direct correlation. For example, I feel I get better (richer) photos with my
$30 Helios 44 lens than a $500 lens I can buy right now at my local camera shop (there are some trade-offs of course, but that's beyond the scope of this post for now).
What I would suggest, however, if you are looking to improve the look of the photos and spending $ on equipment isn't an option would be to looking into a decent computer program for post-processing work (I prefer Adobe Lightroom personally), a free option would be LightZone I suppose and there are others out there; plus the internet is abound with free tutorials for programs like this. I've been able to seriously step my game up as far as overall picture quality in the last year...primarily because of what I can do to the photos in Lightroom versus what camera or equipment I have taken it with.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions or need help regarding photography or camera-related.
One last thing, if your camera supports it, for the love of God, ALWAYS SHOOT IN RAW.
I am planning my first Japan trip next month...camera in hand.
