Tokyo Tower (center) Tokyo Midtown skyscraper (right) - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/50th single exposure (not HDR)
Yesterday I was going through my photography archives searching for a shot (daytime beach) that might be usable for a potential client when I came across these shots of the Tokyo skyline. They were made from the balcony of a Russian photographer friend who had an amazing condo in central Tokyo. All these shots are the views he gets to enjoy everyday! If I recall, his condo was on about the 22nd floor. The time was around 4:30pm in February of 2009, when the sun sets not so long after 5pm, which is why it already looks like dusk on this overcast day. None of these shots are HDR, which was just starting to get popular again around 2009. It is possible to get vivid detail and color without HDR if shooting during the best light of day.
Tokyo Tower (left) Tokyo Midtown skyscraper (2nd from left) Roppongi Hills skyscraper (center-right) - Nikon D300 f/11 ISO 400 1/250th single exposure (not HDR)Just as my photography career was starting to take off in Japan, I was set to move back to Florida. This was the last time I visited with my Russian photographer friend.
Tokyo Midtown is the middle skyscraper in the above shot and at the time was the newest mega-office-entertainment-shopping building. The shops on the lower floors were great, if you had at least $500 for the cheapest item seemingly. Roppongi Hills is the right-most skyscraper, and was the previous title holder of newest mega-office-entertainment-shopping building. Roppongi Hills remained the far more interesting architecturally, and is home to the best movie theater I have ever been to.
Roppongi Hills in detail from up high - Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens @ f/11 ISO 400 1/160th single exposure (not HDR)I am glad to have these photographs to remind me of my last visit with a friend I am probably never going to see again. I still follow his work on flickr (Vladimir Zakharov) as he never ceases to find new roof top views to photograph.