Back To School (Film)
These pictures are from two weeks back but I just finished the roll of film a few days ago so I’m just getting them online now. Enjoy!
Kazuyo, Dave and I took a small road trip to Kyoto to deliver the cat Dave found (Goro-kun) to his new home, a nice little house in north central Kyoto, owned by a great young couple. After we dropped him off and had some lunch, Dave wanted to have a look at Ritsumeikan’s campus as he’s considering studying there in the future. Kazuyo’s a Ritsumeikan grad so she knew the way and guided us around. We parked at a local cake shop (one of her hangouts back in college) and headed out in the brutal, Kyoto summer heat.
I’d brought along my EOS 1N film camera and the weather was just about perfect (minus the heat), so I grabbed my 20-35 f/2.8 L and my newly acquired 100mm f/2.8 L Macro and blasted off a few shots. Film is always so much fun for me; I always find I have to remind myself that I only have xxx amount of shots left, to be more patient waiting for the right lighting, and to compose much more carefully. Luckily I was pretty locked in, despite it being in the 90’s with crazy humidity! The shots, even on Fuji’s cheapest 100 speed negative film (on sale I got it for $1.50 for a roll of 24!), look fantastic!
The blue sky and puffy white clouds really made campus look great (though it probably looks just fine any how). I felt like I was shooting for a Ritsumeikan brochure 🙂 It made me realize I’m going to be spending my next two years on a huge college campus as well – albeit I’ll be attending graduate school – starting in just under 2 months. It’ll be nice to be going “back to school” after 4 years here in Japan 🙂
Walking into campus.
Signs promoting different club activities on campus.
Walkway in front of the library. Light playing through the branches gives the shade a nice pattern.
Igakukan - Graduate School of Social Sciences.
The student center. The parasols are a nice touch 🙂
Soshikan - Graduate offices for the School of Language Education and Information Science; School of Science for Human Services; and School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences. I thought this building looked like the Colosseum 😀
The Gymnasium. There were a few groups of students practicing their dance-jump rope routines. 20mm really allowed me to give the picture a sense of size in regards to how big it actually is!
Another shot of practicing from the 2nd floor of the gym.
A lone guitar sitting on a walkway of the student center. I really dig the color, "Sunburst". More than the shape the color is what hit me - orange on grey.
The famous clock tower of Ritsumeikan.
A sign promoting this year's campus festival. The theme is 110°C.
I couldn't read the text - but it was a cool looking stone 🙂
Beauty - I shot this from a sign that read "美容院", or "Beauty Salon". I thought focusing on one character would make an interesting picture; I especially liked the contrast of white on blue.
Tamaru Castle - I took this on the next day but the same roll of film. A cloudy, but still colorful sunset from the top of Tamaru Castle in Mie.
The light got a bit better as Kazuyo and I watched and took pictures, trying not to get bit by mosquitos! Every sunset has the potential to be a great one; you don't know if you don't go! Thanks Kazuyo 🙂
Thanks for reading! I finished the roll and took another roll of my favorite Reala 100 two days ago at the 39th Tokai Area Fire and Rescue Skills Competition so look forward to the next post – Mata ne!
Brian Chu Photography 
Whoa, film looks so… life-like! Very nice, I can tell why your preferences in post are the way they are, and this isn’t even your favorite film! Put up those velvia scans soon so we can see =D
Thanks man. Yeah, it has this…certain look to it, I’m not sure what it is. A little bit of grain and contrast really makes it look so different from digital files. Yeah I’m excited to put up slides because slides are suuuuper fine grain – especially Velvia 50. When I get home I’ll get together a bunch of my best slides and make a post hehe.
In the mean time why don’t you try a few rolls for yourself? 😀
「殀寿（ようじゅ）貳（たが）わず、身を修めて以て之れを俟（ま）つは、命 を立つる所以（ゆえん）なり」
「立命館」の名前の由来になった孟子「盡心章（じんしんしょう）」の一節だよ。
「人間には、若死にする人もあれば、長生きする人もあるが、それはすべて天命で決められていることである。だから生きている間はわが身の修養（勉強）に努めて天命を待つのが人間の本分を全うすることなのである」
、、、ってHPに書いてあった（笑）