Connect

How do we connect?

Personal connections, digital connections, transport connections all very different kind of networks.

All my wonderful personal connections with friends, work colleagues and students are getting the better of me over this month as I am attending a steady round of farewell parties and dinners as I prepare to leave Japan for home after a four year stay. I am falling a little behind with my Daily Post Photo 101 tasks.

This is in response to Day 6 which set the theme as Connect and asked us to consider our tags.  I took some shots showing my commuter connections into the city. The shots also represent a series of photographic tasks set over several other days. I hope you connect with them and enjoy.

One of the things I have a real love hate relationship with in Japan is the transport network which allows me to connect so easily with friends, work and places. The connections are reliable and frequent however at times rush hour is a challenge and rather overwhelming!

Rush hour aside, I love that I can go down to my local station and know that every 7 minutes there will be a train. It is every 3 mins during peak times. I love that I can know exactly when I will arrive at my destination and I don’t have to find a parking space. I love that most places are connected by an amazing network of national railway lines, subways or private lines all of which work well together and cover a massive area.

Connect to the station by bike

This photo was inspired by day 7’s task – Point of View. Much to the old chap who runs the bicycle parking lot’s puzzlement, I crouched down and took this shot from a low perspective. I like that the bike leads the eye past another bike and on to the station in the background. It creates a nice leading line which was Day 8’s task.

I walk to my small station, cross the lines and walk up and over to connect with my platform. These 2 wide shots take us back to Day 2 when we learnt about setting the scene and were encouraged to take shots of the same place but from different perspectives. I think these 2 shots have many leading lines in each photo. Photo one has the rail lines, the platforms and the power lines.

Once on the platform of my station named Nakanoshima, I always board the carriage near the sign. It allows me to get off and get up up the stairs quickly, thus avoiding the mad crush to get my next train connection. This photo makes nice use of the rule of thirds from Day 5. I like how the sign takes up 2/3s of the frame and the bicycle parking lot can be seen in the background. It connects this photo back to the first one nicely!

 

Once on the train, it is a quick smooth journey to my destination. Although these shots are not from nature, they do have strong leading lines which was Day 8’s task. I like the curved leading line of the train as it departs the station in the second shot and the strong diagonal line in the first photo, as I was standing close to edge of the platform waiting for the train doors to open.

I am sure you all have different ways of connecting to the places you need to go. What have some your most interesting modes of transport been?

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne