It was this photo that drew me to Onoyama’s work.
The 411
A man of mystery, there are almost no photos of Onoyama except for this avatar… which still isn’t a photo!
Name: Hidetaka Onoyama
Occupation: I’m a freelance developer, designer and administrator for servers, mainly Linux servers. But, unfortunately my job doesn’t have any relation with photography.
私は主にLinuxサーバを中心に開発、設計や管理を行っているフリーランスの技術者です。残念なことに、写真とは何の関係もない仕事です。
Location: Tokyo, Japan. I have been living in Tokyo a long time, but I’m from a small northern town close to Tokyo. It’s a very snowy place during winter. The winter landscapes of my hometown are almost monotone. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I prefer black & white photography.
私は東京に長く住んでいますが、東京より北部の小さな町の出身です。その町は冬に雪深く、冬景色はほとんどモノトーンです。たぶん、それは私が白黒写真を好むようになった理由の一つかもしれません。
Key Link: Onoyama-san on Google +
Background in Photography
My photographic life is very short. It’s been about one year. After the gigantic earthquake in Japan last year, many things were stopped or slowed down around me. Many companies have shortened the operation time or totally shut down for awhile. Tokyo’s streets suddenly became dark and quiet due to power saving or planed blackouts.
私の写真歴はまだとても短く、約一年ほどです。去年の巨大地震の後、周りの多くの物事が止まってしまったり、いつもよりゆっくりとした動きになりました。 多くの企業が操業時間を短くしたり、あるいはしばらく営業を停止しました。そして、節電や計画停電のために、東京の街は突然薄暗く静かになってしまいまし た。
Consequently, I had extra free time. And I started taking photos with my iPhone and posting it to Instagram. My Instagram friends were so supportive and interactive. They always encouraged me so I continued taking photos. I found I preferred monochrome pictures there. However, after several months, I realized there were many limitations with Instagram and with iPhone photography. I felt very guilty about leaving my Instagram friends, but finally I have migrated all of my photographic resources to Google+.
結果的に私にはいつもよりたくさんの自由な時間できました。
How do you develop your style?
My photography is still in its very early stages and I’m searching for my style now. I don’t like to just capture beautiful or cool things with my Camera. I’m always thinking I’d like to capture or create scenes that we can’t see with our naked eyes.
私の写真はまだ初期の段階で、
Currently with my Sony NEX-7, I’m mainly using long exposure and Boken for the scenes. I think I’m showing my progress and style searching process through my photography in Google+ now. I’m happy when I can share it and discuss it with other photographers. I hope I can share with you all sophisticated pictures with my style in the near future.
私が写真を学ぶ課程、
And now… more awesome shots by Hidetaka Onoyama
Profound images. A natural photographer. I am veey impressed.
These are phenomenal shots!
Agreed. I think there’s a lot to be learned from studying Onoyama-san’s shots. He’s really daring with some of his compositions and the way he chooses to process them in post-production.
Thank you, Nomadic san & Andrew san!! I think I should learn from your photos too!
Those are some really good mono shots. props to him.
Thank you very much!! I hope I can continue improving my photography
I am no expert, in fact having looked at your shots above I think you are well ahead of me but its nice to see other people developing the interest in the same way I am. I really enjoy the touching up and photoshopping side of things after the shots have been taken.
Keep working at it! Like Onoyama-san, with lots of work and experimentation you can improve quickly too.
Thank you so much, Claire san! I think post processing is really powerful! It often helps my poor photos.
Anytime sir! I appreciate how much time you took to write this in both English and Japanese! Your work is great, thanks for sharing
My pleasure, Andrew san! I appreciate you gave me a great opportunity too!
Ya Onoyama-san is quite the dude when it comes to b/w photography. Very inspiring.