Great Memories Captured in Frames at Nagasaki

Diary

Great Memories Captured in Frames at Nagasaki

April 21, 2025

Previously, I visited Kumamoto Coffee Arrow, met the owner who has dedicated his life to perfecting a single recipe, and we were lucky enough to land on Hashima Island. We also visited a place that has now become special to me – Nagasaki. Without much planning, we wandered around Nagasaki after driving from Unzen, home of the hot springs. We visited a few landmarks, including the Floating Torii Gate of Oouo Shrine and saw capybaras nearby. The most memorable part of the trip was the two occasions we dined in Nagasaki.

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On our first night in Nagasaki, we wanted sushi. We checked Google Maps, but due to a public holiday, the restaurant we planned to visit was closed. So, we walked around and found Yuki Sushi. It was one of the few places open, and we decided to check it out. There was only a simple English menu, and the owner chose an Omakase for us – chef’s choice. We couldn’t speak Japanese but communicated using Google Translate for almost two hours about the places we had visited in Kyushu, Japan, and our plans for the rest of our trip. We had so much fun talking as if language wasn’t a barrier. I took some shots with my Leica M10-P and the APO-Summicron 35mm f/2 ASPH.

I tried to capture some environmental scenes and, of course, portraits of him in both film and digital formats.

Here is a shot I took with Kodak Ektar 100 and the Summilux 50mm f/1.4 V3 E46 at f/1.4. I asked him to stand next to the corner for a nice composition and let him choose the most comfortable posture. You can see the skin tone is quite off on the Ektar with green and magenta overriding the hue. Left was shot in digital Leica M10-P and right with Kodak Ektar 100 which one do you like more?

The next day, after spending some time at the Nagasaki Bio Park, we explored the city of Nagasaki. We then picked the Italian restaurant Nagasaki Famiglia. We arrived early, so I took some quick snaps around the streets.

We were the first group of customers. Ken-san asked us to be patient while he prepared the food, so we started with some nice wine. We entered at 6 PM and left at 11 PM! Why? Because we had so much fun talking with Ken along with two other customers, and I was busy taking portraits of Ken. The place was covered in signatures from customers from all over the world. It was the best experience I’ve ever had in Japan. All the photos were shot with the Leica M10-P and the Summilux 50mm f/1.4 V3 E46 Titan. I highly recommend visiting; it was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had.

This shot captures Ken-san preparing food; I tried to get the silhouette so that the scene wouldn’t be overexposed.

It was shot wide open with the Summilux 50mm V3 at f/1.4. The sharpness of the lens is perfectly on point giving it a very natural look, not too much like the Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. I love using this lens for its close focusing ability at 0.7m. I asked him to stand next to the wall. The brighter surface of the cream-colored wall provided a gentle reflection on his face, while the right-hand side was lit by a low-hanging lamp and ambient light from the bar area.

The next day, we took the ferry to Hashima Island with my Hologon 16mm f/8 firmly in hand. Follow me to my next destination. We also checked out the Atomic Bomb Museum; the building’s fascinating architecture created super nice geometry for shots with the Hologon 16mm with Kodak Ektar 100.

I chose this 16mm because it doesn’t need focusing; just set it to infinity at f/8. Everything will be in focus, and I opted for ISO 800 when I was on Hashima Island, pushing one stop from box speed to add a bit of contrast and maintain a more stable shutter speed as we moved around quite a bit.

All images have been resized to optimise webpage loading speed. For the highest resolution images, please refer to my Flickr account.

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