A simple shot of wooden tablets at a temple in Kamakura.
Normally this is a very boring scene, but I believe the camera shake gives it a little bit more mystery, making for a much more interesting photograph.

The post The Names Of God | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

One of the torii gates at Hakone shrine. I like how the ICM technique turned a single gate into a thousand.
I believe this help symbolizing the path towards spirituality that people go through at the temple.

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This image is an experiment of multiple exposure in camera, and how to show the passing of time on a static subject.
I chose this statue because of its character, and the way it stood still against the sky.
By shooting multiple images of it at different angles and putting them together in camera I wanted to show movement, and how everything around us changes continuously.
If you look carefully enough, nothing stays still, everything moves as you move as an observer.

The post The Faces of God | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

I mainly shoot landscape images, but when I am on location I like to visit the local shrines and temples to get inspiration from Japan’s traditional architecture and spirituality.
This particular scene here is from a small temple in Shiga prefecture that had a beautiful pond with lots of colorful carps.
I tried to capture the motion of the fish in the water and turn it into something more abstract and painterly-like.

The post Koi Carp In Temple Pond | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

I’m addicted to long exposure photography, and most of the times I don’t like to include “living” elements in my images: in this case I made an exception. I was shooting the waves at the beach in Abashiri during a very calm morning, and there were hundreds of seagulls feeding by the beach. I thought they would complement the scene in a really nice way, but I didn’t want them to be too much recognizable, but simplify them into lines and shapes. The long exposure, combined with the compression of my telephoto lens, really helped here in making the wave very prominent, blur the birds into lines and give an overall 2D element to the frame.

The post Birds feeding at the sea in Abashiri | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

I made this image on a cold early spring morning during a bicycle ride near my house. When I have some time to spare I love taking long rides along the coast with my camera, trying to find new locations and interesting subjects to photograph. On this particular morning the weather was just perfect for long exposures, with thick dark clouds and not so many people around. I took several compositions of these very simple rocks, trying to include the subdued cliff in the background. I really love the contrast between the dark rocks and the white water in this particular shot, I think it gives the whole composition a lot of dynamism.

The post Cloudy morning in Kugenuma | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

The biggest reason why I love seascape photography is that you never get the same image twice. The sea is constantly moving, and it shapes the landscape in a unique way moment after moment. On this cold morning I was shooting at the beach in Abashiri, fresh snow was covering the black sand, and huge strong waves from the sea of Okhotsk were crushing on the shore. All these movement created beautiful layers of whites and blacks throughout the frame, a great example of the amazing natural symmetry I always try to capture with my photography.

The post Sea of Okhotsk from Abashiri | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

This image was taken minutes before a huge Summer storm started to hit the coastline not far from where I live. The waves were huge and no one else was around, as the wind was so strong you were barely able to stand up. What caught my eye was the scary and dark cloud over the sea in the distance, full of rain and electricity. Taking the actual shot was technically quite challenging because of the wind and the spray from the water, but after many tries I was able to get what I think is one of my favorite images of that year.

The post Before the storm Enoshima | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

I captured this image of Meoto-iwa, also known as the “Married couple rocks”, on my first visit to Mie prefecture. I was expecting a quiet location, but the whole shrine was flooded with tourists and worshipers, visiting for the New Year. I arrived on location in the afternoon and I ended up waiting all night and up to the next morning just to be able to have ten minutes alone with these rocks. The calm atmosphere of this image might be misleading, but even if I had to go through a lot to make it, looking at it now after some time has passed makes me feel in peace nonetheless.

The post Meotoiwa in the morning | Original Photo Print appeared first on Aflo Gallery.

I love fern. I really don’t know why, but I do. It must be the shape of its leaves, the way they balance each other so nicely, the way they look from really close up, and their will to live. Fern leaves grow everywhere, in the woods and in the city, among rocks, in the hot and in the cold. I tried to capture their always changing shape and their strength with a multiple exposure, hopefully managing to show how dynamic a leaf can be. There’s a whole world inside a single leaf.

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