Sometimes waking up at 3:00 AM is worth it
KYOTO
Sometimes photography is a hunt, you are just in the wild and shoot when you see something interesting and hope you get it, and other times photography is like fishing, you just stay there for hours with everything set up, patiently waiting for all elements to be in the perfect set up…
By the time I had arrived in Kyoto I had already been almost a week in Japan. During that time I got to meet some people, interestingly all of them expats living there, maybe a sign that one day I’ll be one of them? As I would share my travel plans asking for recommendations, I would usually hear sighs followed by reiterations of “prepare to feel crowded”. I was expecting it. Especially after almost 3 years of the country being closed due to the virus, but that was definitely not gonna stop my excitement. Although Tokyo has my heart, Kyoto was where I was intending all along to catch my “White Whale” (in a photography sense of course).
Every night before going to bed I would go to the communal space of the capsule hotel and review my intense schedule for the upcoming day. My schedule was my bible, I had prepared it and color coded in terms of importance on my Google sheets as follows:
3:00 AM - Wake up and get ready
4:00 AM - Start walking to my destination (public transport wasn’t operating at such hours)
5:00-5:30AM - Arrival and camera setup
6:00- Start shooting…
And so most of my days started that way.
If you are a photographer you know, and if you are not, you might think this was crazy. However, when you start taking pictures in a more serious way you understand that you want to have as much control as possible in order to take “the picture”. Going back to the fishing references, sometimes photography is a hunt, you are just in the wild and shoot when you see something interesting and hope you get it, and other times photography is like fishing, you just stay there for hours with everything set up, patiently waiting for all elements to be in the perfect set up and then, SNAP! Well, Kyoto was a fishing competition. You try to get there as early as you can because 1.You want to avoid crowds and 2. You want to get the best spots before other photographers get them. The most fierce of all the photography spots was at Hokan-ji Temple, to photograph the famous Yasaka Pagoda (八坂の塔 ). Such an amusing sight to see, not because of the Pagoda itself but because you could see a row of photographers, all respecting an imaginary line to avoid appearing on each other's shots, but passive-aggressively driving away any poor soul that intended to cross the little street that takes you towards the pagoda. The strength of the majority (that before the crowds of tourists come of course). I almost felt ashamed of being a photographer seeing how some were treated just because they appeared in a shot by accident, but on the other hand I understood my fellow photographers’ desperation to use every second of the street being empty before the crows outnumbered us. I left from there half disgusted and half proud feeling that maybe I had caught my whale.
“The Picture”
On my way back to other sites, I saw the beauty of Kyoto. Between the antique streets of Gion, when all the stores and restaurants are still closed, I felt the peace with which the city is intended to be experienced. “This is one of the advantages of having to force myself to wake up at 3:00AM” I thought, completely worth it. And so it was that during the entirety of my stay I had the fortune to experience almost all the sights in a peaceful way right before the crowds would come.
That was the loneliness I was seeking. Loneliness mixed with serenity that would allow me to dig deep into my thoughts and reflect upon my life. I will forever remember reaching that place of tranquility climbing Fushimi Inari Taisha. My legs were feeling tired as I had been climbing the last 40 min while carrying a 50lb backpack with all my camera equipment in it, but I loved the feeling of being lost between thousands of Torii gates and trees. During the climb to the top I found a charming little shrine, I was so isolated from any other human being that I could just listen to my own breathing and the water from the stream. I close my eyes, I just listen… I pray, I am thankful. All the sensations together, they formed a moment I wanted to take a mental picture of with all of my senses.
