by Billy Ha
I was on one of the oldest train lines in Kyoto, Japan when I was visiting back in 2018. It was the first year owning a proper camera and snapping the streets trying to figure it all out on my own. Those few months I was focusing on honing my skills on “the use of subframe.” It was a long journey on the train, and as always I was looking for “the extraordinary in the ordinary.” Something caught my eye when I was looking around, this nice looking gentleman on my left in the adjacent carriage was reading a book and he was so focused on it. A book, or any media with text on them, usually triggers thoughts on stories and I wanted to record this moment… in a beautiful frame. I tried a few times imagining the possible frames in my head, then I turned on my camera and did a few shots — some portrait and some landscape. This was the best ‘moment’ in terms of overall layout.
