After studying fashion at Bunka Fashion College, Komuro set out to work in fashion. She decided to aspire to be a photographer after coming into contact with cameras at a fashion photography location. After working as an assistant, she is currently active in advertising and magazines. She continues the journey of her life work with snapshots of the city. She also writes and teaches about cameras. She has a YouTube channel called “Ueda Family Couple Photographers” where she provides information on cameras and photos.
HD PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8 Limited
I captured snapshots of the Koenji area in Tokyo, using a combination of the PENTAX K-3 Mark III and the HD PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8 Limited. This shopping district, lined with fashionable stores dealing in second-hand clothes and variety goods, is full of a nostalgic atmosphere. Even on a short stroll, you come across a wide variety of subjects. It’s a town that offers a lot of fun to walk around with your camera in your hand.
When mounted on the PENTAX K-3 Mark III, the lens provides a focal length of 47.5mm in the 35mm format — very convenient for snapshot photography. When looking for snapshots, I walk around thinking about what aspects of a town I’d like to preserve in my images, rather than releasing the shutter aimlessly. By having a more concrete idea of my photographic goals, I can capture images which depict the town in greater detail and depth.
When using this FA Limited-series lens, I always start out by removing the clip-on front lens cap. I feel comfort in removing the tightly fit cap smoothly from the lens. Even though this is the latest model of the Limited series, it’s designed to be very classical and exclusive in appearance and texture. It makes an ideal partner for the PENTAX K-3 Mark III.
During this shooting session, I set the camera’s Custom Image mode to Reversal Film. The reflections of an electric light bulb on leather shoes, the entrance of a yakitori bar, and the clothing on the mannequins: this mode depicted all the subjects I encountered in Koenji with rich tones, and perfectly re-created the nostalgic atmosphere of the town. I found it very enjoyable to create images by sensing the prevailing ambience of the particular shooting location.
Basically, I set the aperture to an open F-stop when I use a single-focus lens, because this produces the beautiful, smooth gradations of the bokeh (defocus) effect. A subtle, smooth transition to a stronger bokeh effect makes the subject positioned on the focal plane appear more prominent in the captured image. While the focal plane is more finely expressed in greater detail, it contains both soft- and sharp-focused elements. This unique mixture is soothing and pleasant to look at. When I wanted to express the subject’s details more sharply, I shifted the aperture to F3.5. This allowed me to more clearly and sharply depict the yakitori bar’s shutters and the worn-out details of its shop sign. Depending on the ambience of a subject, I switched the aperture between F1.8 and F3.5 to produce the intended visual effect, but I was most fascinated with the rich, distinctive image rendition of F1.8.
Sample Images
PENTAX K-3 Mark III × HD PENTAX-FA 31mmF1.8 Limited by Comuromiho
