I was discussing today with an editorial client about an upcoming assignment in Kyoto, and also about what images I already have of geisha women in Kyoto. So I trawled through my back archive to see what I had, to refresh my memory, and I found this image which I’d forgotten about. I like it, funny thing is it was taken from my hotel bedroom window overlooking the Gion district the morning after an assignment photographing geisha women, and which involved me being in a karaoke bar with a geisha girl until 3am…strictly for work of course.
I was awake, ready to get up, start the day and return to Tokyo. A journalist colleague whom I was sharing a room with ( we were there for a client with a tight budget, as so many are these days) was sitting beside the window with it open, letting cool air into the airless Japanese hotel room ( whay are the rooms also so airless and hot in Japan I wonder…?), anyway, he was sitting, letting cool air in and blowing his noxious cigarette fumes out, when he alerted me to the fact that this woman was walking along the lanes below the hotel. I only just had time to scamble from my bed, assemble the 70-200mm onto a Canon body and fire off 4 frames before she was gone. This was the first of the four frames, and the best composition.