Seibu Tamagawa Line - On a Freezing Morning
The early morning hours are the key!
2026 has reached its third day.
Wondering how much of the snow that fell for a short time last night remained, I headed out for my life's work, shooting scenes along the Seibu Tamagawa Line.
It was so cold and chilly this morning that I thought it might be the coldest of the season.
Every road around my house was frozen and shining bright white.
This might be closer to frost than snow.
The snow begins to melt with the sunrise, but I headed to the line while confirming that it was still firmly remaining in the shade.
This time, I visited a field between Shiraitodai Station and Tama Station.
In the Tama area of Tokyo, you can still see fields spreading out along the tracks, but in recent years, residential development seems to be gradually progressing.
The parts of the field hit by the sun had begun to thaw, but the shade remained almost exactly as it was last night. As the temperature rises, the melting speed increases, so shooting is a race against time.
Since the snow clinging to the withered grass has turned into ice, I hoped that the coldness and chill would be conveyed to those who view it through the photos.
I set a wide-angle zoom to include as much of the snow in the foreground as possible. I set the aperture to the maximum of 22 so that the focus would reach from the withered grass right in front of me (about 20cm from the tip of the lens) to the train in the distance.
One of the advantages of a Micro Four Thirds sensor camera is that you can gain a deeper depth of field (the range in focus from front to back) by 2 stops more than full-frame and 1 stop more than APS-C.
This time, because I stopped down to 22, I was able to get almost the entire frame in focus.
In scenes like this, I strongly feel the benefits of Micro Four Thirds.
By matching the color temperature to sunlight, the train in the sun looks true to life, while the shaded areas take on a bluish tone, which I used to express the coldness of the snow.
I was happy because I hadn't expected to be able to shoot a work with a snow motif so early in the new year.
After shooting, I noticed water droplets on the lens, so I wiped it with a cleaning tissue before putting the camera in my bag and heading to the next point.
◆Shooting Data
・Camera: OM SYSTEM OM-1
・Lens: M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8-25mm F4.0 PRO
・Shutter: 1/800 sec
・Aperture: f/22
・ISO: 4000
These are recommended cleaning tissues for maintenance after shooting.
It is also convenient to have a blower to blow away dust and water droplets attached to the lens.