When to Visit Tokyo

Tennessee resident Benjamin Perlin divides his time between photography and philanthropy. For more than a year, Ben Perlin has volunteered at the Tennessee State Veterans Home. In his free time, Benjamin Perlin enjoys travel and recently visited Tokyo, Japan.

Although Tokyo serves as a great year-round destination, its peak tourist season is in summer. From June through August, the city is crowded and hot. While average temperatures range from 70 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, the humidity makes for a sticky vacation. The increase in crowd size means long lines at attractions and high hotel prices.

Tokyo experiences autumn from September through November. Autumn is regarded as one of the best times to visit Tokyo because crowds, heat, and humidity die down. Most daytime temperatures range from the low 60s to upper 70s, and many of Tokyo’s trees come alive with autumn colors.

Winter in Tokyo lasts from December through February and serves as the low tourist season. On average, temperatures range in the 40s and 50s, but nighttime temperatures can drop below freezing. Humidity is typically low during this season, as are rainfall and crowd numbers. Despite being the low season, accommodation prices often remain high.

In March through May, Tokyo experiences springtime. Visiting in the spring grants tourists the opportunity to see the city’s cherry and plum blossoms, which draw crowds. The weather is generally comfortable, with averages between 50 and 70 degrees. Golden Week, a national holiday, can bring quiet days in Tokyo.

What Are the Different Strategies for Non-Digital Photo Manipulation?

A volunteer with the Tennessee State Veterans Home, Benjamin Perlin has donated his time to a number of local charities. Benjamin Perlin also works at his local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store and is a talented photographer. A fan of film over digital images, Ben Perlin enjoys using science to create the exact images that he wants. Since the creation of photography, a number of different manual photo-manipulation strategies have emerged.

One of the most time-tested strategies involves manipulation in the darkroom. Dodging, masking, and burning are all techniques that create effects similar to digital manipulations except that they are done by hand during the printing process. American photographer Jerry N. Uelsmann has been one of the major pioneers of darkroom manipulation. 

An old-school technique is negative scratching, which came into fashion in the 19th century. The so-called pictorialists used negative scratching to personalize their photos. This strategy uses a small tool to make marks in the negatives. Individuals can also write words on the top of the negative with the scratching tool or even a pencil.

Some photographers use double exposures as an artistic technique. While some film cameras have the ability to take a double exposure, individuals often have to use filters to achieve the effect. The filter covers part of the lens for the first shot and a different part for the second shot.