Craig Mod posts a terrific write-up on his experience with the Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 — a camera I’ve been lusting after — during 16 days in the Himalayas.

PauseTalker and photographer Stephen Lebovits — who also works at the Design Festa gallery — has posted an invitation for an upcoming photography-related event that’s happening there called “Photo Salad.”

Design Festa is having a blow-out photo event next month – all 3 floors of the East Gallery will be taken over by Phat Photo Magazine, one of the cooler Japanese photo rags, and they are having a contest. So, if you want in on this event, or you want to enter the contest (and you can read Japanese) then follow this link.

The event runs from Saturday January 9th until the 15th, with workshops, photo book publishers and some industry-heavy-hitters too, so this is a great chance to find out more about photography in Tokyo, and Japan.

I’ll have the list of participants from last night’s PauseTalk (Vol. 36) up later today or tomorrow, but in the meantime I wanted to share the latest round of portraits taken by Max Hodges, which are all viewable in this gallery. As with last time, I’m really loving these, and I’m hoping that Max keeps doing them, and then maybe culminate in some sort of exhibition to celebrate the fourth anniversary of PauseTalk next year. Max is also talking about compiling PDF books of the shots, which I think is a great idea.

And in case you’re wondering, the t-shirt I’m wearing is Gelman‘s “Sorry I’m Late!” tee he did for Uniqlo a couple of years back.

Color me jealous: former Tokyo resident Adam Greenfield — and current head of design direction at Nokia in Finland — is one of the people behind the newly-launched Do Projects, which has the following goals:

Develop words and images that make the people who encounter them re-see themselves and the world around them; find the most appropriate containers for our ideas; craft the kind of books that please their readers in the details of their conception, design and construction as much as in the things they say; and figure out what “do-it-yourself” might mean in an age when new production technologies, informational and logistical networks give the independent amateur producer unprecedented power to reach out and make things happen.

Such a great idea. The first project is called Tokyo Blues, a photo book of Nurri Kim‘s investigations of Tokyo’s PVC plastic construction tarps. It’s available both in print, or as a free downloadable PDF.

Click through for a look at some absolutely stunning animated stereoviews taken by T. Enami in the late 19th and early 20th century in Japan.

The Cycle Chic from Copenhagen blog has a post up featuring a few ladies riding their bicycles in Fukuoka, courtesy of photographer Stephen Crawford. It is indeed great living in a city/country where women are frequent cyclists. Via Ryan Ruel.

During last week’s PauseTalk (Vol. 35), Imre Ostmann introduced us to an art project he’s been working on called “Tokyo STOP.” The idea is to take a “long exposure photograph of seven people standing in a dead-end road during sunset.” He’s done four areas so far, and is looking for some volunteers for upcoming dates — you’ll find all the details here, including his contact info.

Coming up at the Kakitsubata gallery in Nakameguro is the show “Kodai,” running from November 25 until December 6.

Last night’s PauseTalk (Vol. 35) was a great one — I’ll have a separate post for the list of participants — but I first wanted to share a terrific gallery of portraits that Max Hodges took after the official session was over. I’m not exactly sure what gear he was using, but it included a circular flash and a big box with lots of wires.

Pictured above, Perrine Valli, a French dancer/performance artist in town for a couple of months as she researches a piece on sexual identity, that she will perform at SuperDeluxe on December 1.

Even more than today’s HG House — yes, I know it’s confusing — I really dig Sou Fujimoto’s House H, especially the interior — it has an M.C. Escher meets Muji feel to it. Photographer Iwan Baan has a gallery of 40+ photos from the house. Via Designboom.

Mark Pearson is organizing an informal meet-up for photographers at his Zen Foto art gallery in Shibuya. It takes place tomorrow (November 15) at 19:00. Via TABlog.

Click through to see a very cool panorama photo of the JAN track bike shop in Tokyo by Kyoichi Ozaki — best viewed fullscreen. Via Gordon Kanki Knight.

I first previewed it a while back, but here’s a better look at the exhibition design by Nendo created for last month’s “Kanazawa World Craft Triennial 2010 Pre-event” at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Photos are by the always amazing Daici Ano, pretty much “the” name in architectural photography.

The design for a exhibition of 62 craft objects by 50 artisans at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, in western Japan. The objects’ materials range widely, including glass, wood, ceramics, metal and cloth. A variety of techniques were used in their creation, and they range widely in size. For the exhibition design, then, we chose the opposite strategy. Small mass-produced home-use greenhouses give a sense of order to the space and provide visitors with a flat perspective from which to view the exhibition, allowing the rich variety of the objects to stand out.

The greenhouses are made completely of glass, and each comes with its own shelving and pre-installed wiring for lighting. They are inexpensive, perfect for small budgets, and are easily assembled with only a screwdriver. It took only one day to assemble all 62 of the boxes. They can be broken down and stored after the exhibition. This not only eliminates nearly all waste from the exhibition fixtures, but also allows for possible reuse during the the Kanazawa World Craft Triennale 2010.

Ani Watanabe has a series of travel photo books up on BCCKS, covering Seoul, Bali, Paris, New York (above), Portugal, Hawaii, and Maroc.

Photographer Joji Shimamoto is showing works at Fireking Cafe in Yoyogi Uehara until the end of the month.