The redsheep story has always been that of being at the right place at the right time — “qarah” in Hebrew. Our shoot campaign in Tokyo, Spring of 2024, was definitely chock-full of it: two weddings, and five shoots in between, without an elaborate “guns blazing” social media campaign announcing that we’d be in Tokyo during cherry blossom season.

Sharing with you guys how serendipitous our shoots can be.

March 29, 2024. Good Friday. 9h nine hours Hamamatsucho sleep lab, Minato, Tokyo.

Enter: me, doing a thousand-yard stare at Tokyo Tower. I was almost at the end of a two-week-long shoot stint. I felt the exhaustion sink in after a scenery & portrait shoot slash day trip to Kawaguchiko*, two hours away from Tokyo by train.

The last thing that I wanted to do was talk to someone**.

Also Me: “But it’s your last night here! You booked this hotel specifically for the Tokyo Tower view. Why don’t you talk to that girl on the other side of the table?”

Me: Nope. I’d rather stare into nothingness.

Also Me: “See! She’s teaching that other guy how to take a proper Tower shot. It’s a lot easier to break the ice.”

Me: Okay, fine.

So I did my usual “can I take your portraits” spiel.

She looked very familiar.

Like “Have we met before?”–familiar.

So she obliged when I asked if I could take some portraits of her on the roof. A few test shots later, I asked her name.

“Maria,” she said.

Maria. Maria…. [ synapses firing ]

Oh my! “Maria, as in Sebastian & Maria?!?! We did a couple shoot in Siargao YEARS ago!!!”

“No frickin’ way!”, we both said, almost in unison.

So long story short, she wasn’t a total stranger. And we spent the next day doing an actual portrait shoot in Central Tokyo.

Right place, right time — for the nth time. 🙏☝️

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Cinematic Tokyo travel portraits photographed on location across Hamamatsucho, Shibakoen, and Akabanebashi. Captured in spring of '24 using the Leica SL2 and Q3 with a candid, natural-light approach by redsheepphotocinema.

*I filmed scenery and location shots for an upcoming wedding in Chiba.

**And I normally don’t talk to people even with full social batteries!