Miyajima at Low Tide
Shortcut -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 52mm — 1/1250 sec, f/4.8, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Shortcut

As I earlier posted from our trip to Miyajima an island near Hiroshima, Japan, one of the main photographic attractions is the large main gate of the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社、宮島). It's off the coast in the intertidal zone, so when the tide is in, it's in the water and really pretty. There's a nice daytime shot of it at high tide at the end of this post, and on another post, some night shots.

Perhaps it's just the geek in me, but I think there's a certain interest to it even at low tide. I like to see how things work, and how they're built, and, of course, it's easier to get close to it when it's not surrounded by eight feet of water.

I got up early the morning after the Kousuke Atari concert, and was delighted to find that it was a very low tide, with up to a quarter mile of extra land exposed. It was occasionally muddy, but mostly just damp sand and rocks, so I could freely walk out and wander around. The guy walking his dog in the shot above was likely just using the opportunity of a low tide to take a shortcut.

Sand · Seaweed · Water · Gate -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/1250 sec, f/1.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Sand · Seaweed · Water · Gate

There were large areas of light-green seaweed that looked like grass from a distance, but up close, it looked more like small squares of slimy paper. It's quite tasty.

Sandbank · Pool · Gate -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/1000 sec, f/1.6, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Sandbank · Pool · Gate

The intertidal zone also had a lot of large sandbanks, which are entirely under water at high tide, but at low tide create little lakes.

The gate itself is quite large, although you don't get a sense for really how large until you get right up to it.

Solid -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 46mm — 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Solid
Imposing Figure -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18mm — 1/2000 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Imposing Figure
“Itsukushima Shrine” -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
“Itsukushima Shrine”

This shrine (and the whole island, for that matter) are one of the most famous tourist spots in Japan, but it was miraculously uncrowded the whole time we were there, as if it was our own private resort. During my stroll this morning, I saw less than a dozen others, including some guy at the edge of the water who, I presume, was looking for clams.

Muddy Business -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 135mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Muddy Business
Stream · Gate · Shrine -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 22mm — 1/640 sec, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Stream · Gate · Shrine

There was a steady stream of water still flowing outward, which I thought at the time meant that the tide was still going out. Had I thought about it even a little, I would have realized that it wasn't the tide going out (the tide was already out), but an actual stream that likely originated in the mountains. It wasn't very deep or wide, but sufficiently both that it was difficult to cross wearing only street shoes.

The Shrine Proper -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 200mm — 1/180 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
The Shrine Proper

The shine itself is almost entirely over the intertidal zone.

Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 40mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos
Miyajima, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 18mm — 1/750 sec, f/11, ISO 500 — map & image datanearby photos

I like the clouds in this last picture. Despite the morning's overcast, the clouds were thin so things were quite bright, making exposures a challenge (for me, at least).

Continued here...


All 4 comments so far, oldest first...

Impressive, indeed. Especially so since the gate was made of trees. Huge trees. I assumed from a distance that it was metal of some kind. I wonder if many trees were already growing and they culled the rest to leave these to form the gate, or were these brought in and set in place here? They seem too precisely placed for the former. What a tremendous undertaking! I can see repairs have been made at the waterline; I wonder if the paint is chosen less for it’s orange color than for it’s preservative properties. How can wood stand up to salt water like that? All the more awe-inspiring.

— comment by Grandma Friedl on October 29th, 2007 at 2:21am JST (16 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

Is there a guy walking a polar bear in the first shot?!?! 🙂

— comment by Jeremy Zawodny on October 30th, 2007 at 5:36am JST (16 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

Jeremy, that is EXACTLY what I thought. Deffinately a polar bear.

— comment by Marty on November 1st, 2007 at 9:15am JST (16 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

Awesome pictures. I like the sky of the last picture so much – just an awesome picture

— comment by André Tagesgeld on February 11th, 2008 at 10:42pm JST (16 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink
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