Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/20 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
30 Minutes Before Sunrise
Fumie and I made an overnight trip to the city of Takamatsu, in Kagawa Prefecture, on the large island of Shikoku, Japan, to see pop singer Kousuke Atari (中孝介) in concert. Just as I did the last time we made an overnight trip (which was also to see Kousuke Atari in concert, at a shrine in Miyajima), I awoke early to see what photo opportunities there might be in the early of morning.
Unlike Miyajima and our extended time there, which produced so many nice (or story-telling) pictures that I had to make a Miyajima category on my blog, we were in Takamatsu for only a short time, and, unfortunately, were able to enjoy almost nothing of the area. Our hotel was right downtown at the port, which made for a very industrial – but still pretty – sunrise.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/640 sec, f/5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Three Minutes Before Sunrise
The Ferris wheel at left is, apparently, the “only Ferris wheel in the world on top of a book store” (the book store, apparently, being the largest in all of Japan). As Zak notes, Japanese people seem to have a thing for Ferris wheels. I've even had a Ferris wheel on my blog before, on a Rice Terraces post.
On the four-hour drive the previous evening, we stopped by a highway rest area that had “the world's only highway-rest-area Ferris wheel.” We actually rode it, enjoying the views of the nearby Akashi Straights Bridge that we'd just crossed, the world's longest suspension bridge (a mile and a quarter between the two piers, almost two and a half miles total). Alas, we didn't have time for the bookstore Ferris wheel this trip.
Just as with the Orange Sunset in Kyoto that I posted the other day, I used the zoom to try to isolate the color...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/750 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Takamatsu is on the northern coast of Shikoku, an island a bit smaller than new Jersey. I got these pictures with water to the east by walking out to the end of a breakwater sticking half a mile out into the ocean.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 20mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Twenty minutes later it was as bright as daytime (because it was daytime ), but the shadows were still, of course, quite long. Back at the land-side of the breakwater, I had to work to keep the shadow of this guy and his bicycle in frame....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some beautiful pictures in here, Jeffrey. I just received a slightly early christmas present… one 70-200 VR! I’m obviously excited… hope to put it to the test soon. One thing I’d love to see you do is a sample comparison of the 70-200 and 18-200 quality/sharpness wise. I plan to do it myself but you take these sort of tests to the extreme in terms of stability and lighting, etc whereas I’m usually happy to take a few shots hand held without too much care and compare them.