More pretty views from Biei, Hokkaido, Japan from our trip a month ago. Unlike those posted before, these are from our first day there, when it was much more hazy, overcast, and gloomy. Still, a few nice shots came out, I think, with common themes throughout.
(IMAGE: Dirt, Utility Poles, and Mountains)
(IMAGE: Farmhouse, Utility Pole, and Mountain)
(IMAGE: Farmhouse, Field, and Mountains)
(IMAGE: Dirt and Mountains)
(IMAGE: Clouds, Fields, and Mountains)
(IMAGE: “Oyako no Ki”親子の木Literally: Parents-and-child Trees)
The trees in the last shot (which is better viewed with the larger version — as with most photos I post, click on the image to [...]
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(IMAGE: Aunt Jeannette in Kyoto)Jeannette Cancillieri
My Aunt Jeannette came to Kyoto this week with a tour group from The States. We're not related by blood, but by virtue of her having been friends with my folks since I was a kid. I don't think I'd met her since I was 10 or so, but I recognized her right away when I went to her hotel to touch base yesterday.
Anthony and I tagged along with her tour today. Anthony took to her easily, those friendly feelings perhaps eased along by the Fireman George gift she brought.
(IMAGE: Aunt Jeannette, Anthony, and Fireman George in [...]
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(IMAGE: KFC and Verena in Kyoto)
When it rains it pours. I hadn't had someone visit from The States for three years, and this week I'm enjoying two visits, my Aunt Jeannette as I noted yesterday, and separately, an old colleague from Yahoo! who now lives in Singapore, Kuan-Fu Chang (aka “KFC”), and his wife, also a former Yahoo!, Verena Wee.
I particularly enjoyed how they're both somewhat camera geeks, so I enjoyed taking pictures of them taking pictures.
I'd met them for dinner the other night, bringing along my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for the low light, watching as they photographed the various dishes as they [...]
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(IMAGE: It Fit Right Here!)
We spent another day with Aunt Jeannette, this time partially at home. She brought a Thomas lunch box and puzzle for Anthony, and helped him do it. It was slow going at first, but they built up steam as he got hooked.
(IMAGE: Looking for a Fit)
(IMAGE: Did It!)
We also took the time to push my scooter out front and pose for a few pictures....
(IMAGE: Standard Pose)
(IMAGE: Pretending-to-be-Driving-Wildly-Fast Pose)
The best part of the day was a lunch in Kibune, which I'll write about another time. It was a really fantastic experience.
Aunt Jeannette is [...]
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(IMAGE: Kibune Shrine... From the Back... Sort Of)
Having visited Kibune with Aunt Jeannette yesterday, I was reminded of my trip to Kibune a month ago. On that trip, we'd eaten at the northern-most restaurant (Hirobun — ひろ文), then made a short climb to a mini “associated shrine” area related to the larger Kibune Shrine (貴船神社) located half a kilometer downstream.
It was a little, quiet area with a small gate and a tiny shrine. In the photo above, the road and restaurant are out of sight below the gate.
(IMAGE: Wish Holder Thing)
The shrine had two little places for tying wish papers, one [...]
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(IMAGE: Master Sweet Maker Ji'ichiro Kunieta in Action)
Part of Aunt Jeannette's tour of Kyoto was a visit to a tea room to experience Japanese sweet making. The tour guide not only let me tag along, but let me enjoy the events as well, so I got to see the sweets being made, take some pictures, and then eat them.

The sweet maker is master Ji'ichiro Kunieta (國枝治一郎), who has been specializing in a particular genre of sweets for 40 years, taking over from his father as the fourth generation of a shop, Matsuya (松彌), started by his great-grandfather in 1888. It's apparently quite [...]
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As part of Aunt Jeannette's visit to Kyoto, Anthony and I tagged along on one of her tour days, which brought me to the Kiyomizu Temple (清水寺) for the first time in many years. I really have no excuse for not visiting sooner, since it's just a mile away.
These days, this temple seems to be known among foreign tourists mostly because it's included among some company's “new seven wonders of the world” profit campaign. Both the campaign and this temple's inclusion in such a list seem like a total crock to me, but the temple is wonderful nevertheless.
(IMAGE: Lotsa' Steps To Somewhere)
There are dozens [...]
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(IMAGE: View West from the Furano Wine House)
During our trip to Hokkaido a month ago, we twice ate lunch at the Furano Wine House (富良野ワインハウス), a pleasant restaurant at the top of a small monadnock that offers commanding views in three directions. Even though the top of the hill is only 50 meters above the surrounding plane, the views make it feel like it's much higher.
(IMAGE: Leaving the Restaurant is an Occasion to Climb)
(IMAGE: View From the Small Park Next to the Restaurant)
There's a tiny park next to the restaurant that's thoroughly enjoyable for a four year old, including steep banks [...]
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(IMAGE: Special Time Together)
This morning we took a short bike ride to Kyoto's Nanzen Temple (南禅寺), one of the more famous temples in Japan. I was there just the other day with some friends, and it's been featured in my blog before (such as this Photography of Katsunori Shimada, a few shots from a visit two years ago, and another shot or two by Shimada-san). It's one of those things that's so close that we sort of take it for granted, so most photography I do there still awaits processing. But I liked today images especially, so they jump to the head of the line.
(IMAGE: Playing [...]
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Fumie and I had a ningen dokku (人間ドック) medical checkup today. It's like an elaborate physical, including X-rays, electrocardiographs, etc. The low point for me was a camera down the throat to check the lining of the stomach (high-resolution video coming soon!
). Fumie had an MRI as well, which she also didn't care for.
The “ningen” in the title means “human,” but I couldn't find anyone who knew the stand-alone meaning or origin of “dokku.” Looking it up now, I see that it's from the English “dock,” and thus the imagery of a full checkup like this is comparable to bringing a ship into drydock.
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(IMAGE: Small Path at the Nanzen Temple)
I'd like to share a few more shots from yesterday's impromptu visit to Nanzenji (南禅寺 the Nanzen Temple, Kyoto Japan). The path above seems to lead to some part of the temple complex, but I've never seen anyone on it. I like the view, and think it might make a nice desktop background, so have provided links to both widescreen and standard-format versions.
(IMAGE: Placing Incense)
If incense smoke wafts over your head, you'll become smarter..... or so it is said.

(IMAGE: Sharing at Full Tilt)
After the “Looking for Goodies” shot from yesterday's post, [...]
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(IMAGE: Color Test)
On the way to the Nanzen Temple the other day (as seen in this post and in this post), we stopped by the location where I made the vine on bamboo fence shots last fall. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the same vine had come back to life, so decided to take some more pictures.
In preparation, wanting to be able to set the proper color balance later, I pulled a white business card I happened to have from my pocket and asked Anthony to hold it such that it was illuminated by the same light as the vine I'd [...]
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(IMAGE: Gakuden Train Station, Furano Japan)
While driving around on our trip to Furano, Hokkaido during Golden Week, we came across the smallest train station I've ever seen. Heck, I've seen larger bus stops.
It was at the junction of Nowhere and Boondocks, near where a road crossed the train tracks. Here's the view one direction from the road....
(IMAGE: Looking Northeast)
And the view the other direction....
(IMAGE: Looking Southwest)
(IMAGE: This Is The Entire Station)
(IMAGE: From Afar)
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Formal Entrance Gate at Giouji Temple, Kyoto Japan
In the post yesterday about my trip to Giouji Temple (祇王寺) in western Kyoto, I commented about the formal entry gate (seen in the background of the second photo on that post). The picture above is the view of the gate while looking over the little door in the front wall.
The formal entry gate, having no doors to be closed or locked, seems to serve no practical function whatsoever. It just looks nice. Well, I guess on a rainy day it might provide some protection, but that's about it. It just looks nice.
You can see [...]
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(IMAGE: Leaf on Wall's Roof)
Continuing with shots from my visit to Giouji Temple (祇 王寺) the other day, and following on from yesterday's description of the wall construction at the temple, this leaf on top of one of the walls is something I noticed on the way out.
It seems so peaceful.
I've provided links to various desktop background sizes (for both standard and widescreen desktops) for your enjoyment.
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(IMAGE: Neatly Parked)
We awoke this morning to find Anthony was playing with his cars, which, as normal, means lining them up in some neat arrangement. I'm not quite sure what little imaginary world he'd built for himself, but understood that it had something to do with an airport.
(IMAGE: Anthony's “Airport-Related” Project)
He's been lining things up since before he could walk, and for the last four years, he's loved lining up cars, either caravan style or parked neatly. The scene above was one he made today, but he could have made it just as well three years ago or any time in [...]
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(IMAGE: Moss at the Giouji Temple, Kyoto Japan)
When I was at the Giouji Temple (祇王寺) the other day (intro · gates and walls), I overheard a taxi driver tell his customers that there were 18 different types of moss at the temple. I believe it, and they seemed to be mixed and matched all over.
(IMAGE: More Moss)
(IMAGE: And Still More Moss)
(IMAGE: Oh, and Over Here... More Moss!)
They had a little display showing the types of moss to be found on the grounds. The names are in Japanese (and seem to be native Japanese, rather than phonetic representations of the [...]
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(IMAGE: Watering the Flowers, Kyoto Style)
I spent the most enjoyable day today playing tour guide to some friends from The States, and although it's not as if I'm lacking pictures from Kyoto, of course I brought my camera along. We visited Kibune, drove through the mountains (seeing this village and these rice paddies), and then headed over to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto to take a look around. (While there, we stopped by Giouji knowing that it would be closed for the evening, just so they could scout its location for a later visit.)
(IMAGE: Lawrence Solum, in Kyoto)
My guests were Lawrence Solum, his sister Alex, [...]
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Taking a pause from mossy temple pictures for a moment, I'll return to our trip to Hokkaido (northern-most island in Japan) last month, and the picturesque countryside of Biei. (Previous posts on Biei: one, two, three).
More random shots from the mostly-overcast days of our visit....
(IMAGE: Shed)
(IMAGE: Drunk Farmer)
(IMAGE: Seedlings)
(IMAGE: Another view of the“Oyako no Ki” (親子の木)) that was seen in a previous post The name means literally “Parents-and-child Trees”
(IMAGE: Sun Peaking Through)(that's a little wordplay there)
I wasn't the only one to enjoy the views...
(IMAGE: Preparing For Blastoff)
(IMAGE: Together)

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(IMAGE: Lunch on the River at Hirobun, in Kibune)Kyoto, Japan
When Aunt Jeanette was in town two weeks ago, we headed up to Kibune to enjoy the drive, and to have lunch at Hirobun, an inn with a nice restaurant that overlooks the river. However, when we arrived, it turned out that the restaurant was serving lunch over the river.
(IMAGE: Hirobun's Uppermost Platform)As viewed from our table on the next platform down
We were on the middle of three straw-mat-covered platforms, at what would have to have been the best seats in the house (so to speak). Next to us was a six-foot waterfall [...]
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So, yesterday's post left off with a photo from the stairs looking at the dining platforms over the upper river. The stairs were those going down to the lower “noodle platforms” (where the noodle part of the lunch is to be eaten), and so here's a view from the same position, looking down at them.
(IMAGE: The “Noodle Platforms” at Hirobun, in Kibune)Kyoto, Japan
Here's more of a zoom. Notice the trough-like thing in front of the counter Aunt Jeannette is sitting on?

That trough-like thing is really a flume in which water — and occasionally soumen noodles — flow. You sit in front [...]
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Adobe Lightroom Version 1.1
Adobe has officially announced the highly anticipated “Version 1.1” upgrade to their Lightroom photo-workflow application, four months after Version 1.0 was released. Lightroom creates a whole new world of organization and expression for photographers, one that fulfills many needs the user might not have even realized where there.
Yet, once the user settles in, they find themselves invigorated into wanting even more organizational and creative functionality, and this free upgrade is a step in that direction.
There are many new features in 1.1, some of which have been previewed already (including the new sharpening controls released in Adobe Camera Raw 4.1.).
I'm sure there [...]
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Metadata Viewer in Adobe Lightroom 1.1
As mentioned in my previous post, Adobe has just released Lightroom 1.1, a free upgrade to their wonderful photo-workflow application. Correspondingly, I have upgraded my Custom Metadata Viewer Preset Builder, a web application that allows you to create custom metadata display configuration templates for use within Lightroom.
This description is presented with Lightroom 1.1 as an example, although the config files should work in any version of Lightroom 1.x, including 1.3.1.
Data Presets are selected by this control, and are unrelated to the viewer presets this post is about.
This post is the introduction and documentation for my template-builder application. If [...]
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About a month and a half ago I was futzing around with night exposures and took this 30-second picture of the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. I was wondering whether I might get the really interesting results as I did during cherry-blossom season, but in this case the result was thunderously boring.
(IMAGE: Boring)
Maxed out sharpening controlsin Lightroom 1.1
However, it was about this time that I decided to finally start playing with the new sharpening controls in the betas I was testing for Lightroom 1.1, and for whatever reason, I used this image as my first test.
Proper sharpening seems to be more an [...]
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(IMAGE: Vine and Bamboo Fence: Summer Edition)Kyoto, Japan
As I mentioned the other day, we visited the Nanzen Temple, and on the way, stopped by to see the area where I took the Vine and Bamboo pictures that I posted last fall. It seems that the vine had come back to life, so this is the summer version of the picture.
Just like last time, I've included links to desktop-background versions in various sizes, both widescreen and standard.
(IMAGE: Vine, Bamboo Fence, and Silly Kid)
The vine emerges from behind the fence in its middle, with the part growing above the center apparently new growth. I find it [...]
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