Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Entrance, Kyoto Station
North, “Karasuma” Exit
Zak sent me an article about some planned large-scale redevelopment around Kyoto Station, which reminds me that I've still not followed up on my earlier post about the area: The Most-Excellent Architecture of Kyoto Station.
When I snapped the picture above, I was standing in the huge atrium that is the shell around which Kyoto Station was designed. Beyond the glass oval thing in the center are the ticket gates, beyond which are the trains. Above the ticket gates is a glass-enclosed walkway connecting one area of the station with some restaurants and a hotel.
I really like the glass oval thing. When standing there, you can look up and around at 10-stories worth of atrium above you, and look down at two stories worth of diving escalators and walkways below.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from the 3rd or 4th floor
(The oval is on the ground floor, with many basement floors and a subway below)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wide-Angle View from the Left
from perhaps the 4th floor
You really have to look at the picture above in its larger detail to appreciate the scale here. The glass oval thing is in the lower center-left, with the ticket gates at the far lower-left.
If you cross the atrium and go up a number of floors on the other side, to near the big Christmas Tree (I took these shots last fall), you can look down past multiple levels of restaurant, each with its own set of people looking down at the lower levels as well.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from the 5th floor, or so
(The oval is way down there somewhere)
Turning back and moving around to the front of the Christmas Tree....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
9 or 10 Floors of Stairs
from the 5th floor, or so
If you don't want to walk up all those stairs, you can take the escalators. The escalators go at normal speed, but it still takes almost two and a half minutes to get to the top from this point. It's far.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some Bozo Taking a Picture of Stairs
( Who on earth takes pictures of stairs?? What a moron! )
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/45 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from somewhere around the 12th or 13th floor
It's hard to see, but there's actually a publicly-accessible suspended walkway cutting across the top of the frame above.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zooming Up for a Sense of Scale
(and you can see inside the walkway a bit)
I think I was on one of those far escalators when I took the “Wide-Angle View from the Left” picture above.
I took some of these pictures while out and about with the family, and a few others on the spur of the moment one evening after returning from a trip to Tokyo. As such, getting photos was an afterthought, so I'd really like to go back and spend some quality time exploring with the camera. There are so many areas of the station I've yet to see. For example, while writing this post I noticed what looks like a huge lobby of a hotel visible through huge 2nd-floor windows in the upper-left of the first “View from the Right” photo above. I've never even been to that half of the station.
I’m slightly late, just noticed the original post date, but happy birthday to your Configuration Manager
The station photos are cool, but why not try that trick for popular tourist spots and use a really high f-stop, or some nd filters. That way you can blur/get rid of all the pedestrians. It makes sense for a high traffic location to reproduce that feeling.
Indeed, that’s something I could try when I go there with the intention to take pictures; it’s not something I can do when I’m just snapping pictures while yelling “just a sec, I’ll be right there” to my family. I have a 9-stop ND filter, tripod, etc., and would like to put them to good use there. Not sure whether I can use a tripod inside, though. Will have to check that out.
I like ‘some bozo’, but shame about that white panel board thing on the bottom right.
Actually, I placed that into the composition on purpose. I want every photo I take to be ready for publication on the cover of a magazine, so I put the white board there to provide a spot for the magazine’s bar code. 🙂 (After noticing the guy I had only a moment to frame and take the shot. Sometimes you deal with what you’re dealt.)
“Zooming Up for a Sense of Scale” is nice but you don’t need so much of the upper dark scaffolding. Try halving it, and/or getting a steeper view down towards the lower floors.
I’d love a steeper view down… will bring my helicopter next time! The darkness of the scaffolding reflects (so to speak) my mistake in setting the exposure. In real life, you could see inside to the suspended walkway more than the photo illustrates. —Jeffrey
“Wide-Angle View from the Left” is nice but unfortunately straddles the line between ‘kind of interesting’ and ‘impractical’. It’s a cool shot but not great, and difficult to use as a print piece, there’s no consideration for text. If you’re looking to create photography for publication, consider composition that favours space for type. If your photography is not for that, or for personal usage, please forget what I said.
Cheers for the effort! I’m down in Shikoku, hanging out in the inaka of Ehime. It’s nice to find intelligent interesting photography that’s based in Japan. Mata ne,
Chris