Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thomas Hertel
near the Nanzen Temple, Kyoto Japan

An old friend from my days working at Omron in the early 90s visited Kyoto today. He's German and lives in Germany, and I hadn't seen him since he attended my wedding in Kyoto in 1998, where he was the only one to fly in from outside Japan. Along the same lines more than 10 years later, he took the opportunity of a business trip to Korea to pop over to Kyoto for the weekend, just in time for the start of some nice fall colors.

Unfortunately, the weather was dark and gloomy for much of the afternoon, with intermittent rain. By early dusk, we found ourselves at the Nanzen Temple, where the enveloping darkness made the though of taking pictures a joke. But I have my Nikon D700 with its amazing low-light performance, so I thought I'd snap a few shots and see how they came out. Most of these shots were taken at ISO 6400.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Muddy Fire”

The answer is “mostly muddy”. The lamp in the shot above is in focus, but the thin depth of field resulting from the f/2.8 aperture – often a wonderful composition tool – leaves the fiery red leaves at the right out of focus, and hence a sloppy, muddy mess.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Carpet of Moss

The shot of Thomas that leads this post was taken in front of the entrance to what I believe is someone's house/garden. It was very pretty inside:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Someone's Garden

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/3.5, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos

Anthony didn't care about the pretty leaves, of course. He really enjoyed pushing his bike up a slight slope, then riding back down at an unsafe speed.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Savoring the Thrill

This is more representative of what we saw:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Warp Level 7

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Tilted
The temple walls are angled and tapered

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Refusing To Succumb to the Night

The tree in the photo above is part of a pair that are particularly vibrant, and they garner crowds of photographers every year because they're the prettiest trees around (at least within the nearest, oh, 50 yards or so). They appeared on my blog last year's Touch of Color from the Nanzen Temple post. Also, I think this sun-through-the-leaves shot is of the same pair.

Even in the mid-summer they look pretty. They're the trees on the right in this shot of Fumie and Anthony lighting incense.

Anthony, again, doesn't care. He's riding his bike....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos

This shot reminds me of one of my all-time favorites, taken from the same spot looking down the same path: “Pure Joy”

In the evening, Thomas and I went out for foods he remembered from his time in Japan 15+ years ago, okonomiyaki and yakisoba. It was most excellent. We talked over beers, and although we hadn't seen each other in 10 years, and we now have a wife and kids (he has girls ages 5 and 6), it felt like no time had passed.

We'll get together tomorrow as well, although the weather looks to be a bit iffy. We may head out to the Giouji Temple. He's been using this photo as his desktop background, and his coworkers have teased him that the white thing in the center is a mailbox, so he wants to go see what it is. I think it's a pathway light, but I'm not sure. We'll see...

Continued here...