Revisiting the Road to Imabari: Stops #1 and #2
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desktop background image of pink blossom in spring, in Japan -- Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 cropped — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image datanearby photos
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Here are some more pictures from the first two stops during our essentially all-day drive at the start of our short but photographically-satisfying trip to Imabari City (Ehime Prefecture, Japan) at the start of the month. It was a trip which included an attraction so thrilling, the Towel Museum :-), that a single post couldn't contain its full measure of win: part 1, part 2.

Many of the photos on today's post are variations of pics seen on “On The Road to Imabari”, which I had prepared in haste that first night from the hotel.

I couldn't decide which view I liked best of the highway rest-stop picnic area that I led the earlier post with, so here's another view I like...

desktop background image of a picnic area at the Seto parking area for the westbound direction of the Sanyo Expressway, near Okayama Japan -- Highway Rest-Stop Picnic Area -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/6400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Highway Rest-Stop Picnic Area
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We'd stopped for lunch at the westbound Seto parking area of the Sanyo Highway near Okayama because we knew had a cheap cafe with home-cooked taste, and it didn't disappoint. It was a pleasant area fairly high up on a hill...

Path to Where? -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
Path to Where?

Looking over the edge of the dropoff, I found farmland and an orchard of some kind completely bare except for a splash of pink in three trees...

First Splash of Spring -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image datanearby photos
First Splash of Spring

The company that runs the highway reststops is apparently too cheap to make a sign that says “Seto-Area Specialty Burger!”, so they have a generic “Special-For-This-Area Burger!” sign...

Generic “This Area's Special Burger” Sign -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Generic “This Area's Special Burger” Sign

But luckily they weren't too cheap to plant some cherry trees...

desktop background image of a bee on some cherry blossoms -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image datanearby photos
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It's at this rest stop that I started to realize the potential of the Voigtländer 125mm for the kind of photos I wrote about the other day in “Exploring the Edge of Creamy Macro Bokeh with Lily of the Nile”. Just compare the next two shots, noticing both aperture and focus point that goes into each...

desktop background image of cherry blossom in Japan -- Base of the Blossom @ f/5.6 -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Base of the Blossom @ f/5.6
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desktop background image of cherry blossom in Japan -- Edge of the Blossom @ f/2.5 -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image datanearby photos
Edge of the Blossom @ f/2.5
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I just love the creaminess of the second one. Here's a crop from a similar one, but with the focus more toward the back, leaving the yellow anther a bit more defined (but still out of focus). Now, nothing is in focus except for an abstract, razor-thin ring around the blossom...

desktop background image of cherry blossom in Japan -- Abstract -- Sanyo Highway Seto Parking Area (山陽自動車道瀬戸パーキングエリア - 下り) -- Okayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Abstract
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Not bad for a highway rest stop.

Our route would take us on a 12-year-old highway that hops for 30 miles across bridges and islands between Honshu (the big main island of Japan) and Shikoku. Many of the islands are mountain peaks jutting from the water, and the first one offered a road to the top where we could enjoy the view....

Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
(scroll side-to-side)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 15 mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 1100 — map & image datanearby photos
Sweeping View to the South West

The community on the low flat area next to the water certainly caught our eye....

Tranquil Village -- Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/11, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Tranquil Village

Of course, this immediately brought to mind the tsunami that had wiped out hundreds of miles of coastal communities in eastern Japan. After having seen videos of the unrelenting previously-inconceivable destruction of tsunami, it was now all to easy to imagine this entire community being wiped off the face of the earth in a few scant minutes.

This water is not the wide-open ocean, but a relatively small and well-protected inland sea, so perhaps tsunami are not a worry for this particular village, but one must wonder about similar villages across the thousands of miles of coastline that are at risk that the tsunami missed last time.

More vistas to the left, looking south east...

Cross Traffic -- Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 900 — map & image datanearby photos
Cross Traffic
desktop background image of a fast-moving fishing boat -- Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 1000 — map & image datanearby photos
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In between the two views, looking almost due south, is the fishing port featured in Low Tide and the photo that followed. In this less extreme view at 50mm (rather than 14mm or 420mm), I just love the layers of islands and mountains on the horizon....

Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/800 sec, f/10, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Fumie and Anthony Enjoying the View -- Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/5000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
Fumie and Anthony Enjoying the View

There was a tree of some sort with vivid pink blossoms, which appeared in the earlier post as “Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Blossom”. I was into the “creamy edge-of-focus” thing, so was trying various ways to capture something as the blossoms flopped around in the breeze. Here are two examples whose difference in focus and angle is ever so slight, but which have quite different feels...

Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — map & image datanearby photos
Mt. Takamiyama (高見山) -- Onomichi, Hiroshima, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos

I think I like the first one better, but I find great appeal in the embracing edge of focus that encircles the yellow anther.


One comment so far...

It looks like your fishing village is in a relatively safe spot. Browsing Google Earth with the earthquake layer on, there have been a few small quakes near Shikokuchūō that might have generated small tsunami, but the only significant one I see was a 6.8 12 miles south of Kure, and there are a lot of islands in between to break up any waves. Not sure how far back that layer goes, but I see some data from 1968, so relatively safe seems like a decent description.

I love the creamy effect you’re getting with the Voigtländer, BTW. I really need to break out my “bokeh monster” (Minolta 135 STF) while the flowers are still blooming here.

-j

— comment by J Greely on April 16th, 2011 at 9:16am JST (12 years, 11 months ago) comment permalink
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