Misty Evening in Rural Japan
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Evening Mist in Rural Japan ( sort of ) -- Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Evening Mist in Rural Japan
( sort of )

We were driving around the very-rural countryside of Toyooka, Japan the other day at dusk, when the beauty of some hills rising out of the mist caught my eye, and I stopped to snap some pictures.

The first picture shows the slightest hint of the sunset glow still remains...

Rice Field -- Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27 mm — 1/100 sec, f/7.1, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Rice Field
Fading layers of hills fading into the mist -- Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 2500 — map & image datanearby photos
Fading
layers of hills fading into the mist
Deepening Dusk -- Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4500 — map & image datanearby photos
Deepening Dusk

I ended up chatting for a while with a farmer preparing his field for rice (it's his white truck in the center of the second photo). By the time I left, it was very dark, but the D700's low-light prowess brightens everything up. The lead photo is the last one I took.

Here's one near the end that I processed in Lightroom to give a feeling that matches the “layered” look that I remembered, but which didn't show up so well in the photos....

Toyooka, Hyogo, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4500 — map & image datanearby photos

I sub-captioned the first photo “(sort of)” because while I thought it was an evening mist at the time, I realized today that it was probably kosa, the very fine yellow sand that blows in from China in the spring, turning day into a thick hazy cloud. It was really strong all day today for the drive back, and now that I think about it, the evening “mist” the other day must have been the start of the dust.


All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

They’re all very nice photos, but that last one is absolutely stunning. In situations like those it’s very difficult to capture what the eye saw and provide a true sense of the atmosphere, but that last shot really expresses it well.

— comment by David K on May 4th, 2011 at 9:47am JST (12 years, 11 months ago) comment permalink

Does one feel the fine, yellow sand on the lips and/or in nasal cavity, more importantly on the front element of a lens?

Not as far as I can tell… I’ve only ever noticed by sight, when someone mentions it after I’ve spent the day thinking it was just really hazy. I’ve heard that some people can be affected by it like an allergy, and the Wikipedia page paints a scary picture, but in my personal experience it’s just a haze issue. —Jeffrey

— comment by parv on May 4th, 2011 at 9:03pm JST (12 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink
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