NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/500 sec, f/11, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
What It Looked Like

I wandered up to Kyoto's Shogunzuka overlook (将軍塚) the other day where I can sometimes find nice sunsets (like this, and as in this amazing photo).

The cloud formations held great potential, but sadly, it manifest itself only in my imagination (and then in Lightroom)...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/11, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
What I Wish It Looked Like
(brought to you by some aggressive settings in Lightroom)

The place was empty except for one other photographer, who was similarly disappointed.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/500 sec, f/11, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Other Photographer

Nikon D3S + 80-200mm f/2.8 @ 80mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 — image data
Waiting For Something Nice
photo of me by the other photographer

She was a professional photographer, there on her free time in hopes of a nice sunset. At least we could chat while we waited to see whether anything developed. It turns out that she uses Lightroom, the first time I've run into someone on the street in Japan who uses it. (Adobe does a horrible... just horrible job of marketing Lightroom in this country.)

She didn't know what “plugins” were, so I pointed to the Japanese-language description at Adobe, something I'm pleased to find that they actually have now, and noted that five of the plugins highlighted on the page were mine (from among the 30+ I have on my Lightroom Goodies page).

I wondered for a bit why I didn't have a Japanese version of my own page, but then I realized that I can't even come close to keeping the English versions up to date, so that ended that internal conversation.

After a while the mosquitoes started getting aggressive and she took her leave, but I stuck around in hopes of the dynamic view you can sometimes get 30-45 minutes after sunset. I paid dearly in mosquito bites as I was eaten alive, even though I covered myself head-to-toe in bug spray.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Date

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Forty Minutes After Sunset
A touch of color, but not worth the mosquito bites

Not sure it was worth it, but if it is amazing, you won't get the shot if you're not there, so that's how it goes with most trips. I should report like this about the occasional non-wonderful sunset, lest I give the impression that Kyoto's has an amazing sunset every day. Most days are just normal blah, which is what makes the amazing ones amazing.