Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Enjoying the Blossoms at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park

Enjoying the Blossoms at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park

by Jeffrey Friedl Sun, March 31st, 2013 4:13pm JST (10 years, 2 months ago)

desktop background image of a couple enjoying the cherry blossoms at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (京都御所) -- Quiet Contemplation Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (“Kyoto Gosho”, 京都御所) -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/800 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Quiet Contemplation
Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (“Kyoto Gosho”, 京都御所)

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I popped over to the Imperial Palace Park (“Kyoto Gosho”, 京都御所) yesterday for some blossom Joie de Vivre kind of shots of folks enjoying the many blossoms... mostly peach and cherry these days. It's the same place I took a bunch of blossom closeups seen two weeks ago in “The Buds and Blossoms are Just Peachy”, but this time the lens was the very special the Nikkor 300mm f/2.

Nondescript Nice Mood -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/800 sec, f/2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nondescript Nice Mood

It was quite crowded, but nevertheless still quite pleasant.

Puppy taking his owner for a walk -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Puppy
taking his owner for a walk

Peach in Full Bloom -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Peach in Full Bloom

desktop background image of peach blossoms of various colors, at the Kyoto Impreial Palace Park (Kyoto Gosho, 京都御所) -- Peach in Full Bloom with a little funky joy added in Lightroom -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Peach in Full Bloom
with a little funky joy added in Lightroom

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Not Sure I Like This Bokeh -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Sure I Like This Bokeh

The bokeh with this lens can be great (such as here), but the bright branches in the background of the shot above seem pretty harsh to me.

Oops -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oops

She had just taken a drink of water, and then noticed that her shirt was suddenly wet. At that age, she probably doesn't notice any relationship between the two events. Cute.

Family Portrait -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Family Portrait

I like this kind of shot, but it's tough at 300mm because you have to be so far away and can't have anyone in between. Patience is required in large amounts with this lens in this environment.

Odd -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Odd

I think these are cherry (on a tree across from the colorful peach), but normally the blososms come out first, then eventually as they start to fall off the leaves come out, but in this case the leaves are well formed before the blossoms are even fully out. It's a strange year. Cherry blossoms in general are very early this year in Kyoto.

Some more pleasant scenes...

Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos

The guy above was about the only person in kimono the whole time, quite a bit different than the lovely scenes last year. In this I was disappointed.

Picking His Way Through -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picking His Way Through

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos

“Ahh, the Feeling of Grass Between My Toes...” “... reminds me of when I was young(er)” -- Kyoto Imperial Palace Park ( Kyoto Gosho , 京都御所) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2013 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Ahh, the Feeling of Grass Between My Toes...”
“... reminds me of when I was young(er)”

Continued here...

January	3rd,	2007	Funky Spectral Highlights in My Bokeh
April	6th,	2008	Cherry-Blossom Joie de Vivre in Kyoto
August	1st,	2008	Funky Joy With Adobe Lightroom
July	19th,	2011	The Kind Of Shot That Ultra Thin Depth Of Field Was Made For
April	2nd,	2012	Cliché Incarnate: Lame Formulaic Pictures of Plum Blossoms and Those Enjoying Them
March	18th,	2013	The Buds and Blossoms are Just Peachy at the Kyoto Imperial Palace
April	1st,	2013	Temple Hopping with Katrin: Kiyomizu Temple and its Environs
April	2nd,	2013	More Folks Enjoying Spring Blossoms, Via 300mm @ f/2
April	9th,	2013	Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto's Ryouanji Temple, Part 1
March	16th,	2014	A Few from the Plum Blossom Orchard at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park

You can submit a comment below | Posted under: Camera Stuff, Cherry Blossoms, Desktop Backgrounds, Japan, Nikkor 300mm f/2, Pretty Photos, Vertical Desktop Backgrounds | Comments via RSS | Trackback

All 5 comments so far, oldest first...

300 f/2 FTW!

— comment by Damien on March 31st, 2013 at 6:20pm JST (10 years, 2 months ago) — comment permalink

Some excellent shots. Seems like a while since we were treated to the 300/2. I agree with Damien above.

— comment by ZZZZaq on March 31st, 2013 at 8:15pm JST (10 years, 2 months ago) — comment permalink

And here in Munich is still snowing 🙁

— comment by Gianluca on April 1st, 2013 at 1:17am JST (10 years, 2 months ago) — comment permalink

I really like all the pictures, the almost tilt-shift effect you can achieve with such a lens is amazing.
I was surprised to see some purple fringing on the umbrella held by the lady in the picture above the picture of the guy in kimono.

There is apparently a special kind of chromatic aeration with ultra-wide telephoto lenses that puts heavy green or purple fringing on things just behind or in front of the plane of focus. I don’t quite understand the details, other than that I should focus better. —Jeffrey

— comment by Gianluca on April 1st, 2013 at 6:48am JST (10 years, 2 months ago) — comment permalink

I was just surprised to see the axial chromatic aberration because I read an article long ago on your monster lens (sorry, it’s in Italian http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Nikkor_300mm_f2/00_pag.htm) describing how the lens was designed to avoid chromatic aberration.
Aberration or not, the pictures are stunning and it’s a pleasure to see good photographs taken by that masterpiece of optical engineering.

— comment by Gianluca on April 2nd, 2013 at 4:21am JST (10 years, 2 months ago) — comment permalink