Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Getting Back Out with the Camera a Bit

by Jeffrey Friedl Tue, October 22nd, 2013 12:35am JST (10 years, 6 months ago)

Flat Bunny Project? stuffed-animal version of the Flat-Stanley Project at the Heian Shrine (平安神宮), Kyoto Japan -- Heian Shrine (平安神宮) -- 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 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flat Bunny Project?
stuffed-animal version of the Flat-Stanley Project
at the Heian Shrine (平安神宮), Kyoto Japan

I'm still overwhelmingly steeped in Lightroom plugin development of late, but did get out with the camera a few times over the weekend. On Friday I met some friends visiting Kyoto, and in the shot above one is taking a photo of a stuffed bunny at the Heian Shrine (平安神宮), as part of a project for a friend's daughter, showing the bunny in various situations around Japan.

Over Saturday and Sunday, I took a family trip to Iwakuni in western Japan to visit some relatives, and as part of the trip stopped by Miyajima Island (宮島) and its famous Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) for a few minutes, my first visit since 2007.

This time it was an impromptu visit after dusk (low light) without a tripod, so I probably didn't get much, but I grabbed two shots for this post. Here's someone having a bit of quiet time on the seawall...

desktop background image of a lady sitting pensively on a seawall in view of the famous gate of the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社、宮島) on Miyashima Island, Japan. -- Moment of Solitude Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) -- Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, 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 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Moment of Solitude
Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)

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desktop background image of the main gate of the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社、宮島) on Miyashima Island, Japan, at dusk -- Nightfall -- Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) -- Miyajima, Hiroshima, 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 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nightfall

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The next day in Iwakuni City, while looking down from a bridge, I saw potential in the geometric shapes of this scene:

desktop background image of folks standing on the rocks before the river, below the Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋) in Iwakuni City, Japan -- Isolated below the Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋), Iwakuni City, Japan -- Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋) -- Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, 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 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Isolated
below the Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋), Iwakuni City, Japan

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I'm not sure what's lacking, but it doesn't quite have the oomph I'd hoped.

All the photos above are of someone's back (I'm getting “back” into the swing of shooting, get it?), but here's one just to see some faces. These kids asked me to take their photo, but had no interest in getting a copy... I guess they just like posing:

Just for the Fun of It ( whoever they are ) at the Nanzen Temple (南禅寺) -- Nanzen Temple (南禅寺) -- 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 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just for the Fun of It
( whoever they are )
at the Nanzen Temple (南禅寺)

October	1st,	2007	Back from Miyajima
July	10th,	2008	Jeffrey's Lightroom Goodies (Plugins and Tools)
October	28th,	2013	The Richness of Miyajima's Itsukushima Shrine at Dusk
May	22nd,	2014	Heian Shrine Gate From a New Perspective
January	3rd,	2015	Kyoto At Night During a Heavy Snow, Part 2

You can submit a comment below | Posted under: Desktop Backgrounds, General, Japan, Miyajima, Temples and Shrines, Vertical Desktop Backgrounds | Comments via RSS | Trackback

All 3 comments so far, oldest first...

What “Isolated” is missing, IMHO, is contrast. There’s a gradient in the water; bumping the contrast brings it out and adds movement. If you don’t love the increased contrast on the rocks and people, perhaps just bumping it up in the top half of the photo would help.

The bisected photo is also very static; a different crop (put the shoreline on a thirds line, for example) also adds movement and visual interest.

— comment by Mark Sirota (Philadelphia, PA, USA) on October 22nd, 2013 at 5:13am JST (10 years, 6 months ago) — comment permalink

That’s not fair! When I visited Miyajima a year and a half ago, the tori was being repaired and had a big scaffold around it 🙁

You always get the great photo opportunities 😉

I don’t… I just don’t let you know when I don’t. 🙂 —Jeffrey

— comment by Nicolas on October 23rd, 2013 at 6:37am JST (10 years, 6 months ago) — comment permalink

“Isolated” is a really nice picture with something that can’t be described in it.

— comment by Radovan on October 31st, 2013 at 7:39pm JST (10 years, 6 months ago) — comment permalink