Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50mm — ¹/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Much of a Sunset
Mt. Otowyama (音羽山), Kyoto Japan

I've found a new place to try to get nice sunset photos of Kyoto from. Sort of.

For years my go-to place has been the Shogunzuka, which I first posted about almost eight years ago, but have posted about many times since. It's a 5-minute drive from my place on a high hill (small mountain?) over eastern Kyoto.

The small mountain it's on is the little bump going across the center of the shot above... the mountain I'm on for the shot, Mt. Otowayama, is 593m (1,950') high and 6½ km farther away. It took me about an hour fifteen minutes to ride my bike there this evening. I went in hopes of a nice sunset, but there were only gray skies in anticipation for a typhoon passing by in a day or two.

Maybe next time.

[Update: unfortunately not]

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50mm — ¹/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
My Ride

I'd not known about the place until yesterday when a friend posted a photo from the top on Facebook. So today I gave it a try.

One really needs a mountain bike to get there. A closed mostly-paved road gets you close, but the last little bit is a mountain trail. I had to push the bike on a few sections of extremely steep trail, but otherwise could ride most of the way.

I was gratified to break my record on a few of the smaller hills on the way there and back. Getting the “PR” (personal record) on a ride is sort of addictive, but also a diminishing resource. I made one today by just one second, so further records will actually require some effort on my part....