Visiting Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine with Matt Campagna and a Super-Wide-Angle Lens
“ Environmental Portrait ” Matt Campagna at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto Japan -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO 250 — map & image datanearby photos
Environmental Portrait
Matt Campagna at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto Japan

It's been three weeks since I posted Matt Campagna Wigglegrams Kyoto, so I'm finally getting around now to posting other photos from that outing, where I met fellow Lightroom developer Matt Campagna while he was visiting Kyoto.

Our plan was to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and since I'd been there for photoshoots many times (most recently with former Yahoo! co-worker Andrei Zmievski, and The Japan Times columnist Alice Gordenker), I thought I'd try something different this time.

Unless I'm going out on a bike ride or other special situation like a heavy snowfall, I tend to bring three lenses, all primes: a 24mm wide-angle, a 50mm or 85mm medium angle, and my favorite lens, the Voigtländer 125mm. But for this outing with Matt, I thought I'd give a super-wide-angle lens a try, so I brought a 14-24mm zoom (along with the 85mm f/1.4 for portraits).

Main Entrance Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
Main Entrance
Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社)
Matt a bit apprehensive moments after we met for the first time -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/16, ISO 450 — map & image datanearby photos
Matt
a bit apprehensive moments after we met for the first time
Unsettling -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
Unsettling

Part of the goal in bringing the wide-angle lens was to force me to use it, to experiment. One expects some distortion with a wide-angle lens, but when taken out of context by an uncentered crop like the shot above, the result can be a off in an unsettling way.

For reference, here's the unedited/uncropped version of the shot above.

original unedited/uncropped version -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 220 — map & image datanearby photos
original unedited/uncropped version
Less Unsettling -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 2000 — map & image datanearby photos
Less Unsettling

This shot clearly has distortion, but it's not unsettling to me, I suppose, because the crop is more centered...

original unedited/uncropped version -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/18, ISO 2000 — map & image datanearby photos
original unedited/uncropped version
That's a Mighty Big Camera You've Got There... -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1000 sec, f/3.5, ISO 100 — map & image datanearby photos
That's a Mighty Big Camera You've Got There...

Matt's smile is what grabs and holds the attention in this shot, but once you notice how big the camera has become, it's hard to unnotice. He's holding a Nikon D4, the same as I'm using.

Green Tea and green face -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Green Tea
and green face

We stopped at a cafe for a cool drink, and with a lot of leaves just outside the big windows next to us (as seen in this shot of the same table), there was a green cast over Matt's face. The green is all natural, coming from all the foliage outside and all, but ever since this experience with low-quality lights I've been sensitive to a green color cast, and want to remove it.

I took a closer portrait shot, and in Lightroom tried to reduce the level of green...

Less Green -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Less Green
More Grin -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4000 — map & image datanearby photos
More Grin
Another “ Environmental ” perhaps this is what a super-wide-angle is best for -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image datanearby photos
Another Environmental
perhaps this is what a super-wide-angle is best for
Completely Lost -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image datanearby photos
Completely Lost

The lost in the caption refers not to directions around the sprawling shrine complex, but to the amazing sense of hidden wonder and escape that this specific location had... that sense is lost in the photo, which has little to recommend it beyond the journalistic statement that Matt was at that location.

I'll have to put some thought in how to capture that sense.

Farther Inside precariously close to the splashing stream of water -- Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine (伏見稲荷大社) -- Kyoto , Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO 3200 — map & image datanearby photos
Farther Inside
precariously close to the splashing stream of water

I'm not a big fan of wide-angle lenses, probably because I don't have an innate sense on how to use it well, nor enough practical experience to overcome the lack of instinct. Still, in the seven years I've had it, I've posted 140 photos with it at its most wide angle (14mm), and have added 11 more today. I seem to like it best for the environmental shots, showing the subject in the wider context of the surrounding environment.

Here are links to a few random 14mm shots posted over the years: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.


All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Thanks for posting these, Jeffrey. They’re the only shots I have of myself from my Kyoto trip. And I agree with your sentiments are the “Completely Lost” location; that was a spectacular little nook, in an already very impressive place.

— comment by Matthew Campagna on May 13th, 2015 at 1:16pm JST (8 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink

You wrote: “I’ve posed 140 photos”, while I think you meant you POSTED 140 photos, right?

All the best and congrats on taking up biking!

EZ from NJ

Oops, thanks, fixed! —Jeffrey

— comment by EZ on May 16th, 2015 at 12:05am JST (8 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink
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