I'll start out with the original photo from which the previous post's “Tall Tale” lead photo was derived...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
The Original
( sort of )

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In that “Tall Tale” photo I had fun stitching together two unrelated shots, but in the end, even after all that work, I think I like the original better... the bow somehow seems even larger and more impressive. I did go ahead and remove a rope from the background, though, as I did for the “Tall Tale” the other day.

More images of the ladies...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 2500 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 + 1.4X TC @ 420mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
#2132
the final archer
( I've got to learn that focusing on something other than the eyes doesn't usually work out well )

As I explained earlier in “Total Discipline: Anatomy of a Japanese Archer’s Shot”, the main event of the day was for ranked archers who had become legal adults (20 years old) in the previous year, and the lady above was the 2,132nd and final among them. This was followed by some archery instructors, then the playoffs for each the men and women.

The photos below are from the women's playoffs.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Awaiting Their Turn

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 2500 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos

In the shot above, we see an appearance of the archer featured earlier in “Badass Japanese Archery: Now It's The Ladies' Turn”, as well as another example of how focusing on the tip of the arrow just doesn't work well.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 2000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 2200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 2500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Awaiting the Results

As I explained in earlier posts, I had a difficult time following the playoff rounds, but I think the three ladies in the shot above placed second, third, and fourth, with the winner having been decided in the previous round. I'm sure the winner is seen in one of the photos above, but unfortunately, I couldn't guess which she is.

To be continued...

In yesterday's “Colorful Ladies' Wardrobe” post we looked at some of the young ladies preparing for their turn at traditional Japanese archery at the rite-of-passage event described in “Total Discipline: Anatomy of a Japanese Archer's Shot”. Before and after their turn they were as lively as you'd expect a bunch of twenty-year-old girls to be, but on the shooting platform they were all business, every bit worthy to appear along the likes of the guy seen in “More Badass Japanese Archery”.

I'd been disappointed early on when I was driven out by the ridiculous crowds just before the ladies started, but after having left for lunch, I decided to return toward the end, and found it substantially less crowded. (It was still ridiculously crowded, and I spent half the time letting old ladies stand on the chair I'd brought), but overall I could see quite a bit: the last 100 (of more than 1,000) women, then the instructors, then the “playoffs” for the guys, then for the girls. So note to self: next year, drop in at the end.

The earlier “Total Discipline” post may be helpful in following the next sequence...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Staredown

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(With my lack of skill in wielding the 300mm at f/2, many of these are soft or out of focus, but the lady's presence is so compelling that I've gone and made a couple of these into desktop backgrounds.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Setup

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Initial Aim

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Horizontal Adjustment

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Vertical Adjustment
with what little focus the photo has on the tip of the arrow
( an idea that had merit, but didn't work out )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Release

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Slight Emotion
Look of satisfaction?

These photos were from the playoff round, so out of more than a thousand women who participated, she was one of about a dozen women who had hit the target during the day. (It seemed to me that many more than that hit the target, so maybe one had to get a full-on bull's eye to progress to the playoffs. I don't know.)

She progressed to the next round after this shot, so if any emotion leaks out it should be of satisfaction, but it's hard to tell. The lead photo in this post is from the following round to determine the winner, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a difficult time following the announcements of who won, so I don't know how she did. I do know that I'd certainly love to present her with copies of these photos some day.

Continued here...

After what's turned out to be a monochromatic year so far, I'm happy to get some color back in my blog. The fall-foliage season is Kyoto's most glorious, and it runs a long six or seven weeks, so I've got more fodder for posts than I could actually process, so I'll dip in for today's post about a stroll around Kyoto's Mt. Yoshida that I did with some friends (Stéphane Barbery, Nicolas Joannin, and Paul Barr) last month.

I've posted about this area many times, starting in “Discovering Kyoto's Mt. Yoshida” several years ago after Stéphane first introduced the area to me. We both live within walking distance, but I'd not even known about it until he showed me, and on our visit last month Stéphane again revealed new and amazing areas I'd not know about. Stéphane is a wonderful person to lead these kinds of exploratory strolls because he knows what's amazing but merely leads you there, letting each area speak for itself.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 320 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Vibrantly Backlit
enveloped in a moody dark surroundings

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Mt. Yoshida may be small, but it is a mountain, so there are lots of steps...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Somehow Disconcerting
I think Paul and Stéphane had stopped and turned to wait for me

That shot reminds me of the shot of Paul walking in mud last summer.

Mt. Yoshida is not tall, but it gets you above the city so it's always offering nice views of the area...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 320 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Typical Kyoto
mountains, pagoda, utility wires, houses, temple, TV antennas, nature

The pagoda is of the Shinnyodou Temple as seen here, and the large roof in the background is part of the Konkai Koumyou Temple (also called the Kurodani Temple).

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Mountain-Top Shrine Path
Takenaka Inari Shrine

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Construction Detail

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I like how you can see the joints between the stones.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 220 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Catching Up
Nicolas and his smile catching up faster than I can focus

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Picture of a Leaf

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E-P2 + 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5.1, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Taking a Picture of a Leaf
with a squished nose
photo by Nicolas Joannin

E-P2 + 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 19mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Watching Me Take a Picture of a Leaf
“why is that guy lying in the middle of the path?”
photo by Nicolas Joannin

I spent quite a while trying to get a shot of the leaf, mostly because I had to wait for the few moments when the sun popped out and backlit that one leaf sticking up.

In the end the results were not as good as I hoped, but I'll share a couple more versions of the same view, one with a larger field in focus, and one with the focus on the further point of the leaf...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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I often take all kinds of different versions of the same scene while exploring the possibilities, but I don't often share more than one because one of the most important skills a photographer can have is shot selection: knowing what not to share. (Considering that I posted 2,133 photos on my blog in 2011, it's a skill I don't quite have, but then again, I'm a writer, not a photographer.)

E-P2 + 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 45mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos
photo by Nicolas Joannin

This next shot doesn't look like much within the confines of this post, but it's a kind of shot I like as a desktop-background picture. Most of the photo is out of focus, but the top part that is in focus is apparent in the larger version, and somehow it all just feels nice...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Alive

I was able to suppress the desire to sub-caption that one with “(for the time being)” because there's something really vibrant and alive about this one. It's the result of my processing in Lightroom... the original, seen below for reference, is decidedly bland.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
( bland original )

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Pleasant Mood

E-P2 + 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 17mm — ¹/640 sec, f/4, ISO 100 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Quite the View
photo by Nicolas Joannin

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Kyoto to Osaka
Museum of Art, Heian Shrine gate, Kyoto Tower, Osaka Skyline

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/40 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Charcoal
in all its full-color glory

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This year has gotten off slowly for me, having woken up January 1st with a cold and all, but with “Inspired Artistic Temple Shot” and its followup, “Simple Temple Sliding Wall”, I seem to have a black-and-white theme going, so I'll continue that today with a post about charcoal, from last year's visit to Japanese swordsmith Pierre Nadaeu (the swords are Japanese; Pierre is Canadian).

All the photos on today's post are shown in full color, but the subject matter's lack of chromatic variety makes them feel more monochrome than not.

A swordsmith can use various things to heat the forge — such as gas, coke, and coal — but the most predictable (and hence “best”) results are when using charcoal. Charcoal is much safer than coal (breathing its dust doesn't cause cancer, for example), but it's a lot of work to prepare, so when I gave it a try, Pierre opted to have me use coke (a product of burning coal) rather than deplete his stock of carefully-prepared charcoal.

Visiting his smithy, you couldn't imagine that there could be a place even more dirty, but he prepares the charcoal in an attached shed that vies for that honor.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Fruits of One's Labors
big pile of black messiness

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On his blog he has a whole post about the preparation of charcoal, at first citing the phrase “sumi-kiri san'nen” which means “cutting charcoal, three years”, apparently implying that it takes three years of experience to get good at it. Pierre, in his characteristic self deprecation says that he's still really bad at it after five years of practice.

You can see the various stages of preparation in a video at the end of his post, replete with impressive clouds of billowing charcoal dust towards the end.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Love, Friend, Cute Teddy Bears
Pierre Nadeau summarized in a stool cushion

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Raw Materials

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
View from Outside
handheld, with my Nikkor 300mm f/2 on my second outing with it

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
More Charcoal Detail

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Further Back in the Shed
Charcoal, Straw, Sifting Pans

The charcoal and sifting pans are seen in Pierre's video, but he has a different blog post about the straw, which is used to make small whisk brooms that he uses while forging swords. The photo above is a mild transition from the black-n-white vibe, so let me continue adding color in showing the straw in use, as a bundled whisk broom just behind his hand in this photo:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

He uses it to clean carbon(?) buildup from the steel, as seen in this photo from my original post about him:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42mm — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

After so much color at the end of last year (such as last year's final post or any of the bazillion fall-foliage posts like this), it was perhaps nice to have a few B&W posts, but I think I'm ready to get back to color again...

I've been taking it easy this year because I'm still recovering from the cold I woke up with on 1/1, but after posting Paul Barr's inspired creation yesterday, I thought I'd look into my own photo archive to see what I was doing when he took that photo. I was standing next to Paul, but aiming my camera at a the sliding walls of a nearby building, with the thought that it might make a nice desktop background.

One thing I like about it is that even though it's full of detail, it's not necessarily clear right away what you're looking at, so you really need to engage with the photo to understand the setting. The bit of confusion followed by an understanding is somehow interesting to me.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Wider View

This is the same temple complex we were heading to in last month's colorful “On The Path To Kyoto's Shingoji Temple”, but this particular scene is decidingly bland, which is why I went with a slightly edgy B&W version to open this post, and is perhaps also why Paul went with the pencil-drawing look seen yesterday.

For reference, here's the bland out-of-the-camera version of this post's lead photo:

Earlier this month, on the wonderful day in Kyoto's Takao area that I mentioned in the rainbow post a few weeks ago, we visited two temples. I posted a few scenes from the first in “On The Path To Northwest Kyoto's Shingoji Temple”, and while I have a bazillion more from there that I want to share, today's post is from the second, the Kousan Temple (高山寺).

The Japanese name, 高山寺, looks as if it should be pronounced kozanji and that's what most Japanese would guess, but for whatever reason the temple actually uses kosanji. Even the Japanese Wikipedia article was wrong, though I've now updated it and the English as well (but the title of the English article remains incorrect until someone with greater permissions than I have makes the change).

The temple area is a sprawling expanse of paths through towering trees on the side of a mountain, with few buildings. It has a lot of moody character.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Depth

The paths tend to be surrounded by both tall and short trees that provide multiple canopies, creating a strong sense of space and dimension. I suppose that sounds silly, but I don't know how else to describe it.

Turning from the view in the shot above to see where the path leads....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big, Rustic Stairs

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/25 sec, f/16, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Above The Stairs

It's perhaps difficult to see even in the larger version you get when you click through the thumbnail, but the shot above shows the dual-canopy nature that was common. There's the towering canopy of the pines, then a lower one of yellow. It was magical.

Nikon D3 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27mm — ¹/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Getting the Shot
photo by Paul Barr

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Hillside

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Top of the Stairs

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
The Path Continues

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Crossroads

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
At a Side Garden

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Orange Floor

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Symbols
of something, I'm sure

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
That Rustic Flight of Steps
from afar

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Dynamic Lighting

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big Tree

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/11, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big Tree
up close and personal

Nikon D3 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big Tree
as a sturdy object upon which to steady my shot
photo by Paul Barr

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Near The Big Tree

The shot above looks much nicer in the big version, but it still only hints at the sense of space the multi-layered canopies provided.

Nikon D3 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Under the Big Tree
using the earth as a sturdy object upon which to steady my shot
photo by Paul Barr

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Paul Barr
worm's-eye view

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Lantern and Moss
always a favorite of mine

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big Leaf

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Back at the Road

The building in the background was featured in my blog two years ago, starting with “Toganojaya Restaurant”, with followups here and here. I'd known that there was a temple nearby, but the visit earlier this month was my first.

A month ago in “Another Day of Amazing Fall Colors in Kyoto” I posted on photo similar to the one above, from that day's trip to the Imakumano Kannonji Temple (今熊野観音寺) in eastern Kyoto.

The tree with the red leaves had particularly impressive colors, but only when viewed from about where the group is standing. From where I took the photo above, the leaves look fairly bland, at least relatively speaking. As you can tell from the shadows, the leaves were not being backlit.... it was a hazy day and the sun was more or less to my back in the photo above.

This little clearing was behind a building, so most people never see it to begin with, but those who do generally arrive from behind the camera position in the photo above. They see the view in the photo above, then return back to the main area, missing most of what the tree has to offer. In this respect, we were lucky to have arrived via a back route...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos
First Glimpse of the Clearing

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Moody Light

The light in the clearing was a bit other-worldly to begin with, likely due to a combination of the hazy day and the nature of the clearing, with high trees most of the way around but open sky directly above.

This is the scene we found when we entered the clearing from behind. (The first photo appearing above was taken from the path near the corner of the building.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Self Portrait

As we moved through the clearing to the red leaves, they suddenly came alive in a way digital photography can not capture. They seemed positively luminescentb, as if they were somehow fluorescently turning non-visible light into visible light. In the next photo, I had to tone the image down unnaturally — as evidenced by the dark background — just to keep all the red from blowing out the color channels to white...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5000 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Blown

Despite darkening the whole photo quite a bit, the red channels are still blown out so that the leaves have become solid blotches of whatever the brightest red your monitor can display. At times like this the technical limitations of digital photography makes me sad.

I darkened things further to retain a bit of detail in the leaves...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3600 — full exif & map — nearby photos

With a brighter background I could keep more of the image in the sweet spot for the digital sensor, but to get it I had to move my position, and so the red leaves reverted to a less-glowing view...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/1000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/1000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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When I suggested to a group of folks that they'd get a more spectacular view by moving to the back of the clearing, they were happy enough to try but it was clear from their exuberant ooohs and aaaahs that they hadn't really expected much change. They were suitably impressed.

I posted before about the benefits of a polarizing filter for fall-foliage photography, and I know that in some cases the human eye can also notice a difference due to light polarization, but I don't think that's involved in this burning-red-leaf situation (because blocking polarized light would make it appear darker in real life, allowing it to appear more vibrant in photos due to the resulting change in camera exposure).

It'll be interesting to visit again next year to see whether it was something intrinsic to the leaves or the area, or some kind of passing effect that just happened to occur that day.

(The large version of this photo might be interesting... I'm not sure... but this small thumbnail certainly isn't.)

I went out to Fushimi Castle the other day with Paul Barr and Nicolas, a French/American guy I met briefly at Gion Matsuri at the start of the summer when he noticed my big lens and introduced himself. Busy schedules prevented us from getting together until last week when we made the short trip to south part of Kyoto to visit the Fushimi Castle.

It rained nonstop.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 at 24mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Fushimi Castle
Kyoto, Japan

We spent quite a while under the protection of the main gate just chatting, and snapping occasional pictures, such as the kusaridoi rain gutter above. I can never remember the name “kusaridoi” without referring to this post. With the version above I was going a bit out on a limb, but just for safety also took a pedestrian straight-up version, though it would have been better with more rain:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — full exif & map — nearby photos

The castle was built 50 years ago as a tourist attraction, near the site of where a castle did stand in the late 1590s. The company running it apparently couldn't keep it going, so gave it to the city 10 years ago, so now it's a park.

It showed a lot of potential in the rain, and with its wealth of cherry trees I'm sure it's wonderful in the spring, but it was hard to feel inspired when you're getting soaked.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/5, ISO 1800 — full exif & map — nearby photos

As it turns out, the rain was a blessing because we were so miserable that we decided to bail on photography, and we went to a coffee shop and chatted for hours. Nicolas is a biologist dealing with DNA sequencing or the like. (My take-away from the conversation is that despite claims that the human genome has been mapped, in reality not a single strand of DNA has ever been sequenced... not one. Ever. But I digress.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 102mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Chatting in the Rain
deciding whether to bail on photography

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 720 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Paul, Nicolas, Coke

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at 102mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — full exif & map — nearby photos
rain makes things
Awkward

Nicolas took a picture of me taking a picture of him, which only goes to show that not only do we both act silly, we both look silly.

We got together again yesterday (again with Paul Barr, on his last day in Kyoto this season, and Stéphane Barbery), but that's for another post.

I included a pretty bamboo-and-leaf photo on my previous post, even though it wasn't related to the post, just to have something pretty, but I tend to like to share stories/context instead of just photos, so this post fills in that gap for that photo.

Just outside the Ryoanji Temple is a path/sidewalk that leads to the nearby suburban sprawl, and along it was a nice little area lined by bamboo fences separating the pedestrians from a small area of leaf-covered grass. Here's a picture I happened to have snapped from the same location I took the bamboo/leaf photo:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/1600 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
This Little Area
was, like most in the neighborhood, quite photogenic

You can see the same kind of bamboo fence on the opposite side of the path, and a fuzzy Paul Barr at left.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 560 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Dangling By a Thread

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The photo above is captioned literally: check out the largest desktop-background version, and you'll just be able to make out the wisp of spider web holding up the leaf.

In the background of these you can get a feeling for a solid bed of orange maple leaves, and that's exactly what it was. I put the camera on autofocus, reached straight out across the fence, aimed the camera blindly, and....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Nature's Bed
would probably be fairly uncomfortable, and really noisy

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Here's a similar shot as the one on the previous post, but now with the context established, a bit closer up....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Detail

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Now, for something completely different...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 4500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Big Blustery Ball of Autumn

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I tend to shy away from heavy post processing, though I've dabbled in it more and more lately, such as in "Impressionism in Lightroom" and its followup post, or this shot from a week ago, camo duck from March, or "Dabbling in Some Fine-Art Printing for My Office" from February.

Well, the big blustery shot above takes the cake, but the effect caught my eye while futzing around in Lightroom, so I spent a few minutes playing with it, and here we are. I like how it evokes (in me, at least) the sense that autumn gives way to winter. It was a really cold/blustery day when I took the shot, so maybe that colors my view.

Along the same heavy-processing lines, with this next one I tried to go for a plastic/fake look, almost as if the leaves were made out of some kind of candy. You can't necessarily see the effect in the thumbnail, but if you click through to the larger version, a certain fake feeling should become apparent...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 4500 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Plasticy

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I can't rightly tell you why I had a plastic look in mind, but there's a whole lot of crazy Lightroom develop settings that went into it.

And now for something really surprising: the previous two photos are identical except for the fake vignette applied in Lightroom, a heavy/tight white vignette in the first, and a slight/thin dark vignette in the second. Surprised? I was.

Back to reality, near the bamboo was a tuft of the susuki grass I like so much. I'd already gotten plenty of the grass earlier in the outing (such as this one seen the other day), so here I went a bit more on the artsy-fartsy side...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — full exif & map — nearby photos

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I would have liked a bit more contrast, but it's got an interesting mood.

A bit later, Paul moved to the grass, so I took another "context" shot...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Context

But it was hard to ignore the beauty... the light and the area were just gorgeous...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2200 — full exif & map — nearby photos
They Really Were
glowing this vibrantly

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But like I said on the first post from this outing, it was also really cold and I wasn't dressed well for it, so I was moving a bit faster than normal...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250 — full exif & map — nearby photos
Rushing to Catch Up

Sorry to make you rush, Paul.

I was sort of amused to read “Stop Advertising in Photo Magazines – Head West to the Web” on Trey Ratcliff's “Stuck in Customs” photo-travel blog, about how his $30,000 ad buy in some photography magazines was a bust. What caught my attention was not that print is dying, but that here's a guy with a blog roughly as popular as mine doing $30,000 ad buys(!)

I recall once he mentioned his pageviews and remember that they were comparable to mine. In his recent article, though, he lists the number of blog photos served per day, which is not quite a metric I've ever thought about (and when he compares his numbers to a magazine's subscriber count, perhaps he should compare instead to the number of subscribers multiplied by the number of photos in each issue, but I digress). Anyway, the stats average out to about 160,000 photo-views per day, and I checked mine and found that it was about 120,000/day for the same period; not quite the same, but to the same order of magnitude.

Of course, one should take into account that I put a bazillion photos of suspect quality on most posts, and he puts only one, and that he actually sells a product (something about HDR, which I don't do), so maybe there's no real comparison to be made. And frankly, I don't do comparisons anyway because my goal is not to be bigger or better or something-else-er than someone else, or even to grow an audience. I just enjoy sharing, and if other people at times enjoy what I share, well, then I'm tickled pink.

At worst, I'll have all the articles to reread when I get old, to share with Anthony when he gets old enough, and God willing, to share with grandkids. And that's not a bad deal, if you ask me. But $30,000 ad buys!? Maybe I should turn this into a business?

It's clear that Trey enjoys what he does with his blog, so that's great for him, but I don't have a disposition that could enjoy this if I worried about metrics or cash flow or click-through rates, so I guess I'll continue to bumble forward with posts about things dear to my heart, mostly family, photography, and Kyoto.

And speaking of that, the photo above, taken at a bamboo fence along a path on the same outing as the other day's "A Cold, Wet, Photogenic Visit To The Ryoanji Temple, is unrelated to this post. I just think it's pretty.

(For more on that photo and where it was taken, see this followup post)