Serendipitous Surprise: Running Into My Own Photography in Kyoto Station
Japanese Candle A Photo I Took in 2012 -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 sec, f/4, ISO 100 — image data
Japanese Candle
A Photo I Took in 2012

I got a surprise today while walking in the underground arcade north out of Kyoto Station, when I noticed on the wall some photographs that I took eight years ago.

Today in Kyoto Station Newspaper Article from 2013 on Display -- Copyright 2021 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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)
iPhone 7+ — 1/40 sec, f/1.8, ISO 20 — map & image datanearby photos
Today in Kyoto Station
Newspaper Article from 2013 on Display
The Article by Alice Gordenker -- Copyright 2021 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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)
The Article
by Alice Gordenker

I did the photography for Alice's article as a fun project, as described in two blog posts at the time, Japanese Candles and Japanese Candles, Followup.

Copyright 2021 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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)

The article is still on the Japan Times web site, here, and originally looked like this:

Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2012 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/4 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — image data

The two candle photos bookmarking this post are the originals for those used in the article.

I was in the area to renew my driver's license, which went quite smoothly, so that's taken care of for the next five years.

Done and Dusted for Another Five Years
(yes, I photoshopped all important data to be different from reality)

I used to blog six days a week — this will be my 2,635th post — but I've been taking a break for a while, so I hope I can remember how to make this post. If you're reading this, I remembered. 🙂


New Lightroom Feature to Compare Photo Edits

I haven't been posting on my blog this year, but I've still been working, and have just released a feature for Lightroom that's interesting enough to warrant a mention here: the Compare Photo Edits feature of my Bag-o-Goodies plugin.

As the name implies, it reports on the differences in how two photos have been edited. This includes not only develop changes, but also editable-metadata changes. It also reports on whether collection membership is the same.

It can be useful in figuring out, for example, the difference in look between two photos, or to figure out why a virtual copy exists.

Sometimes one creates a virtual copy and ends up not doing anything with it, so it's an exact duplicate of its master or of a sibling virtual copy. These can be found catalog-wide via another new feature I just released, Find Superfluous Virtual Copies.


My Second-Longest Ride: Double-Century Ride to Ise City

iPhone 7+ at an effective 32mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 — map & image datanearby photos
Yours Truly
Overlooking the Ise Bay
at the 185km (115mi) of a 326km (202mi) bicycle ride

I'm coming out of blogging hibernation to write about a bicycle ride I did yesterday. I'm pretty happy with myself for it, so in keeping with using my blog as a diary, I'm putting the story here.


the ride at Strava

There aren't many photos, both because I had only my cellphone and wasn't stopping a lot, and because the stupid iOS app I was using (Halide) decided to not actually save all but one of the photos that I took in the first eight hours. )-:

So, having seen friend Vincent's ride to Ise City last month, I thought I'd give it a try. Vincent's group took the train back, but I thought I'd cycle back, making it a round trip. At 326km (202 miles), it displaces last year's 304km adventure with Gorm as my second-longest ride, following my longest (408km two-laps-around-Lake Biwa ride) in 2017.

Yesterday was my longest solo ride, my second double century, and my 40th century.

It took 16 hours; the first few hours were in the dark, as were the last few hours.

The morning dark was sometimes lit by a lovely full moon, but it was mostly cloudy, a condition that would persist most of all day. And unlike the weather forecast (warm and sunny!), it was cold and sprinkly with strong wind much of the day.

It was mentally much easier than I expected. The key seems to have been that I approached it as two separate rides: a 180km (112mi) ride to the cafe in Ise City where I would have lunch, and then, by the way, almost as an afterthought, just a short 140km (87mi) ride to get back home.

The first 45km (28mi) were on a flat bike path that barely counts as cycling, so by the time I actually started riding on mountain roads, I had only 135km (84mi) until that ride ended at the lunch cafe. This could be tough for me if there were a lot of mountains or I had to do it quickly, but neither applied this time: I had no particular schedule, and this part of the route had only 2,160m (7,090') of climb, which is nothing to sneeze at, but it's well within the realm of reason for me.

Once off the bike paths and onto the real ride, it didn't start smoothly.


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 125 — map & image datanearby photos
Scene of the Crime
looking back to where I'd come from
( the highlighted marks on the curb are almost certainly from my tires )

At the 47km point, in a wide-open road in the middle of nowhere with pristine pavement, I crashed in the most monumentally-stupid way I can imagine.

As I approached a slight curve into an intersection, my cycling computer beeped a navigation notification, and I glanced down for just a moment. A split second after returning my concentration to the road, I rammed straight into the sweeping curve of the high concrete curb.... a sweeping curve that had been plainly visible as I approached during the prior 45 seconds. I was going a relatively-lazy 23kph (14mph).

Oh, how I wish I could see the look on my face in the 0.1 seconds between realization and impact. It's absolutely inconceivable to me how I did what I did. I spent much of the next 14½ hours of the ride contemplating it. I didn't come up with anything. I'm still utterly dumbfounded.

This was the second real crash in my five-year-old cycling life, and considering the sheer unadulterated stupidity on display, I was extremely lucky and came away relatively unscathed. I suffered a compound fracture of my pride, but after that there's just a bit of road rash on my knees, my left knee is a swollen and should make a swell bruise, and I ripped holes in both knees of my new winter kit, the most-excellent Velocio ZERO winter bib tights. They have a repair service that I now get to try.

(A day later, the half-dollar-sized circle of road rash on the skin of my knee hurts, but no other pain.)

I brushed myself off and checked the bike; it was fine. I continued on, and at one point thought I should maybe pour some water over the wound on my knee, which I could most definitely feel, but could not see because the big hole in the tights was inexplicably 6" above the wound. After another kilometer, I came across a vending machine and thought I should fill up on water, only to find that my wallet was gone. I trekked back to the site of the crash and picked it up.

So, with my ride having now started in earnest, I entered the mountains and started to tick off the kilometers. At first they went very, very slowly. Sometimes I'd grind into the wind for what seemed like 15~20 minutes, only to notice that I'd gone only one kilometer. Literally. I don't know how long it actually took, but it was very disheartening.

The stretch from between 50km (31mi) into the ride, and 80km (50mi) into the ride, was the most mentally-difficult of the entire day, but once I crossed the 100km until lunch mark, I brightened up. Then when I got to 90km until lunch, the halfway point of the ride to lunch, suddenly I felt that everything was downhill from there, so to speak. I was halfway there, and after lunch, I'd just have to ride home... the ride home almost didn't even count, mentally. It made no sense to me even as I thought it, but the feeling was there and I was happy for it. Mentally, I was in great shape for the remaining 235km (146mi).

Two and a half hours, and 50km (31mi) after the crash, I finally came across a convenience store, so I took the opportunity to put a dressing on my knee (which requires me to strip the bib tights, and hence why I didn't do it at the scene). I de-stuck it from the inside of the tights, and applied a sheet of Mepitel Film (similar to Tegaderm) from the first-aid stuff that I started to carry after this ride where a member crashed.

Anyway, I felt a bit better that because the wound was now dressed, I wouldn't have to rip off the scab when I got home.

At the convenience store, I also enjoyed a coffee and a rice ball. The 19-minute stop was the only major stop during the first 180km to the cafe for lunch.

The route was lovely, with few big thoroughfares. I went across quaint bridges and big dams, and had many lovely vistas. But as I mentioned, the stupid Halide app ate all the photos.

At some point I was calculating my overall average speed (about 21kph / 13mph), which includes climbing up mountains, stops for photos and traffic lights (and crashes), etc., and realized that I might be able to get back to Kyoto in time for a salsa dance party. I've been dancing salsa for the last year or so, and really enjoy it. So, I used that to drive my pace just a bit.

During the last hour or two of the to-lunch ride, the wind, which had been intermittently gusty, started to solidify into a brisk tailwind. It was lovely, but I knew I'd pay for it on the return.

Once I arrived to Ise City, I took photos at a shrine, and in front of the train station. Of course, they're gone like the others.

Just about noon, I arrived at the Funae Cafe for lunch, and felt that for the most part, my ride was done. At least, all the hard parts!


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 40 — map & image datanearby photos
Lunch
My standard karaage chicken set lunch

While waiting for my order, I pulled out my phone to upload a photo, and found that all the photos so far, except from the crash site, were gone. So I switched to the native camera app for the rest of the day.

I noticed that the restaurant had slow-drip cold-drip coffee, which I had been talking with someone about during my previous ride, so I gave it a try...


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 64 — map & image datanearby photos

iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 32 — map & image datanearby photos

It was extremely smooth, but mostly devoid of flavor. I'll have to try some others before coming to any general conclusions.


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/1700 sec, f/1.8, ISO 20 — map & image datanearby photos
Bike Stand
tears of happiness

I rolled out at about 1pm in good spirits. Before heading back, I popped up to see the ocean...


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/3000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 20 — map & image datanearby photos
At the Bay of Ise
near where it opens up into the Pacific

iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/2000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 20 — map & image datanearby photos

Near the bay was very flat with little protection, so the wind was fierce, and completely against me. I struggled against it for 10km, and also struggled to reroute when long sections of the bike path were closed for construction, but I remained remarkably sanguine about everything. Normally I fret and just want to give up, but this time I was in a great mood.


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/4600 sec, f/1.8, ISO 20 — map & image datanearby photos
Disappointing Bridge
the view on Google Earth made it look much more cool

I then had to go through 37km (23mi) of more-or-less city, mostly on a big bypass with lots and lots of truck traffic. If the wind were with me I'd be able to get it done in an easy hour, but the wind was definitely against me, and it took two hours of mindless grinding. Slowly, slowly the mountains got closer, and I knew that my reward would be having to go up steep slopes that would cause me to be even slower than I already was. The whole time, I'm calculating whether I could get back in time for 9pm salsa.

It also started raining consistently. Not heavy, but also not stopping. The temperature also dropped down to 5° (41F).

I had not planned for the rain at all... the forecast was sunny and warm all day. At least for Kyoto. I neglected to check the forecast for where I was actually going to be. Doh! I would have imagined that I would have froze, but the clothes I had were excellent.

I had only the aforementioned Velocio winter bib tights, the Rapha deep winter base layer, and a Rapha long-sleeve core jersey. And that was enough, in the non-stop rain and strong wind, to keep me comfortable.


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/30 sec, f/1.8, ISO 32 — map & image datanearby photos
Final Stop

With 64km (40mi) left to go, I made the second convenience-store stop on the ride home. By this point I was still mentally in great shape, but I was getting tired. (I'd been up since 3am.) So, I tried the second Red Bull of my life (the first having been last year on the long ride with Gorm.) That and a coffee and some Coke seemed to do the trick... I felt great the rest of the way home.

I felt great, but was still pretty slow, even on the descents. Tiredness, combined with dark and the rain made me ease off quite a bit. For example, on one long stretch leading into the last hour of the ride, I averaged only 35kph, while my best on that stretch of road is a much zippier 41kph.

Still, the downhills in the last couple of hours helped the overall average, and I arrived home at 8:14pm.

My knee wasn't a pretty sight.


iPhone 7+ at an effective 28mm — 1/25 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Ouch
but could have been so much worse

All the blood makes it look worse than it is. And if nothing's touching it, it doesn't hurt. The biggest problem for the near term will be when I have to wear non-baggy pants.

Another casualty of the ride was my toes. Unlike how my great kit kept me warm, my shoes (Fizik R5 Artica winter shoe) did little, and my toes were frozen for much of the ride. In the shower, I was shocked to see that they had turned gray. I'd never seen such gray skin on the body of a live person... it was a bit scary. But I massaged them under hot water, and the color slowly came back.

In any case, I got cleaned up and made it to salsa dancing with 10 minutes to spare.

Overall, it was a great ride. I got to enjoy 228km (142mi) of new roads for me, and score my second double century. It was much easier, mentally and physically, than many lesser rides in my past. I'm not why, but I do know that the splitting of it mentally, into two rides, was just amazing for my psyche. I hope I can do that in the future with equal success.


The Quiet, Lovely Kotokuji Temple in Shiga
A Slow Start to the 2019 fall-color season at the Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) in Koka-city, Shiga Prefecture, Japan -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 21mm — 1/80 sec, f/7.1, ISO 800 — map & image datanearby photos
A Slow Start
to the 2019 fall-color season
at the Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺)
in Koka-city, Shiga Prefecture, Japan

I made a few outings to photograph the fall colors in and around Kyoto this year. On the way to our first main destination, we made an impromptu stop at this little-known, out-of-the-way Kotokuji Temple. It turns out that the maple have only just started to turn, but it's still a quiet, lovely place to visit.

Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/160 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image datanearby photos
Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Mix of Colors I love how the same branch can have green, yellow, orange, and red -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3200 — map & image datanearby photos
Mix of Colors
I love how the same branch can have green, yellow, orange, and red
View From an Observation Platform with some lovely low-lying fog -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 450 — map & image datanearby photos
View From an Observation Platform
with some lovely low-lying fog

I'd discovered this temple a couple of years ago while on a bike ride to explore the general area, a couple of hours away by bicycle from my home in Kyoto. The 1km-long driveway to the temple is notable for its steepness; the average grade of the climb is over 10%, though a small dip in the middle means that the overall average grade is only 7%.

On My First Visit July 2017 -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Koka, Shiga, Japan -- Copyright 2017 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 7 Plus front camera — 1/1000 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 — map & image datanearby photos
On My First Visit
July 2017
A Year Ago -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2018 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 7 Plus back camera — 1/19000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 25 — map & image datanearby photos
A Year Ago
Most-Recent Visit two months ago -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
iPhone 7 Plus back camera — 1/10600 sec, f/1.8, ISO 25 — map & image datanearby photos
Most-Recent Visit
two months ago
Relatively New the stonework dates from only 1895 -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/60 sec, f/14, ISO 1250 — map & image datanearby photos
Relatively New
the stonework dates from only 1895
Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image datanearby photos
Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image datanearby photos
Detail in both the roof tiles and eave woodwork -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 — map & image datanearby photos
Detail
in both the roof tiles and eave woodwork
Stone Fence likely also dating to 1895 -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image datanearby photos
Stone Fence
likely also dating to 1895
Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/160 sec, f/4, ISO 2200 — map & image datanearby photos
Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/2019-12-01/2890 -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (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 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/160 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image datanearby photos
Rich Moss -- Kotoku-ji Temple (庚申山広徳寺) -- Japan, Shiga, Koka -- Copyright 2019 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D4 + Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM — 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image datanearby photos
Rich Moss

It wasn't much from the fall-colors perspective, but it's a quiet, lovely area, that's a favorite to visit on bike rides, so I wanted to share it with my photo companions, and now with my blog.....


New Lightroom Plugin: Collection Mechanic

I've just released Jeffrey's Collection Mechanic Lightroom Plugin.