Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/20 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Port of Takamatsu
30 Minutes Before Sunrise
Fumie and I made an overnight trip to the city of Takamatsu, in Kagawa Prefecture, on the large island of Shikoku, Japan, to see pop singer Kousuke Atari (中孝介) in concert. Just as I did the last time we made an overnight trip (which was also to see Kousuke Atari in concert, at a shrine in Miyajima), I awoke early to see what photo opportunities there might be in the early of morning.
Unlike Miyajima and our extended time there, which produced so many nice (or story-telling) pictures that I had to make a Miyajima category on my blog, we were in Takamatsu for only a short time, and, unfortunately, were able to enjoy almost nothing of the area. Our hotel was right downtown at the port, which made for a very industrial – but still pretty – sunrise.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/640 sec, f/5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Industrial Sunrise
Three Minutes Before Sunrise
The Ferris wheel at left is, apparently, the “only Ferris wheel in the world on top of a book store” (the book store, apparently, being the largest in all of Japan). As Zak notes, Japanese people seem to have a thing for Ferris wheels. I've even had a Ferris wheel on my blog before, on a Rice Terraces post.
On the four-hour drive the previous evening, we stopped by a highway rest area that had “the world's only highway-rest-area Ferris wheel.” We actually rode it, enjoying the views of the nearby Akashi Straights Bridge that we'd just crossed, the world's longest suspension bridge (a mile and a quarter between the two piers, almost two and a half miles total). Alas, we didn't have time for the bookstore Ferris wheel this trip.
Just as with the Orange Sunset in Kyoto that I posted the other day, I used the zoom to try to isolate the color...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Orange Sunrise in Takamatsu
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/750 sec, f/7.1, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Moment of Sunrise
Takamatsu is on the northern coast of Shikoku, an island a bit smaller than new Jersey. I got these pictures with water to the east by walking out to the end of a breakwater sticking half a mile out into the ocean.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 20mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
10 Minutes Later
Twenty minutes later it was as bright as daytime (because it was
daytime 
), but the shadows were still, of
course, quite long. Back at the land-side of the breakwater, I had to work
to keep the shadow of this guy and his bicycle in frame....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Long Shadows in the Morning
Some beautiful pictures in here, Jeffrey. I just received a slightly early christmas present… one 70-200 VR! I’m obviously excited… hope to put it to the test soon. One thing I’d love to see you do is a sample comparison of the 70-200 and 18-200 quality/sharpness wise. I plan to do it myself but you take these sort of tests to the extreme in terms of stability and lighting, etc whereas I’m usually happy to take a few shots hand held without too much care and compare them.