Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Red Berries of Some Sort
Winter is fairly blah in Kyoto, color/nature-wise. Kyoto is glorious in autumn and glorious during cherry-blossom season, hellatiously hot and humid in summer, and blah in winter. But one thing it has in winter are red berries of all sorts.
While walking back from the shrine-closing ceremony in mid-November, I noticed some berries growing wild by a small river...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 105mm — 1/350 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Red Berries of Some Sort
Since then, I've started to see them all over, whether in small plants, on shrubs, or in trees. Here's an old house fronting the river, with large bushes of red berries flanking on either side....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Red Berries and Some Shorts
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Red Berries in Some Shrubs
In front of Kyoto's Nijo Castle
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/750 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Bunch of Red Berries
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
(Same bunch as above, from the side)
Now that I think about it, I posted some red berries last year as well.
Anyway, I wanted to end the year with something colorful. We'll be spending the New Year on an island in the south of Japan, so I'll not be posting for the next week.
My blog this year rounds out with 330 posts, of which 289 had photos (1,768 photos: see the index of photos appearing in 2007 to browse them). It'll be interesting to see what next year holds...
Great to see a bit of colour, now we’re in the middle of dreary winter!
If anyone’s interested, I think the berries mostly nanten, Nandina domestica. Alas, my own three young bushes have not yet fruited, but I live in hopes. There was some Nandina foliage showing by the stone lantern that you almost retrieved the other day. I believe that it is traditional to plant nanten by lanterns and other “hard landscaping” feeatures in Japanese gardens.
The one exception is the shrub by Nijo Castle, which is a firethorn (Pyracantha), perhaps P. rogersiana, which is not Japanese, but originates in Western China – or a garden hybrid derived from it.
Wow, was I hoping the one comment listed would be Peters, identifying the berries. Hooray, it was!! Thanks, Peter. I was familiar with the pyracantha, which is beloved by Cedar Waxwings and other birds. I grew up with it in California. I was not sure of the Nandina, since I’ve never had any. We do have the exquisite Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) which is spectacular now that the leaves have dropped. I was tempted to use some on the altar of our Church for Christmas decoration against the backdrop of a Yew (Taxus Hicksii) screen that we painstakingly wired. Used red Poinsettias instead. Beautiful in any case.
Do you know what this berry plant is called.
Well, having read the first comment by Peter, yes, I do. —Jeffrey