Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Last Stragglers
Since we still don't have any cherry blossoms yet, at least in my part of Kyoto (although the first ones should start popping out soon), I'll finish up with the pics from yesterday's trip to see what remains of the plum blossoms at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine.
Yesterday's pictures were from the free areas of the shrine. It costs 600 yen (about six bucks) to visit the gardens, although that includes a bit of plum tea and some crackers. The garden has two parts, a lower part split by a little stream, and an upper plum orchard.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 1/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lower Garden Walk
I imagine that trees laden with blossoms would have added to the appeal of this scene
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/90 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Upper Orchard
with Anthony pretending to be a running dinosaur
The trees were pretty threadbare, with only a few sprinkles of blossoms on an otherwise bare wood cake (so to speak).
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Blacksheep Pink on a White-Plum Branch
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rinse Before Washing
Some of the plum varieties were so fluffy and so deeply saturated with color that they made the fluffy pink cherry blossoms I posted earlier look positively drab.
I don't know what's up with these trees, but they had some seriously misdirected branches...
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Meandering
mouseover here to isolate one really crooked branch
This final picture is not pretty, but I find it photographically interesting because it looks as if I used a fill flash to compensate for the bright background (I was facing almost directly up), but no flash was used. I metered the exposure on the non-sky areas, and frankly expected the background to blow out the rest of the image, but it turned out sort of okay.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Clearly, I'm Easily Amused