Wow, my third post of the day. I didn't intend to take any pictures today, but with Anthony's style choices in the morning, and the stunningly orange sunset in the evening, I've had no choice.
On top of that, I went a bit early to pick up Anthony from school, and stopped in to the grounds of the old imperial palace (Kyoto Gosho) to check on the fall foliage there. I think it's safe to say that the opening act is on stage, but the headliners are still in the dressing room.
The “opening act” are some of the trees that turn early. We've seen some already last weekend in the mountains, and this weekend in posts of my friend Thomas' in Kyoto and in Kibune, and here again today as some young kids prepared to play in the park during a school outing...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116 mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
School Outing
on the grounds of the old imperial palace, Kyoto Japan
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty Colors
ho hum... yawn...
The headliners are the maple, the momiji, the trees whose colors become so consistently amazing that they have become a synonym in Japanese for “fall colors” in the same way that “Kleenex” means “facial tissue” (but, er, nicer).
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 110 mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still in the Dressing Room
There are plenty of leaves that have turned and fallen, but we still await the main show.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Left The Building
before Elvis has even arrived
Sometimes you do see a touch of color starting to emerge, and it can be nice, but it's just not there yet....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 86 mm — 1/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Duck Nap
Waiting for a more photogenic time to awake
The tree over the ducks, with a touch of color emerging, will progress through its color and losing its leaves, and will be completely bare before the real fireworks begin (as this picture can attest, taken December 5th last year, you can see this tree as the bare cloud of branches in the far right).
I sorta' like this shot of a huge fallen treestump that kids love to play on. Like this evening's sunset pictures, I had to wrestle with the data in Lightroom to keep the bright colors of the foreground leaves from blowing out to white, but I was mostly successful...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 80 mm — 1/400 sec, f/5, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
On the other hand, since I'd been doing so much with the develop settings, I decided to have some fun with this otherwise-throwaway shot....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/400 sec, f/11, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exaggerated
All the colors and the contrast are exaggerated, and the result is far from what was actually visible on this overcast-with-occasional-sun day. The result is sort of similar to this “Funky Joy” shot of Anthony and the Dave Hill look. As I've written before (several times), there are a lot of fun, creative things you can do right in Lightroom.