I posted one set of pictures from yesterday's snow in Kyoto, from the morning. I hope some of the pictures were nice, but mostly they were for storytelling – not for their intrinsic beauty – because the lack of beauty in the photos accurately reflected the snowy urban reality of the scene.

However, later in the day, I found myself in northern Kyoto, just before the city ends and the mountains begin, just as a snowstorm ended and a brilliantly rich, blue sky was emerging. This time, my pictures' lack of intrinsic beauty is a reflection of my lack of [...]

I'm a big fan of the red berries that populate Kyoto's fall and winter, and of snow (well, at least so long as I don't have to drive), so it was a treat to get the combination today when we awoke to a nice few inches of snow.

The obligatory "snow views from the livingroom window" shots...

The sun was shining on the branches above, so they were starting to half melt, and so there were a lot of shiny/sparkley drops hanging from the branches. I don't think I captured it very well.

Before bringing Anthony to school, I checked [...]

While out with Anthony riding a bike yesterday, I took a few other random shots that seem interesting or pretty (at least, to me) that I'd like to share. These were all taken within 100 yards of each other, in the Okazaki area of Kyoto.

The main gate of the Heian Shrine has appeared on my blog a bazillion times – see the "related posts" box below for a few from the past year – but I'd never seen it from this angle (from its north-west). Anthony had ridden his back to a back parking lot of the Municipal library, [...]

I reported a couple of months ago about a Black Frame Syndrome affecting my D200, whereby the raw image data was fine, but the embedded jpg previews were all black. (A NEF file has two embedded JPGs.)

Because I shoot raw, the only practical effect for me is that I get a black frame when I try to review the images on the camera LCD, but someone shooting in JPG mode would find all their images completely blank. Yikes!

This happened to me for the second time yesterday, but this time I believe I've figured it out.

It turns out [...]
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It's been almost two years since Anthony got a bicycle, but although he enjoyed it a few times at first, he didn't have all that much interest again until lately, so when we went out for a ride today, it was perhaps the half-dozenth time we'd been out. However, I have a feeling he'll really be wanting to do it more, because today – for the first time – he was able to ride unassisted for fairly long stretches.

I'd used Carlos' great advice on teaching a kid to ride a bike a month or so ago, which perhaps sparked [...]