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Anthony visited his friend Monet today. She lives up in Hieidaira, a community in the mountains between here (Kyoto) and Otsu. The drive up the twisty crowded mountain road was breathtaking, and while they played I returned for a few photos.
I stopped at a few places along the short (5-mile) route, but there were way too many colors to fit in one post; these are just a few shots from the first place I stopped....
Fall colors at a temple or shrine in the city can be really pretty, especially at a big place that gives you opportunities to find interesting angles (such as last week's colorful visit to the Eikando Temple), but I'm pretty sure that the trees that line the tiny Shirakawa River and the road as they both wind up the mountain are native growth.... part of a small percent of the mountains not taken over by tree farming.
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/250 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just. Too. Vivid.
The range of colors at most any spot is breathtaking. Nothing is arranged.... it's just as nature haphazardly put it.
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/250 sec, f/2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Center of the Sun
This is all visible just off the road, which itself runs next to a small river at the bottom of a ravine that twists down the mountain. The road itself is horrendously ugly.... standard-issue small-mountain road, with beat up guard rails, lots of utility poles, piles of garbage by the side of the road, etc.
I found one thing I certainly did not expect to find.....
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/250 sec, f/2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stone Graveyard?
Piled along one stretch of road, perched precariously over the river, were piles and piles of cut and carved stone, as if a large monument of some sort had been meticulously dismantled, each piece painstakingly readied for transport, carefully brought to the this site, then, in the dead of night when no one was looking, haphazardly jettisoned from the truck into a big pile.
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cut Stone Carefully Prepared
then carelessly abandoned
The site was quite a sight, and quite a mystery.... whose deeper investigation must wait for another post....
Gorgeous colors and nice mystery there. I am surprised fall color is so late where you are. I was in Korea two weeks ago and most was gone over there except for one or two stragglers. I took some images there but still need to post them.