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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 98 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stroll Among the Blossoms
Some Lady · Some Kid · Some Blossoms

It's been an absolutely horrible cherry-blossom season in Kyoto, with constant cold and rain (and snow!). Today was still cold and windy, but at least it was finally sunny, so the tourists were out in force.

Most had cameras...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 110 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying the Cherry Blossoms
the way that seems to be the standard these days

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tour Group

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Couple Focusing on Togetherness

Some people had better equipment than others. The overall winner was clearly this group:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Mine is Bigger than All of Yours, Combined”
attaching a lens that most certainly costs more than the GDP of some small countries
Update: more on the lens in this followup post

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 80 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Their “Camera Bag”
one of four
( I was shooting almost directly into the sun, so the image is fairly foggy )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif
Big Production
quite a bit bigger than a different movie shoot at the same spot a year and a half ago

It is, of course, the same movie shoot that I posted about the other day, for the film 「マザーウォーター」 (“Mother Water”, whatever that means), which has been filming in Kyoto for the last week. (At least that was the plan before the horrible weather.) I thought that they had finished up the other day, but apparently not.

The area around here turns into a parking lot during this time of year, and as I returned from an errand on my scooter, it was even more crowded than usual, due, I soon found out, to the shoot. I don't know how long they'd been shooting here, but they finished up soon after I arrived.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Crowd Watching the Action

It made for an interesting logistical problem for the filmmakers... it's a crowded public place, made more crowded by gawkers watching what they're doing, and at the moment they were trying to film long shots without the crowd in them, so they have to find a time when no one is anywhere in the background. That will never happen on its own during this time of year (they were smack dab in the middle of a prime photogenic cherry-blossom zone), but they had a staff of 40+ people, half of which it seemed were for crowd control, politely shutting down the sidewalk for a minute at a time while a shot was made after a flurry of “;本番!” shouts (“real thing!”) up and down the area to let everyone know that a real shot was about to be made.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Talent
with one of the staff member's kids

I didn't recognize the actress at the time, but when I got home and looked at my shots, I recognized her as Satomi Kobayashi (小林聡美). Or, I should say, I recognized her as the shopkeeper in Kamome Diner (かもめ食堂), but even that was only due to the context, so I guess I just don't have much star-struck mojo.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying the Blossoms During a Break in Filming
with the producer in the background

The guy in the background of the shot above was the staff member that I'd had a nice chat with the other day. While I was there today it turned out that I was able to do a favor for the lead production assistant, and while chatting with him I asked who the guy was that I'd talked to before, and it turns out that he's the producer. That explains why he appeared to not actually be doing any work during the shoot :-), but I can't imagine that a Hollywood producer would ever chit-chat at length with a random stranger at a movie shoot like that, so I thought it was nice.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Boom

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wrapping Up
those are some big dead cats

Did you notice the big mic boom and “dead cat” (big fuzzy microphone windscreen) in the first shot of this post? I lead with that as a cookie for the observant. 🙂

And while I do like taking pictures of people taking pictures (as evidenced here and many other posts on my blog), I'm not immune to the charms of the blossoms themselves. Heck, I've even written poetry about cherry blossoms. So, here's a shot I snapped in passing that I sort of like... it's got an odd 3D effect to it, at least when viewed at full size...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

Some will find the out-of-focus branch in the foreground to be a distraction, but for me, it adds depth. I like it.