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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/320 sec, f/11, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Clouds
half an hour out of Tokyo
After 15+ hours of flying, and 6+ hours of layovers, we're back in Kyoto after our annual summer visit to my folks. Cloud pictures make for easy posting fodder when I'm jetlagged, and though I didn't see another plane out the window, some big dynamic clouds made for some interest during a brief span a half an hour out of Tokyo. Previous years' “Back in Kyoto” posts (2009 · 2008 · 2007 · 2006 · 2005) tended to also include an “Anthony sleeping on the plane” picture, but with not much room this time he slept with his head in my lap, so I was sort of stuck.
I cropped a small bit of the plane window off the bottom of the picture above, but otherwise that's pretty much what it looked like. Lots of strong shadows and bubbling towers. I didn't realize it at the time, but you can see mountains in the far distance.
Going wider brought some of the blue sky in, but also made it harder to shoot “through” the dirt on the window...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/640 sec, f/13, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
10 Minutes Later and 3½ Miles Lower
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Minute Later and a Mile Lower
last of the big stuff
By this time our horizontal speed (“ground speed”) had slowed to less than 500mph, but we were bleeding altitude as if we were going straight down at 37mph. Couldn't tell a thing about the speed at the time, though.
A few minutes later and the big stuff was all left behind, and we were about to descend into the heavy haze that is “summer in Japan”. A big monster cloud in the distance provided a backdrop...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dipping Into the Haze
It looks similar to this Tokyo big-cloud shot, but I think that was taken the previous day, so it's probably just coincidental.
On the way out near the start of our trip, between Cleveland and Chicago, I was startled to look out the window of the plane to see what immediately struck me as the splat of a giant bird poop:
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
hazy dayz in
Birdpoop City
As I've posted many times, we're well acquainted with birds and all that goes with them, so perhaps that's why the visual association came to mind. My apologizes to Fostoria, Ohio for the momentary ill-mannered thought.
The first picture was taken 10.3km from the Sendai Nikon factory, according to your “full exif & map” page.
Hi Jeffrey!
When shooting through a dirty glass, you can usually minimize the visibility of the dirt by getting as close as possible (in contact or almost) to the glass and setting your lens to its full aperture. If you have to much light for full aperture, set the speed at 1/8000 to at least open as much as possible.
Regards!