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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picnic at the Top of the World
a family enjoys a quiet outing with a view
Oishikougen, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Well, it's not quite Mt. Everest, and not even as high as the mountain we visited in Ehime Prefecture last month, but the view made it feel like it was. Pierre Nadeau, the Japanese swordsmith I visited earlier this month, stopped off to show us this view on the way to lunch.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
So, Uh, Where's the Food?

My imperfect Japanese can sometimes make for comical situations. I heard that we were going for lunch and that I should follow in my car. It was quite a long drive, but I wasn't surprised because someone had said we were going to “Oishiikougen”, which I understood as, literally, “Tasty Plateau”. The mental image that popped into my mind was a cleared-out area in the mountains with a number of restaurants and cafes joining together to make a “destination”, sort of like a food mall in the middle of a picturesque nowhere.

I was correct about the “picturesque nowhere” part. It turns out that it's not the “Oishiikougen” (美味しい高原) that I thought I heard, but rather, “Oishikougen” (生石高原), a pleasant park near the top of the locally-highest Mt Oishigamine (生石ケ峰), a very picturesque nowhere indeed, but also a nowhere decidedly devoid of a mall-like dining experience.

I was, of course, the only one to have made this misunderstanding.

I had my little 300mm f/2 in the car, having picked it up two days prior. It seemed to be a nice area to give it a try, so I did....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Quality Time

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flying an R/C Plane

Here's the wider scene that ties the two pictures above together...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

I tried to get a shot of the plane they were flying (and flying well, considering that the formidable wind gusts were unpredictable), but manual focus at 300mm at f/2 is not my strong suit (especially, as I understood later, the lens was misconfigured such that proper focus was not even possible!)...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fuzzy

What I should have done (besides understanding how to configure the lens properly) was to focus on the man, then wait and snap the shot when the plane was in the plain of focus. The plane was darting around quickly, but after a while I bet I would have gotten lucky. I tried this a week later with some birds (in “Big Lens at the River: Focusing on Disappointment”) to better success than the photo above.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gathering

The outcropping of rocks had a sheer dropoff on one side, so it was a natural place to sit and relax, all the more with Zak's shakuhachi. (Zak is one of the best shakuhachi players in the world, though such refined arts are mostly lost on my Neanderthal senses.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/5000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Good Times

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Others Enjoying the Park

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Summit
I suppose it's up there

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/6400 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Biiiiiig Stretch

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Off

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back to the Car

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Deeper into the Mountains