icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steps To The Munetada Shrine (宗忠神社)
Kyoto, Japan
Stéphane Barbery invited me today to visit a temple and shrine near Mt. Yoshida, an area a 20-minute walk from my place that he introduced to me a few years ago.
In the years since, I've gone by the steps seen above many times, but I'd never actually gone up them, but today I was continuing my slight walking-for-health kick and had arrived on foot, so I took them.
I'd hauled my tank of a Nikkor 300mm f/2 because Stéphane had found a good vantage point for a photo of the neighboring temple, but it turns out that conditions weren't ideal, and to make matters worse, the polarizing filter that I thought I brought turned out to have been an ND filter. Doh!
So, the photos from there were horrible.... even after heavy processing in Lightroom, you can only barely make out that the entire backdrop is a tree-covered mountainside ...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/5000 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shinnyodou Temple (真如堂)
looking across from the Munetada Shrine
In all these years I'd never actually been to that temple, though I'd seen the pagoda from time to time, including in this shot from last year.
So, Stéphane brought me over to show me.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back Down
I wasn't allowed to use a monopod in the temple complex, and 300mm was too tight (too much zoom) for the situation anyway, so I switched to my Voigtländer 125mm, but not before I got this shot, which I sorta' like...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — 1/800 sec, f/2, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Private Parking
I then switched to the smaller lens, and we strolled around the pleasant grounds. There were a fair number of people, but the mood was somehow decidedly uncrowded. The temple grounds are not all that large, but there was a wide variety of scenes... different mixes of colors, textures, angles...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Private Viewing
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Layer
after layer after layer
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Long Yellow Branch
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hanging by a Thread
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exceedingly Orange
down to the hair
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Above the Arbor
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pleasant
That last one reminds me of last season's “Heading Home”.
This next shot, looking up at a steep angle to some leaves near the temple roof sloping down at an odd angle gives me a slight sense of vertigo...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slight Vertigo
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sharing the Experience
I would have liked to stay longer, but my back was killing me because I was hauling around the heavy lens in Lowepro's pathetic excuse for a large-lens backpack, so I made an early exit, thinking about how I might make my own solution to carry the 20-pound lens....
Thanks for sharing these pictures, I love Shinnyodo and since we won’t be getting back to Kyoto for a few years at least I can see the fall colors on your blog. Last time we were there I remember it was pouring rain (which made for some cool pictures of the chains the rain runs down, forget what they’re called now) but glad to see you got a sunny day to go.
Nobody ever knows what those rain-chain things are called. 🙂 See here for the answer. —Jeffrey
OK – the “hanging by a thread” Gingko leaf just takes the prize for your best shot ever.
Annie
Really? Wow, I was feeling a bit sheepish for having included it. Glad someone likes it. 😉 —Jeffrey
In “Slight Vertigo” ceiling needs a bit more light to properly complement the bright, shiny leaves. As it is, that (ceiling) appears to be a near continuous brown block. That would, then, be similar to the image “Vertical Desktop-Background Versions” and others here. Or, crop to generate a vertical or a square image.
Very nice blog post and photos, as usual!
I was just surprised by your comment about not being allowed to use the monopod. I was there just a week ago with my monopod and nobody said anything… Of course, though, I didn’t have a monster lens with that 😉
Possibly nobody really noticed me and since I can’t read japanese, I may have been breaking the rule without knowing it 🙁
There were no signs that I noticed and perhaps it’s not prohibited, but some official-looking old men at the entrance told me I couldn’t use it, so I didn’t. Most places prohibit it (Yoshiminedera is the one notable exception) so I just assumed it was a rule. You have some amazing shots on your site… where did you take this one from, at at what effective focal length? From Yoshidayama? —Jeffrey