Here are a few shots from the Koumyou-in Temple in Kyoto (光明寺, 京都) taken on the same outing as the photos accompanying my Lightroom 4.1 post the other day.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
One of the verandas consisted of a single plank of pine more than a yard wide (94cm by my foot-measuring estimation). I'd never seen anything like it; I assume that all the trees big enough to allow this big a plank were harvested long ago.
I talked to a lady that I took to be the owner of the place, who said that the temple building itself was not all that old... within the last couple of hundred years, so it's likely that the wide plank was repurposed from an older building. She didn't know, nor really seem to care.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
I'm not used to anything making my US-Size-13½ (Japan size 32) feet look small
I lead the previous post with a similar shot, but of a different door in a different room, looking out at the same garden from a different angle.
The entrance to the place included a painted cement floor that included leaf patterns seemingly-etched into the surface...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
They were so detailed and lifelike that I have to think they were made by leaves being pressed into the cement before it dried, but that really doesn't seem plausible for something as delicate as a leaf. Maybe someone carefully crafted a bunch of stamps?
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
I heard you like ropes
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
the modern gate was a notable exception to the high-class low-key style of the place
Wonderful. I like the leafs.
Wow! I’m not only vastly impressed with the width of that plank, but amazingly, it stayed straight. Usually one wouldn’t use an extra-wide board without re-sawing because of the great danger of warping. Especially when it’s used outside.
Perhaps it was re-purposed from an older building, in which case it was well-dried, but still….it didn’t warp back then either, Absolutely amazing.
I wonder how it’s attached to the joists…from underneath?
Near Sendai, Japan, in the mountains around the city, there are giant cedar trees that are the largest I have ever seen. A friend of mine was from a logging family back in Minnesota and he said he had not seen anything that large in his lifetime. You might be able to find them online.
I learned the leaf impression when I was there in the early 1950s and made all my stepping stones with leaf impressions