Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/250 sec, f/14, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flight Over Downtown Kyoto
from its Shogunzuka Overlook (将軍塚)
I popped up to Shogunzuka the other day for the first time in ages, for what I hoped was a promising sunset that ended up being very hazy, lending more of a moody shrouded feeling than “dazzling”, but a little over-exuberance in Lightroom brings out a variety of dynamic results.
A couple of months ago I posted some similar shots in “Views of Kyoto From Shogunzuka Over The Years”, and some others last summer in “Anatomy of a Nice Kyoto Sunset”, so I worry I might wear out this kind of overprocessing that's best only in moderation, but I guess I'm a risk taker, so here we are. 🙂
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Soft and Moody
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Above and Below
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42mm — 1/100 sec, f/14, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Burst
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/80 sec, f/16, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Where?
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34mm — 1/80 sec, f/16, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
There
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/800 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
G'Nite
None of these are as good as it truly was one special day a year and a half ago, as seen in “Unusually Dynamic Views of Kyoto from Shogunzuka”. That was so much better in real life than the photos.
Interesting sunset shots. Enjoyed your “a little over-exuberance in Lightroom ” comment. Tom in San Francisco
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: —the only thing that makes the HDR/over processed shots so annoying and downright awful is when insecure photographers post them ad nauseum in FlickR with this faux non-chalance like, “Oh yeah, right out of my cellphone, just like that… I’m gifted I guess. *sigh*”. And those same photographers are HDRing toilets, fastfood wrappers, and cars, cars, cars, cars… Heavy processing for sunsets… almost a necessity; no harm no foul.
Its funny what a caption can do for a photo. By you just saying that you processed heavily in the post allows you to really enjoy the photograph for the outcome. The viewer can enjoy a close proximity to what you may have seen with your real eyes. And you said it, kind of like birthday cake, in small amounts its really nice., I like that first shot. Makes you think of the feeling you can get when you see a nice sunset with your own eyes.
‘Flight Over Downtown Kyoto’ – that is really beautiful.
Regardless of how true to reality these photos are, they’re quite beautiful. Well done, as usual!
Question, if you dont mind: How do you find manual focusing the Voigtländer (or the 300/2 for that matter) on the D4 compared to your D700 with the split-circle focusing screen?
I didn’t use the split-circle part of the Katz Eye as much as just eyballing it on the nicely frosted glass. I miss it with the D4, but I seem to have gotten used to it. —Jeffrey
Nice photos you got here Jef. I am visiting Kyoto before the end of this year and was wondering if you can recommend any other sunrise/sunset spots besides Shogunzuka. Thanks in advance.
Well, that’s my go-to spot, but I would imagine the top of Kyoto Tower could be nice (if you can deal with having to shoot through angled glass). If you’re adventurous, you could hike up to Mt. Daimonji, though I don’t know that hiking back in the dark is advised. —Jeffrey