Today's post follows “Taran and Kate at the Heian Shrine”, where I posted a few shots (and a wigglegram!) from a photoshoot the other day. Recent MBA-graduates Taran and Kate were looking to have some photos taken while on vacation in Japan, and got put in touch with me. I haven't done much real photography in a long while, except last month's mini session at Kyoto Tea Ceremony Camellia GARDEN, so I wasn't sure what to expect from myself.

We first met to get to know each other a bit over coffee, and I found them to be a fun couple with super-photogenic smiles, so I knew I'd have an easy time of it.

We started with the typical “in front of the gate” shots...

The little orange fence thing is there to stop people from driving in, because the front area can certainly look like a parking lot. At first it wasn't quite centered to the gate, which drives me insane, so I moved it over. I should have expected how heavy it was... it's solid wood. Ugh! But so worth it to have things centered.

(Now that I think about it, it's probably good that it's no longer blocking the path that the yellow dimple bricks lead a sight-impaired person on. Prior to my moving it, they would have run right into it.)

Before heading in, they did the “ritual cleansing” one's supposed to do before entering a Shinto shrine. Taran used to live in Japan so he knows the ropes, including tipping the ladle up at the end to let the last bit of water drain down the handle, cleansing it from your touch....

The Heian Shrine is a photogenic place, so there are lots of opportunities for nice posed shots, made all the better by there being so few visitors at the moment. I tried to also let them move about to enjoy at their own pace, to get more candid-ish shots.

Walking by the tree filled with omikuji (which I explain on this post almost a decade ago), I noticed one had fallen down, so I asked them to put it back onto the tree for the camera.

Eventually we went into the gardens...

To be continued...