I used to enjoy reading about cool photography-related things on Fstoppers.com, but that was before I realized that their business model is apparently built on systematic wholesale copyright violation. They regularly publish large numbers of copyrighted photos without permission from the photographer. They just take what they want to pad their site, building their user base and, presumably, their revenues.

For Example...

When this issue surfaced a couple of weeks ago with one article filled with copyright violations (more on that later), I was shocked that a photography site as respected as Fstoppers could allow such a slip, but [...]

This is an (almost) impossible shot to get... the garden and the garden-viewing room at the Enkouji Temple (圓光寺, Kyoto Japan), at the height of fall colors, both completely devoid of people.

This next photo of the same place six years ago (from this blog post) is what this kind of place normally looks like:

Indeed, that's what it was like when I was there last fall (Nov 2012)... 今回...

A clear shot from near the edge of the room with a 50mm lens is one thing, but what about with a wide-angle lens (24mm) from the back of the [...]

Last November I posted a wigglegram on "Elegance in Kyoto’s Tenjyuan Garden". (If you don't know what wigglegram is, check out the post and be sure to move your mouse over the picture). Even though I shot more than 70 gigabytes worth of photos that day, I still haven't shared anything else from that garden except for one representative photo on "A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto".

So, today I'm finally posting a few more from that visit to the Tenjyuan Garden (天授庵), a sub-temple of the famous Nanzenji Temple. It was my first visit.

I seem to have [...]

Revisiting last fall's ikebana (flower arranging) event at the Shoren'in Temple, previously seen in these posts:

Photography is not normally allowed in this temple, but it was for this event.

I ended up chatting with the American guy taking the photo above. It turns out that he had just met the lady in the kimono and done a quick picture, and when she happened by as we talked, he introduced us. She accepted my request to take a quick portrait; not wanting to keep her waiting, I suggested that I'd do it right then and there standing (coincidentally) about where [...]

High-school friend Ray was the second portraiture-practice session I did while visiting my folks over the new-year break, the first having been a family friend. I like the results from the first session, but I didn't like that I was still so awkward/skill-less on how to conduct, on a person-to-person level, the portraiture session. Technical skill with the camera accounts for maybe 10% of what's needed... the rest is all in how you interact with the person.

Shoving a lens in someone's face and saying "smile" may work fine if the someone is a professional model, but it sure makes [...]