In "Massive Support Column at Nara's Todai-ji Temple" I noted that of the many massive columns in the 320-year-old "Hall of the Great Buddha" (until recently the largest wooden building in the world), one particular column was quite special.

The columns, including this one, are about 20 meters (65 feet) tall; impressive any way you look at them.

It was very dark inside this cavernous building, with what light there was mixed among scattered incandescent floodlights and ever-changing skylight wafting in from the occasional window. Adjusting color balance on these shots has been a nightmare, even with ample use of [...]

I mentioned the other day in "Massive Support Column at Nara's Todai-ji Temple" about a recent photo trip to Nara, an hour's train ride south of Kyoto. I made the trip with Kyoto photographer friend Aeron, who besides being a great photographer is also seriously photogenic (I mean, really, just look at that smile), so along the way I took the opportunity to try some very impromptu portraits.

And when I say "impromptu", I don't mean something like these from five years ago where I spent 15 minutes, or these from six months ago whee I spent a couple of [...]

A short followup to my post the other day about Japanese candles to mention that Alice Gordenker's Japan Times article is now online, as well as her blog post with more details.

Also, on YouTube, I found a video of someone with 50 years experience making a batch of Japanese candles, best seen after having read Alice's article and then her blog.

And finally, one more shot of the one of the setups I mentioned in my first post.

I seem to have neglected to post the answer to the "Curved-Wire "What am I?" Quiz", a photo similar to the one above, so here it is.

It's an empty shoe rack at Anthony's elementary school. There are two sets... one for the street shoes left at the entrance...

... and one for the shoes worn inside the school...

I made a trip to the Todaiji Temple (東大寺) in Nara last month. Nara was the capital of Japan 1,300 years ago.

The main temple building is a massive wooden structure built toward the end of the 1600s (though much smaller and less ambitious than the original building long destroyed by fire). Until recently, it was the largest wooden structure in the world.

Interesting to me was that the main columns were not individual tree trunks, but somehow crafted from component parts. The wooden boards comprising the exterior of each column can be seen in the photo above, but I [...]