NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size. Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — full exif Homemade Oreo, Baby! Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm […]
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This post – #1,392 on my blog – is by far the longest I've ever endeavored to write, and yet at the same time one of the least fulfilling to present.

Great vistas like the Grand Canyon or an old palace find their magnificence in the wide view, in the sum of their parts, but the gardens around the workshop of the centuries-old Nishimura Stone Lanterns find their magnificence in an attention to detail. A wide view can help present a context for something of interest, but this site is definitely a case where the sum of the parts is [...]

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You know the feeling waking up to the realization that your alarm didn't go off and you have five minutes before you absolutely must be ready and gone? I've felt it all day.

But we now have our Christmas Cards and New Year Cards designed, uploaded, and ordered.

Not addressed and sent, but at least ordered.

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In "Nishimura Stone Lanterns: the Workshop" I introduced a stone-carver workshop in the Kitashirakawa area of Kyoto that I came across last week. I visited again the other day, stopping first at the workshop to request permission to visit their amazing back garden.

The workshop is open to the street, and upon walking up, Paul Barr and I found none other than Daizo Nishimura, the 5th-generation stonecarver/owner at work preparing a stone for carving. I took the photo above before he noticed us.

Upon seeing us, he immediately stopped his work to chat with us. I felt bad about interrupting [...]

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As I mentioned yesterday, the visit to the workshop and gardens of Nishimura Stone Lanterns (a fifth-generation hand stone-carving business) and their back garden was an amazing, overwhelming, mentally draining experience.

I haven't even given my photos a first-pass inspection, but soon after taking the photo above I knew it was emblematic of our time there, and knew that I would post it early.

Here's a photo by Paul Barr of me taking it...

As you can see in Paul's shot, the leaves are resting on a fairly simple square column, with a few adornments at the top, ending with [...]

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