I mentioned yesterday that I had taken a short late-afternoon stroll to photograph some old Machiya houses nearby. They overlook the little river that runs by my place, a short walk downstream.

Here's the first...

This is right across the river from where "Rare Shinto Shrine-Closing Ceremony" was photographed (two years ago to the day, now that I think about it).

I look at the overall design and suspect that they were originally meant for stepping out to enjoy the cool river air, but in looking at their construction, I can't imagine how they could support the weight of a [...]

A wall near where Anthony has swimming lessons is covered with these purplish flowers. Again, my D700 seems to want to overexpose everything, and I ended up using -2½EV exposure compensation to stop the petals from blowing out. One side effect of the relative underexposure is that it makes the scene look dark (it was in fairly bright shade), but I didn't want the rich colors to be lost (as happened in this flower, due to an effect described in "Why Does "Brightness" Wash Colors to White?").

Another effect of the underexposure is that the central, lighter portions of the [...]

Since this blog is essentially my family diary, I'll take license to continue some posts from Anthony's birthday party a couple of weeks ago. After having cake, it was time for presents...

Anthony doesn't get to watch much TV, but when he does, it's often super-hero shows. When I was a kid there was batman and superman, and things were simple. In Japan these days there are all kinds of super heroes, all looking essentially identical to me, but the details are important stuff in the life of a first-grade boy.

His toy this time was something called a Double [...]

On the first night of our trip to Tokyo Disneyland Anthony rode a roller coaster for the first time (and second time and third time....) and loved it, and riding again the next day was high on his agenda.

This time he went by himself...

When Anthony started first grade last April, he couldn't read or write much Japanese, but since then he uses it every day in school, so now is quite proficient at both reading and writing. In fact, part of his homework is that he has to write a diary entry every day, in Japanese, such as this one from last week:

It's titled Pencil, and reads: "The pencil I used from the first semester until now has become small. It can't be used anymore. "It's time to part ways", I said. My little pencil buddy certainly liked me, I think."

I've [...]