"I think Lightroom will be to photographers what Photoshop is to photographs." -- Reid Thaler Digital Photography Review forum post May 23, 2007

This excellent quote succinctly clarifies the difference in focus between Lightroom and Photoshop. I only wish I had come up with it!

In between snapping pictures of the great blue heron yesterday, I paused to take a picture of some potted flowers. The result is a deliciously rich set of colors that can't really be replicated properly on the web.

This image is right out Lightroom, with all settings at their default. The saturation may look unnaturally vivid as if it's been boosted in post processing, but believe me, the colors are so rich to start with I worried that something might explode if I touched the saturation. 🙂

I'm wondering how this might be as a desktop background.... Hmmm.....

Also while [...]

Every once in a while we see a great blue heron around this building (across from where these night blossom shots were taken), usually standing motionless on the sloping banister wall. The first time we saw him we didn't even realize it was real, until eventually it moved slightly.

I happened to have my camera with me when I saw him on the banister wall today, and was about to take his picture when he jumped down to the stairs leading to the basement property. I ran up to look, and saw him go down and inside, and then saw [...]

The family down the hall has had a nice flower display on their porch for the last week or so, but now that it's gone, I thought I'd recreate some of it here....

As I wrote in January, one of the most forsaken places I've ever seen is Kyoto University's Kumano Dorm (京都大学の熊野寮). It's right here in the city, but once you enter the grounds, it feels as if you're visiting the long-abandoned remains of a war-ravaged society. Wandering the grounds, only the word "forsaken" seems to do justice to the ambiance. It's otherworldly eerie.

Since my visit last fall when I took these pictures, I've learned a bit about why it is the way it is from my friend Shimada-san. During the student unrest common around the world in the late 60s [...]