Besides a lot of rock at Osaka Castle Park, one is also prone to find a lot of people taking pictures. For reasons I can't explain, I often find myself taking pictures of people taking pictures, although I've only posted the results a few times (here, here, and here).

I'll add to that list today....

Even though Nao is not looking at my camera, he still seems to have that "presence" I mentioned on the impromptu portraits post.

I have the same Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 he seems to be using, but my Nikon D200 is dwarfed by what looks to be [...]

As you might have noticed in my posts about the paper airplanes and impromptu portraits in Osaka Castle Park, it's a place with a lot of carved granite. A lot.

As the name "Osaka Castle Park" might imply to the astute reader, it's a park in Osaka Japan that contains a castle. Despite having lived not very far away on and off for the better part of 20 years, my visit last weekend was my first. I'd never been very interested in seeing it because it's not very old – it was built about 20 years ago, as the current [...]

We took a nice drive this afternoon on the Hiei Parkway in the mountains to the north-east of Kyoto, to see the foliage. We hoped that up in the mountains it would have progressed a bit more than it has so far in the city, but it turns out to still be pretty much at the beginning.

At one point we paused at a moss-covered clearing that was somewhat littered with chestnuts. At least I thought it was moss at the time, but looking at the picture makes me think that they were super tiny little ferns. Maybe that's what [...]

Returning this evening from a most pleasant day visiting friends in Osaka, I noticed this couple sit behind me on the train.

Their style would be called ゴスロリ (gosurori -- "Gothic Lolita").

I asked whether they dressed like this on a daily basis, to which she responded that yes shd did, although today was just a bit extra special (perhaps referring to her fabric crown, but I can't be sure). I asked why today was special, to which they conferred a bit on how to express it, finally saying that they were going to a "tea party."

They were polite [...]

After yesterday's first taste of autumn while being stuck with nothing better than a point-n-shoot, I thought I'd head back to the same area today with some better equipment. I brought my Nikon D200, Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR zoom, a Nikon TC-17EII 1.7× teleconverter (my first outing with it), and my monopod. And Anthony.

What I neglected to bring was enough time, light, or skill.

I got there just before the last direct rays of light disappeared, and without the dynamic clouds of yesterday, there were no visual fireworks in the sky, so the whole point of being there sort [...]