I'm finally getting around to posting some more shots of the Arashiyama (area of Kyoto) evening bamboo lightup (京都嵐山竹やぶの花灯路) from a week or two ago. (I'd posted one shot that evening.)

It was just above freezing, with blustery wind and occasional rain/sleet. Not really a pleasant environment, but it kept the crowds down during the main event to simply "very crowded".

This lady stood there for the longest time, staring at me with a blank "what is that thing?" look on her face. On the outside I just stood there next to my camera on a tripod... looking like a [...]

Had a cold for a few days, recovered, and today spent 10 hours on a 1,000-photo outing to Nara and now feel almost as exhausted as I did when I had the cold. Time for some sleep.

I'm pretty tired today, so just a few simple shots from a trip to Kyoto's Shisendo Temple (詩仙堂) a month ago. These are from the same outing that produced "Portrait Practice Among the Fall Colors".

I can't decide whether I like the shot above or the shot below better, so I'll just put them both.

The focus on both is a small bunch of dainty purple flowers amid some bamboo grass...

I don't know why this was done, but my guess is to provide a form of frost protection for the bulbs, using the plants own leaves wrapped ornamentally.

I braved the cold and sleet (and crowds) last night to make my first visit to Kyoto's semi-annual Arashiyama Bamboo Forest Lightup. According to that link, the whole area was having a lightup event, including the famous Togetsukyo bridge seen in last week's "Intense Rainbow Over Arashiyama", but I was able to avoid most of the crowds by scootering into the fringe of the event from the opposite direction from the train stations.

(Of course, once it started, the crowds came to me.)

The cold and sleet weren't the only thing to put me out of my comfort zone... I [...]

A few random pretty pictures from various outings last year. If you're interested in the context for the shot, or other pictures from the same area, see the "nearby photos" link under for photos and posts from the same location.