This post is just a bunch of extra desktop-background images from the Enkouji Temple (円光寺) in Kyoto last fall, that I didn't have space to fit in "The Gorgeous Enkouji Temple of North-East Kyoto" the other day.

Next are a few "reflections of the trees in the pond" shots similar to "Pond" the other day. That one is still my favorite, but these have their own nice character...

Now a few more random garden-scene shots...

I made a short visit today to the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮), famous for its plum blossoms. I'd gone three weeks ago when only a few blossoms had appeared, but now it's pretty much in full bloom.

There was the slightest of rain... you didn't need an umbrella for the most part... which kept the crowds down. It was quite pleasant.

There are many different kinds of plum, with a wide variety of pinks, creams, and whites...

Not everyone was there to take pictures. This next shot is the same scene as this one from my previous post about this [...]

In today's post we dip again into the deep archives of my very-photogenic November of last year, where on the 15th of the month Paul Barr and I visited two temples in northeast Kyoto, the Shisendo Temple (producing this post and this post), and then the nearby Enkouji Temple (圓光寺).

It was my first visit to the gorgeous Enkouji Temple in many years, and though I got many nice shots, so far I've only shared those from inside the garden-viewing room, last month in "Impossible Shot at Kyoto’s Enkouji Temple: Garden *and* Garden-Viewing Room at the Height of Fall [...]

I heard from a friend today that the plum blossoms at the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine (北野天満宮) in northern Kyoto are at their best, so I thought I'd revisit my went-too-early visit from two weeks ago, last written about here, with more of the same.... blossoms blossoms blossoms.

I prefer the white ones over the pink, so let's start out with some of those...

I'm always amazed at how a tiny change in perspective or composition can make an otherwise similar photo feel completely different. Maybe it's just me, but this next shot, almost identical to the one that leads this [...]

Today's post combines a couple of things I've written about recently, Läkerol candy and Japanese pottery, as seen in "Cornucopia of Tasty Läkerol Licorice" and "Failing a New Portraiture Challenge: Reflective Pottery".

The latter post detailed the tough time Zak Braverman and I had photographing some reflective tenmoku pottery by Koji Kamada (鎌田幸二). In the end we were able to rescue enough shots in Photoshop that he could use them to create the invitation cards for a show, and in thanks he gave us each a bowl that he had made but couldn't sell due to some (apparently minor, because [...]