妙法院（京都市東山区)の景色。この記事の写真は処理過剰ばっかりですが、今日はそんな気分です。 （今週は特別拝観が有ります。お寺の中は中々美しいですが、残念ながら中では撮影禁止）。

I paid my first visit to the Myouhouin Temple (妙法院) in eastern Kyoto yesterday. The buildings are closed to the public except for early November, so I took the opportunity to visit on the first day of this year's open house.

The good news is that the buildings and inner gardens and many artifacts on display were magnificently beautiful, but the bad news is that photography was not allowed at all. Still, well worth the ¥800 if you can get there before the open house ends on the 18th.

The first building you enter on the open-house [...]

Yesterday was a really blustery day, with cold, biting wind.... really the first true taste of autumn here in Kyoto. Made me want to peek at some of the many photos I haven't even look at yet from last year's fall-foliage season. Here are a few random photos from four separate outings with Paul Barr during the last week of November (last year).

From the same outing: "Some Rustic Temple/Shrine Visits in Western Kyoto" and a bunch of shots on "A Few Colorful Kyoto Desktop Backgrounds from November".

Yoshiminedera (善峯寺) is an autumn favorite. Shots from this particular outing appeared [...]

I posted a bit the other day (here and here) about catching the tail end of the Jidai Matsuri (時代祭, "Festival of the Ages"). Here are some more from early on in what I shot. (Having just returned from a long-weekend trip, I'm pretty much behind on everything.)

When I first got out there, the parade had stalled for some reason, so I got a long opportunity to photograph the mounted archer seen above and in the second link, and having not failed to immediately notice my not-so-subtle 300mm f/2, he pranced a bit for the camera, which I really [...]

We're on a three-day weekend trip to Naoshima (直島), an island just off the coast of Okayama, about four hours' drive south-west from Kyoto.

We're staying at Benesse House, a modern-art museum and hotel.

That bridge is the subject of this post from a year and a half ago.

The hotel doubles as a modern-art museum. Modern art is not my cup of tea at all, but this place feels more like I'm in a video game (Doom, circa 20 years ago), so it's actually fun.

Apparently, the Big Squash is a famous landmark. You can see it jutting [...]

Kyoto friend Zak Braverman was asked by his friend, pottery artisan Koji Kamada, to take photos of some recent pieces. Knowing I'm into photography, and of late trying to up my game on artificial lighting, Zak kindly invited me along.

I prepared everything I imagined I would need for, well, what I imagined I would be shooting, but upon arrival I quickly realized that my imagination differed significantly from reality, and we were totally unprepared. Specifically, I was unprepared for 1) the need for dark backgrounds instead of white, and 2) pottery that had direct reflections, like a mirror.

We [...]