“	It used to be the way you take better pictures is you learn to be a better photographer ”
—Phil Schiller Senior VP Worldwide Marketing, Apple Inc. at 46:31 into the video for the iPhone 5C/5S announcements

I've just published a new plugin for Adobe Lightroom, “Smart-Preview Support”, which allows you to be alerted when a Smart Preview is about to be used for export. Exporting with Smart Previews can lead to very low quality output, so this plugin can help save you from doing that unintentionally.

Details and download are on the plugin's home page.

In my post last week about a trip to a Kyoto temple last autumn, I wrote about some out-of-season cherry blossoms that bloom in November. Continuing with my recent theme of visiting my photo archives, I'm going back this time not to last fall, but just to the more recent spring, to a trip to the Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺) in northwest Kyoto.

I've posted a few times from that trip among the awesome blossoms, including:

“Weeping Cherry at Kyoto’s Ryouanji Temple”
“Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto’s Ryouanji Temple, Part 1”
“Subtle · Pastel · Tranquil”
“The Effects of Aperture on a Subtle, Tranquil Cluster of Cherry Blossoms”

but really had just only scratched the surface of what I wanted to share because not long after the visit to Ryouanji, I got sidetracked by the even-more-amazing Haradanien Gardens, ending up posting seven articles (so far) starting with “A Wigglegram from Kyoto’s Stunning Haradanien Forest Garden of Blossoms”.

Haradanien is truly fantastic in the spring, but the subject of today's post, the Ryouanji Temple, is also very nice (any time of year), and is much more easily accessed, so back at Ryouanji last spring we are.

Tour guides often carry flags to make themselves visible to their charges from a distance, but sometimes it's something “cute” like the bear above, or a Hello Kitty toy.

While Paul Barr (in the background) and I were enjoying the big tree seen two shots above, this colorful Russian(?) tourist with a pleasing sense of style came by.

This little clearing in front of a bed of green bushes in front of a variety of blossoms made for a great photo opportunity, though the harsh light made any photo a challenge.

I waited patiently for a clear shot, and eventually got it, but the result is really lackluster...

I much prefer the shots with people in them,

To be continued...

Photo-buddy Damien Douxchamps came back from a trip to Finland, and sent me a huge care package of Läkerol, the not-available-in-Japan candy he introduced me to last year (seen on my blog in “Cornucopia of Tasty Läkerol Licorice” and then later in “Priceless: Candy and Pottery in a Surprisingly Tasteful Display”).

The care package included 122(!) boxes of a dozen different Läkerol flavors (many new to me), plus a few extra odds and ends.

Some of the boxes were exceptionally colorful, and some were exceptionally colorless...

I'm also not sure what tastes these names (“Black Diamond” and “Sparkling”) might represent. At least “Elderflower” is probably pretty clear to someone who has an idea what an elderflower tastes like, but I'm not among them.

Discovering the tastes, and mixing and matching them, is half the fun.

Another taste I'm not currently familiar with is kumquat, nor what that taste might have to do with elephants (in what might be northern India?). Maybe elephants eat kumquat? Maybe elephants taste like kumquat? Having eaten neither, at present the connection is left up to the imagination.

Among the non-Läkerol items in Damien's care package was a bottle of licorice liquor from Finland, with an almost unreadable label.

It took some creative lighting and aggressive post-processing to make out the full label:

The third line is clearly English, but I don't understand the rest. Perhaps it's Finnish?

As far as I know, this stuff is not marketed in any English-speaking country, but there's English all over. Maybe it's the same as it is in Japan, where English is “cool”. But then, Japan has a history of deep ties to America (not the least of which is having been occupied and ruled by America for seven years after WWII), so the English here is a bit more baffling.

The bottle neck labeling says “Suomi 〜 Finland” (Suomi is Finnish for “Finland”). The back label is almost all English: “Deep in its dark, liquorice-infused heart, Koskenkorva Salmiakki is an unforgettable drinking experience waiting to be released. Drink as shots, but don't be misled.” I have no idea what that means, either. It goes on “Experience the spirit of Finland and taste Finnish folklore.” This is marketingspeak on overdrive.

It also notes: “Please, shake well.”  So very polite.

It says “Liqueur” and “Contains Liquorice” in English and two other languages.

Anyway, despite labeling that leaves me scratching my head, the stuff is tasty when used in extreme moderation. Adding a few drops (literally) to a big glass of Coke gives it a surprisingly strong, durable, pleasing licorice taste. I can't possibly imagine taking a spoonful of this stuff, much less a shot as it suggests.

Damion had once given me an almost-empty bottle he happen to have brought with him to Kyoto, with less than 1mm of liquid left at the bottom, but it lasted me almost a year. This full bottle may well last 30. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

Following up from yesterday's “Tea and Sweets in Front of a Temple Garden”, where I'm trying to make a dent in my photo backlog from last autumn, today we take a look at the setting for yesterday's post, the Jikkouin Temple (実光院).

The same water basin, but from a different angle with the garden-viewing room in the background, represents this visit on last year's “A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto” post.

I'd visited with friends Damien and Paul while on a trip to Ohara, a somewhat remote mountain-village area of Kyoto. We'd just come from the most-excellent Housen-in Temple (宝泉院) first introduced in this post (with colorful followups to its interior and garden here, here, and here). Considering the visual overload of that first stop, I guess I can understand having needed a 10-month breather to get to this second stop of the day.

The weather was dynamic, alternating between a light rain and brilliant sunshine. Here's a section of the garden that you look at while having the aforementioned tea and sweets, as a light rain starts...

But five minutes later the sun is out in full force...

And before we move on from the tea and sweets, one more related shot, this time giving a stark black & white treatment a try...

I don't know whether it's any good, but it's different from my normal approach, so there we are.

And speaking of something different, elsewhere in the garden-viewing room is a xylophone made from what appears to be rough-hewn stones....

I'm sure it was quite a feat to get the tones just right.

Moving out now to the temple's back garden, it was blindingly bright with the now-blazing sun reflecting off every surface left glistening by the rain. Just the same as in the other day's “The Effect of a Polarization Filter on Wet Rocks”.. a polarizer filter made a huge difference as jiggling your mouse over this photos illustrates:

Both shots are total crap, but again, the difference is astounding.

Here's another pair of marginal-but-illustrative shots, of raindrops glistening (or not) in a moss closeup:

Now on to some nicer pictures. This garden included its own stone water basin, with a mossy/lichen patina similar to the bark of the neighboring tree...

It was lined with moss and filled with freshly-fallen leaves..

The shot above is with the polarizer, where the bright direct reflection of the sun has been attenuated greatly.

In this next shot without the polarizer, the brightness of the reflection dominates everything else, so the auto-exposure of the camera sends everything else into a moody darkness (somewhat recovered from later in Lightroom, due to the exposure latitude that shooing in raw affords)...

I made an attempt to get the standard shot of a single leaf somehow highlighted in the scene, but the attempt doesn't really satisfy.

I guess it serves me right for going along with Damien's plan to subvert nature; he placed the leaf there for me, so that I could say that I hadn't. :-)

This temple also has jyuugatuzakura (十月桜, “October Cherry Blossoms”), providing a soft contract to the rich autumn colors...

Another stone basin was tucked away in a corner...

It looks a bit like the exit has been closed off with stone, but of course that's the stone wall opposite the exit. Stepping just outside the exit and looking to the right, you see this scene, with buildings of the Sanzen-in Temple (三千院) at frame left....

To be continued...