Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/50 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Milling About
35 minutes before the start
at the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest (嵐山竹やぶ), Kyoto Japan

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”.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op for All

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/50 sec, f/5.6, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oblivious

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 photographer taking photographs... with a congenial but passive smile on my face, but inside I was screaming “Uh, hello, can't you see what I'm doing? Are you dense!?”. It was as if she had never seen a foreigner before, or perhaps she had never seen a camera and wondered what the strange device was.

The path was almost completely empty, an improbable event that would not repeat itself for the rest of the night, and she was completely ruining my shot, but it's not my path, so she has every right to be there as much as I do, so outwardly I just smiled.

Anyway, I have a nice shot of this path here from last year's “Mike Bennett's Last Day in Kyoto: Arashiyama Bike Ride” post.

There was still another 35 minutes to go before the lightup started, so I decided to walk along the path back toward town...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/25 sec, f/1.4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hilly

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/25 sec, f/7.1, ISO 10000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gully
with some buildings of the Tenryuji Temple on the other side

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/40 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Relatively Urban

Back at the end of the path where I'd started, just before the lightup started, it had grown quiet dark...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 2.5 sec, f/8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dusk
with a glow from a sign light off to the left

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 2.5 sec, f/8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Five Seconds Later
taken at the same exposure as the previous shot

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 2.5 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slow Start
soon the crowds would be teeming

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 2.5 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Last Respite
for the next few hours

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Continued here...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/160 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — image data
Hello There!
A bit of wide-angle and wide-eyed distortion makes for an “interesting” portrait?
photo by Paul Barr
processing by me

I've been doing a lot of portraiture practice lately, so I finally made a portraiture-practice category on my blog. This post is likely the last for a while, a few shots from last week with Paul Barr and Stéphane Barbery.

上は私、カメラと一寸近くすきるし、目は開けすぎ。結果は面白いだと思いますが、一寸気持ち悪いかもしれない。どう思いますか。以下の写真と比べる。

The photos on this post of me, such as the one above, were taken by Paul Barr, and post processed by me (mostly with Paul looking over my shoulder).

I think the one above has some interesting (yet perhaps disconcerting) character, for a couple of reasons. First there's the distortion caused by the close proximity of the lens to the subject. Playing around in Lightroom, I was able to easily adjust the distortion away using Lightroom's manual lens-correction tools, but the result was less interesting/comical, so it's the original that I'm presenting here.

Another thing is the lighting. We were trying our hand at some artificial lighting, a flash unit to camera right. In this case, iris close to the light really caught/reflects the light, so it looks very different from the other iris; the result lends a bit of disconcernment without the viewer necessarily noticing why (though now that I've mentioned it, you'll not be able to not see it. 🙂 )

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — ¹/160 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — image data
A Bit Further Away
same lens from a more reasonable distance
photo by Paul Barr

In the end we just didn't feel comfortable with the flash, so moved to an area with a rice-paper-covered window, which provided rich, smooth light...

Nikon D4 + 85mm f/1.8 — ¹/250 sec, f/4, ISO 12800 — image data
photo by Paul Barr

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — image data
photo by Paul Barr

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 12800 — image data
photo by Paul Barr

I wanted to include at least one color shot, but it seems downright bland compared to the grittier B&W treatment that seems to suit these shots.

Nikon D4 + 85mm f/1.8 — ¹/200 sec, f/4, ISO 12800 — image data
photo by Paul Barr

I tried a few of Paul...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2000 — image data

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4000 — image data

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 3200 — image data

Stéphane put up a couple of shots of me he took, one I like, and one that I don't quite care for. Paul's opinion of them was the opposite of mine, so who knows....

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — image data

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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.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance Path
Shisendo Temple (詩仙堂), Kyoto Japan

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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”.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lots of Color
Nov 15, a week or so before peak

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Garden Pond
Shisendo Temple (詩仙堂)

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

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/200 sec, f/3.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Garden Pond
take two

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

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dainty Purple Flowers
amid some bamboo grass

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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Someone's
photo op

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oddly Prepared Plants
long leaves wrapped like Princes Leah's hair

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bun on the Ground

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.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 10000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Smiling Paul

More portraiture practice with Paul Barr, slightly less impromptu than those portraits we did three weeks ago, but with similar results. These are from the same day last week that he shot me.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 10000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Different Head Tilt

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 7200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Unsmiling Reference Shot
it'd make a fine driver's license photo

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 10000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pensive
I liked this one, but Paul wasn't thrilled with it

In the shots of me that Paul took, some folks liked the last shot but not the first, which is perhaps a little odd because it's the same photo with a different crop. Maybe it's because the tighter crop gets rid of the silly turtleneck. Anyway, here's a tighter crop of the first shot above, but also with a few processing differences...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 10000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gregarious

I don't feel that I really progressed much from the previous time. We're practicing more tomorrow, with Stéphane Barbery.