NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Oddly Artistic
shrine building, as viewed through a curtain of boiling-hot air

Among the photos on “Intense Burn Begins”, my most recent post about the Setsubun festival at the Heian Shrine earlier this month, was Ripples, showing a thin slice of focus in the tumultuous heated hair near the burning pyre. This post is a bunch more of the same, just 'cause I think it's interesting.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

What follows are pairs of images, a crop hilighting something interesting, and the full frame it's from. In many of these the full frame is a throw-away shot, but I include it for context.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Billowing Eddies

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cloudlike

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Meeting at the Horizon

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Edge Effect

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bubbling

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Really, Really Hot

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shooting Stars

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Full Frame

Continued here...

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I'm looking for recommendations for a photo-viewing app for my iPad; Apple's “Photos” app has too many bugs and limitations for my needs. What I want seems simple — an elegant way with which to impose my photos onto someone hapless to come within an eyeball's reach of me — but I haven't found it yet.

Features that I hope for:

1. Clean, simple, uncluttered interface.

2. Photo update via FTP, Dropbox, or some other method where management is done on my computer and merely reflected to the device.

3. Supports display of basic metadata on each photo, when asked.

4. Supports display of a map for geoencoded photos.

5. Supports large images.

6. An arbitrarily-deep folder structure.

7. Image sorting: at least via photo date and image filename.

Things that I don't care about:

1. Any kind of photo management on the device (rating, flagging, moving, grouping, renaming, rotating, labeling, ...)

2. Any kind of photo development on the device (cropping, filters, touch-ups, etc.)

3. Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or anything else like that.

4. Passwords, slideshows, music integration, etc.

The best I've found so far is Photo Manager Pro by Linkus, after Scott Bourne recommended it. It's a great bargain for a couple of bucks, and it does many things I like. To boot, the developer is responsive, and the current version of the app contains some features and fixes that I requested. I like it so much that I built an FTP client into my new Collection Publisher plugin for Lightroom, so that I can instantly reflect changes in my portfolio to the app.

But alas, Photo Manager Pro's interface is anything but “clean and uncluttered” and I doubt one request from me would result in a monumental shift in aesthetics, so I'm looking for other options.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/16, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lots Going On
three conflicting sources of light, multiple planes of interest, and some serious heat

Continuing with posts about the Setsubun Festival at the Heian Shrine (Kyoto, Japan) earlier this month, following on from “Attack (and Repulsion) of the Evil Spirits” and “Beans of Good Fortune”, we move on to the bonfire event.

I covered the same event four years ago in “Intense Burn: Shinto Rite at the Heian Shrine”, so this year I was concerned less about documenting the event in photos than to see what kind of interesting shots I might get.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Half
there were two pallets of sticks, and two pyres to be set alight

In the event, two bonfires are set alight, and the bundles of sticks are thrown in one by one. Each stick has a wish written on it, and it's my understanding that the thought is that the wishes ascend to the gods with the smoke.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
9450 Sticks
189 bundles at 50 sticks per

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op While Waiting
taking a picture of someone taking a picture

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Priests Arrive

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos

The light was a challenge... things were predominately lit by either the warm glow of the setting sun, or in the shade, which is lit by the cold blue of the wide expanse of sky.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/4000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ready To Light

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ripples

Intense heat was quickly apparent, before flames or even much smoke. With the thin depth of field at f/2, one got an interesting and unique slice of the tumultuous air.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Smokin'
Pyres, beyond the row of chanting priests, start burning in earnest

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/5000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Minute Later

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Raging
just two minutes after “Smokin'”

Once the flame was raging in earnest, I tried some shots of the chanting priests with the flames as a backdrop...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Paper
isolated at f/2

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Priest
Isolated at f/5.6

This was a situation where the thin depth of field didn't work, and even at f/11 — the Burning Hot Lyrics photo that I posted on the day of the event — I think the flames in the background weren't emphasized enough. The lens in question is meant to be used wide open, so I don't have much at f/16 of note except for the photo that leads this post.

I wasn't able to move easily from my position (I was the first to have staked out a spot, but eventually was cemented in by a solid wall of folks with cameras) but I tried the same kind of shots with one of the other priests, with less luck....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Centered
but not compelling

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Bit Better
but still not very good

It was better with more depth of field and some wind-whipped flames, which again brings us back to the aforementioned “Burning Hot Lyrics” shot.

I'll continue this in another post, but for context, here are some wider shots that I was able to take because I had arrived so early to get a good position...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/6400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scene at 50mm

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scene at 24mm

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scene at 14mm

Continued here...

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I released two new plugins for Adobe Lightroom today, my Folder Publisher and Collection Publisher. They're what my old “Tree Publisher” plugin should have been, with many extras. They allow you to replicate the folder or collection hierarchy in Lightroom out to local disk, and optionally even FTP the results somewhere.

I was never happy with the old tree publisher, but I'm quite happy with these two new ones. Combined with some big changes to my Crop for iPad plugin that I pushed recently, I've completely revamped my workflow to get a copy of my portfolio onto my iPad. I wrote at length about that in “Getting Photos from Lightroom to an iPad is a Lot Harder (to Do Well) Than You Think; Here’s How” just three months ago, but due to strangeness with iTunes and Apple's “Photos” app, the whole affair just felt kludgy and unsatisfying.

Fast forward to today and the workflow feels much better, and will be the subject of a new blog post soon. But first I had to release these plugins, so here we are.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Beans-a-Flyin'

Still busy working on Lightroom plugins, so just a short post today on the next phase of the Setsubun festival last week at the Heian Shrine. After demons representing the ills of the past year were banished, the next step was wishing good forutune for the next year with another bean-centric event. I posted about it three years ago in “Setsubun Mamemaki: Throwing of the Beans”, so from this year just a few pictures to catch the vibe....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nice Spread

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Having Fun

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reserved

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/5000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Very Serious

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2500 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Having Fun

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/3200 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Serious
and not so much

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 cropped — ¹/2000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
All Done

Continued here...