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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dazzling Colors
at the under-renovation Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社)
Kyoto, Japan

Some friends are in town, and I joined them on a visit to the Fushimi Inari Shrine in south-west Kyoto this morning. I'd last visited three years ago (see “Kyoto's Dazzling Fushimi Inari Shrine”, and followups here, here, and here), and it seems that much has changed since: it's undergoing a massive renovation.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Under Construction
Entrance Path

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hubbub at the Central Court

The new paint was positively blinding in its richness, including the multi-colored detail seen in the first photo. I think I prefer the weather-beaten look that centuries tend to put on wooden structures, but the fresh-paint brilliance today was interesting and (for me so far) unique.

As it happened, as we arrived, they were taking the wraps off a newly-installed statue...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Under Wraps

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Let the Dewrapping Begin

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Spectators
friends from out of town, watching the statue unveiling

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sleek New Fox

I'll post more later from when we walked the paths with thousands of shrine gates, but here's one gate that was getting a first/fresh coat of paint....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gate Maintenance

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Keeping Within the Lines

I wrote a bit about gate maintenance in the previous series on this shrine, here.

Continued here...

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Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 320 — full exif
Nonchalant
about the non-rain

I've been singularly uninspired to post lately, but had hoped that the typhoons I mentioned two weeks ago would create some dynamic weather, which might make for some interesting shots like this. It took a week before slow-moving Typhoon #12 (“Talas”) arrived, but it veered west at the last minute and so unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of “interesting” in Kyoto. Even more unfortunately, there was way too much “interesting” in some areas 100 miles away where they got, literally, two feet of rain (24.5 inches) in 24 hours, and with it the accompanying flooding, landslides, and high death toll.:-(

But back as it passed through, Kyoto got some gusty winds and occasional sprays of rain, but mostly it was dry, so I ventured out just a bit with the camera.

Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 400 — full exif
More Bundled than Most

Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — full exif
Nary an Umbrella

Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 720 — full exif
Quick Photo Op at the Heian Shrine
likely a bunch of bridesmaids on the way to a wedding

Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 — full exif
Dash Back to the Car

Nikon D700 + 300mm f/2 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2, ISO 280 — full exif
Canceled Concert

The shrine was schedule to be the site of a concert for some pop star, but it ended up being postponed. Temples and shrines, with their tax-exempt status, sometimes host these types of things; years ago, we saw Kousuke Atari at the Itsukushima Shrine near Hiroshima.

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Side Garden
Sennyuji Temple (泉涌寺)

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These first two photos, from a side area at Kyoto's Sennyuji Temple, probably don't look like much in the thumbnails here on the blog, but clicking through to larger versions and they have a certain “presence”, especially the first one. Or maybe it's just me, but I like them.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

One side held a quaint little rest area...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/16, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sitting Area

The ceiling was woven (bamboo, I suppose)...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Woven Ceiling

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Wandering further around the fringes of the huge-but-ill-defined temple area, I came across a sub temple with a nice entrance garden...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Unryuin Temple (雲竜院)
sub temple of the Sennyuji Temple (泉涌寺)
Kyoto, Japan

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One of its buildings has a wide veranda with a roof of exposed beams, that perhaps looks a bit more interesting in B&W....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Veranda Roof

In one corner I noticed a delicate little tree full of blossoms with big color...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Delicate Little Tree

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Color

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These blossoms fell off intact, so the ground was littered with them...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Still Pretty

It was early April, so there were blossoms of all sorts all around. In the previous post in this series, I showed some pink rhododendron blossoms, and in earlier posts on the same morning stroll, I showed the perfect blossom, otome tsubaki (乙女椿), with an encore followup here.

Wandering further, I came across a bell under a roof, quite far away from anything else...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/1600 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bell

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
User's Perspective

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Business End

At this point, I suppose I'm half way through the stroll that I started posted about in April's “An Amazing Day of Photography at Some Eastern-Kyoto Temples”...

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Typhoons #11 and #12
as of 11am Eastern, Friday the 26th

While everyone on the US Eastern seaboard is fretting about Hurricane Irene, two powerful hurricanes are bearing down on Japan, one of which is currently stronger than Irene with winds up to 55m/s (123 mph).

Judging from the plot shown on Yahoo! Japan's typhoon page, landfall for both looks uncomfortably close to our own; we arrive in Tokyo (after a 14-hour flight) on the afternoon of the 29th, then it's on to Osaka and home that evening. At least that's the plan. Here's keeping our fingers crossed....

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I've just pushed out a fairly big update to my Data-Plot plugin for Lightroom, offering the ability to now plot focal-length, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and total exposure (E_v).

(This is a big update so I'm mentioning it here, but I don't normally announce updates here. However, all updates appear on the RSS feed for each plugin: there's a link in the upper-right of each plugin page. All my Lightroom goodies are on my aptly-named Lightroom Goodies page.)