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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Floating Upside-Down Tree
On my deep-mountain scooter ride deep in the mountains north of Kyoto the other day, I came across something I hadn't quite expected, a tree floating upside-down flying across a small valley between two local peaks.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tree Had Approached From The East
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
It Dangled Above
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gently Let Down Here
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Take'Er Away
worker signals wire-crane operator
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wire Crane Operator
he's there, but you have to look carefully
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Part of The “Crane”
its wires spanned hundreds of meters across a valley
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Time To Turn This Tree Into Logs
(By the way, I wonder whether the large cone-shaped tree behind the backhoe is the same pseudo-cedar discussed in “Deep In The Mountains Above Kyoto's Kumogahata Village”, but without the branch pruning done by the tree farmers....?)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Employing “The Claw”
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Keto 150 Harvester Head
from Sweden
This thing this was absolutely amazing to watch....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
First, Lop Off The End Piece
with a nice clean, square cut via the built-in chainsaw
Picking up the action with a different log...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lopping off the End Piece
Then the claws open slightly and the internal knobby-teeth tracks spin, shooting the massive log out the end of The Claw at an impressive pace, stopping after exactly four meters are exposed...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Coming At You
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
One Freshly-Minted Four-Meter Log
at your service
It took 8 seconds from cut to cut. The tree is then ejected a further four meters, and 8 seconds after the previous cut...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Log #2
... and 8 seconds later...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Log #3
The remains of this short tree weren't appropriate for the log pile he was deftly adding them to, so he put the remaining logs in a different pile, and tossed the very top part onto yet another pile. Everything was sorted and stacked in neat and orderly piles.
The entire harvester head can spin and pivot forward/backward and right/left with impressive speed, dexterity, and precision. It immediately brought to mind a mix of some kind of video game, with the climactic hanger scene from Aliens...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Like A Scene From Aliens
you half expect Sigourney Weaver to be in there
The operator was clearly very skilled, and I was filled with the same “I can't quite follow along in real time” bewilderment one gets when trying to follow an experienced magician work a deck of cards. I would be hard pressed to work a stack of pencils with my hands as deftly as he worked the tree with that machine.
The operator was a pleasant young guy with one of those easy smiles that beams from his whole face, so I really wanted to take his portrait, but sadly, he declined with a “moi? that'd be embarrassing!” look, so this is the closet we'll get...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Operator
The harvester head can even de-limb the trees, as one side has pincer-looking curved blades that close around the trunk, so when the trunk is being ejected out one end, any tree branches on the trunk are cut off on the other...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Business End
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ejector Treads
( for lack of the proper term )
These treads are the answer to the What's the Point of This “What am I?” Quiz? from the other day.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Retractable Chain Saw
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sawdust a'Flyin
It was truly impressive to watch. If you search for “Keto harvester head” you'll find plenty of videos of them in action. I watched this one with Anthony, to which he replied that it seemed a bit sad for the trees. I understand the feeling, but tried to put it into perspective that it's a tree farm, and would he feel sad to watch someone pick carrots? Both are plants, but trees do feel special, don't they?
Here's another video, this time showing testing of a new model.
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Path To the Imakumano Kannonji Temple
(今熊野観音寺)
Kyoto Japan, Spring 2011
If the pic above looks familiar, it's because I had a portrait version of it on “An Amazing Day of Photography at Some Eastern-Kyoto Temples” back in April. I was rummaging around in my Lightroom catalog today and got depressed at how many posts are waiting for me to get around to them — I have so much I want to share — so I thought I'd start with a few more from the morning of the photogenic stroll that produced that post.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Morning Constitutional
Having recently posted “Trying Some Hard-Edged Black and White”, I thought I see what I could do with an otherwise boring shot from a display at the Imakumano Kannonji Temple. I dunno... perhaps wasn't worth the time...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Happy Little Man
It was still cherry-blossom season...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
... but far enough along that the petals had started falling...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherry-Blossom Petals
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 cropped — 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherry-Blossom Petal
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Horn-Shaped Flower/Blossom of Some Sort
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Perfect
I was highly taken with the perfection of these otome tsubaki (乙女椿). I posed one head-on shot here, but have always intended a few more, so here we are.
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
In Situ
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
There are a lot of temples and a few small shrines in the area. Wandering around, I came upon this quiet scene...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance to the Zenryuuji Temple and Inari Daimyou Shrine
(善龍寺、稲荷大明神社)
These are apparently sufficiently small to avoid all mention in Wikipedia, yet according to the notations on various mapping services, the shrine part is the oldest Inari shrine in Japan (the most famous of which is the dazzling Fushimi Inari Shrine a kilometer away.
The gate in the photo above has two big wooden doors that are propped open at the moment. I took a shot of one with the intent of using it as a desktop background, but I'm not quite sure the result is powerful enough... it feels more like a snapshot than anything else.
But it's here, so I may as well put it up to let you decide...
Just inside the gate, the view was much nicer...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shrine Gate, Temple Building
It was still early in what turned out to be a long and productive day, so many more posts to come.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 19mm — 1/320 sec, f/14, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Road Ahead
can sometime be rocky
Last week I posted “Deep In The Mountains Above Kyoto's Kumogahata Village” and its followups, featuring photos from a rainy car trip into some remote mountains. The weather was nice yesterday, so I went back on my scooter, and could probe deeper than I could with the car.
Today's simple post just shows some scenes of the roads I was on, or of areas just off the road.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lopped Off
Fallen trees looped off at the road line was a frequent sight. The mountain is covered with trees, and they fall from time to time, and if they block the road, they're cleared away just enough so that they're no longer blocking the road.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 16mm — 1/320 sec, f/13, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Scarred
I don't know why sections of mountain appeared this way, but my guess is that a whole section of trees became flattened with heavy snow (perhaps with a Domino effect of one tree falling into a few below, and so on). Since this area of tree-flattening happened to have easy access from the road, someone came in and salvaged what they could of the lumber.
This next photo shows a similar situation, but without the salvage, since it's across a small river gorge from the road...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 19mm — 1/160 sec, f/14, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bendy
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ballet-Slipper Trees
Some trees in one area were marked with criss-crossed ribbon. I don't know what it was for, but I suspect it was to mark trees that should or shouldn't be harvested. Some fallen trees were marked as well, which brings up the question of whether they were marked before or after they fell (and if after, what the mark could mean)...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 17mm — 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some of the trees that fell over the river were also marked
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Where I Turned Around Last Time
but the scooter could pass, so I forged ahead this time
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
A More Manageable Problem
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 18mm — 1/320 sec, f/5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sure to be an Ongoing Problem
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sweeping View of Kyoto
at least it would be if the air were clear
I didn't notice it when I was there, but I see now that Kyoto Tower is visible just to the left of center. It's 10 miles (17 km) away.
There weren't many vista views throughout the drive because the altitude is always well below where the trees would start to thin out (the mountains in this area top out at about 900m). When I did get one, most were like this...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/13, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just a Bunch Of Mountains
At some point on the way up the road changed from the paved-but-often-challenging type seen in the various photos above, to a muddy rock-and-rut-filled not-intended-for-normal-vehicular-traffic transpiration nightmare. I was prepared at any point for the path to become totally impassible on my scooter and turn around, but it never did and eventually I got back to semi pavement.
Also above a certain point the bugs became positively insane... I've never seen anything like it. I was pelted, literally, incessantly by dozens of large insects that would just ram me and the bike over and over. I have no idea what was going on, or whether they were doing it for sport or out of malice, but it was crazy. At some point prior to this my progress had become sufficiently slow (walking pace) and the prospect of meeting anyone or anything on the “road” were so slim that I'd removed my helmet, but with the frenzy of the bugs I put it back on, and felt like I was in a hail storm. Have never seen anything like it.
Eventually I descended out of it, and life was good again. Which brings me to these next two photos, which illustrate nicely the problem I mentioned in “A Photographic Challenge of Monumental Scale”...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Carpet of Green
The photo above is looking up a very steep notch in the mountain formed where two slopes come together. It's rising away from the camera at a good 40° angle, but in the photo it appears to be a lazy incline, at best.
Now, compare that with a photo taken from the same location, pointing to the same location (the very center of the next photo is exactly the scene above), but with a much wider lens...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/320 sec, f/14, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Same Scene @ 14mm
The second one does convey a sense of slope and scale, but does so at the expense of all photogenic worthiness.
I ventured up the slope a ways on foot, to the area with the carpet of green. It was a wonderfully peaceful place to visit, and wonderfully productive photo-wise.
It also offered a valuable lesson in watching out for deadly mamushi pit vipers, which I now know can be found in these woods. Their bite can be fatal, but most often results in only a slight case of MOF that requires a mere week or two in the hospital and a month of followup home care, sometimes accompanied by touch of limb amputation. All and all, it doesn't sound all that fun.
As for my lesson, I got away with merely a sudden need for new underwear, and as a bonus, found out that my heart works just fine under sudden adrenal-fueled surprise, a question that might have been left over after my recent minor heart issues.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/400 sec, f/9, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Impromptu Bridges
more remains of trees that had fallen across the road
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 18mm — 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Overpass
trees fallen across the road, but way above the road
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Overpasses
they look small and in the way, but they're huge and large trucks could easily pass
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty Road
for some definitions of “road”
The photo above and the photo below nicely show how steep many of these larger slopes were. Some were much steeper still, bordering on cliffs, but the majority were in the 40°–50° range.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 18mm — 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 16mm — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Scars
seemingly untouched after the fact, leading me to believe it was snow
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 15mm — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Another Scar
but this time well picked over
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mountain Monorail
I saw perhaps half a dozen of these things winding up into the woods in various areas. (You'll recall I wrote about one such track a couple of weeks ago.)
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pleasant
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 19mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
End of the Road
This particular road just stopped, right here
Stepping just into the woods beyond the end, a wide angle shows the heights well.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
30 Meters Straight Up
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/3.5, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking Back at my Scooter
the road starts here
It's a shame that Google doesn't allow me to build a Lightroom uploader for their Panoramio service, which supplies photos for Google Earth. I've got so many photos from uncommon areas around Japan that I'd share if it were just a bit easier to do so.
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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
What am I?
If you get the point of this “What am I?” quiz, leave your answer in the comments. I'll withhold all comments until I reveal the answer in a few days...
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Man of Confidence
Confidence in my photo-processing technique?
While at the Shimyouin Temple the other day, I intended to ask permission to take a portrait of the priest and his wife. To prepare, I asked Paul Barr to stand in for a quick test shot in the dim entry room, with soft light splashing in through the door from the gloomy downpour outside.
When I got home, instead of deleting the test shot I started to play with it a bit in Lightroom, and found a fairly powerful image emerge as I pushed it toward a hard-edged black & white (heavy on the blacks, contrast, and clarity).
It reminded me of another test shot, this time from April's “Mountain Play with Monet and Friends”, when I asked Arthur to hold my WhiBal for a quick light test. I have no idea why I started to play with this one in Lightroom in the first place (normally I just use them to take a white-balance reading that I can then apply to the other photos taken in the same light), but I find something about it really striking...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherished
( pretend he's holding, say, a great-grandfather's pocket watch )
This kinds of post processing isn't really my normal style, though I've sort of done it occasionally (here, here, here, and, of course, the camo duck). I'll probably try it a bit more, though I'll have to be careful not to overdo it.
Kyoto friend Stéphane Barbery uses this style often, to great effect, such as these Jidai Matsuri shots from a few years ago. If you watch his Flickr stream, you'll often see sets of captivating B&W come by.