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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picnic at the Top of the World
a family enjoys a quiet outing with a view
Oishikougen, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan

Well, it's not quite Mt. Everest, and not even as high as the mountain we visited in Ehime Prefecture last month, but the view made it feel like it was. Pierre Nadeau, the Japanese swordsmith I visited earlier this month, stopped off to show us this view on the way to lunch.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
So, Uh, Where's the Food?

My imperfect Japanese can sometimes make for comical situations. I heard that we were going for lunch and that I should follow in my car. It was quite a long drive, but I wasn't surprised because someone had said we were going to “Oishiikougen”, which I understood as, literally, “Tasty Plateau”. The mental image that popped into my mind was a cleared-out area in the mountains with a number of restaurants and cafes joining together to make a “destination”, sort of like a food mall in the middle of a picturesque nowhere.

I was correct about the “picturesque nowhere” part. It turns out that it's not the “Oishiikougen” (美味しい高原) that I thought I heard, but rather, “Oishikougen” (生石高原), a pleasant park near the top of the locally-highest Mt Oishigamine (生石ケ峰), a very picturesque nowhere indeed, but also a nowhere decidedly devoid of a mall-like dining experience.

I was, of course, the only one to have made this misunderstanding.

I had my little 300mm f/2 in the car, having picked it up two days prior. It seemed to be a nice area to give it a try, so I did....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Quality Time

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flying an R/C Plane

Here's the wider scene that ties the two pictures above together...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

I tried to get a shot of the plane they were flying (and flying well, considering that the formidable wind gusts were unpredictable), but manual focus at 300mm at f/2 is not my strong suit (especially, as I understood later, the lens was misconfigured such that proper focus was not even possible!)...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fuzzy

What I should have done (besides understanding how to configure the lens properly) was to focus on the man, then wait and snap the shot when the plane was in the plain of focus. The plane was darting around quickly, but after a while I bet I would have gotten lucky. I tried this a week later with some birds (in “Big Lens at the River: Focusing on Disappointment”) to better success than the photo above.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/2, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gathering

The outcropping of rocks had a sheer dropoff on one side, so it was a natural place to sit and relax, all the more with Zak's shakuhachi. (Zak is one of the best shakuhachi players in the world, though such refined arts are mostly lost on my Neanderthal senses.)

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

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Others Enjoying the Park

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Summit
I suppose it's up there

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/6400 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Biiiiiig Stretch

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Off

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Back to the Car

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/4000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Deeper into the Mountains

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/1250 sec, f/8, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Carved Out

A scant fifteen seconds from the front door of Pierre Nadeau's Swordsmith deep in the rural mountains of Japan's Wakayama Prefecture is a sweeping view of “Aragishima” (commonly written あらぎ島, but sometimes 蘭島), a set of terraced rice paddies shaved from a hill almost completely encompased by the sweep of an almost-full-circle river bend.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Watching Daddy Work

The paddies weren't in their most photogenic state when I visited earlier this month, and the weather/lighting situation while I was there didn't help. These photos were taken over the course of a couple of days, so the lighting among them is all over the map. I like the shot above because the little kids are watching the adult working, but the lighting is horrible. This next shot, taken the previous afternoon, seems better, but the lone worker tucked away at the far edge makes a less compelling image...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/5000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

I saw some amazing shots by a friend of Pierre while we were there. I'm sure there are many better ones online than you'll find in this post (image search at Yahoo and at Google), but seedlings were being planted while I was there, which made it much nicer for me, because I enjoy the human element.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/5000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Solitary Toil

For reference, here's what the wider view looks like...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27mm — ¹/400 sec, f/11, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Standard Aragishima Shot

But like I said, it's not in its most photogenic state. And the river, which at times can be a powerful wide gushing angry snake, was just a slight trickle while we were there. Frankly, I like my WhiBal-capture shot better... the mountains have a nice feeling to them....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — ¹/5000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Checking the Light

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 300mm f/2 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Farmer's Work Is Never Done
from what I could tell, he was of a fairly advanced age

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Navigation

The main spot to take pictures (where I took all those above) is a viewing platform beside a road that runs in the mountains above the paddies, but among the foot paths in the small community further up the mountain, I found a clearing with benches offering a nice view...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos

I can just imagine how wonderful this would be
On a Lazy Summer Evening

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
What am I?

Having finished up yesterday with my last post on the oddly-interesting Towel Museum in Imabari, Japan, I thought I'd post one more “What am I?” quiz from there, adding to the last month's quiz from there.

So, what's today's photo?

(The answer is noted in the comments below; the story of our Imabari trip is continued here.)

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Delicate and Creamy
but just a little edgy

So, last week with “Revisiting Imabari's Colorful Towel Museum” I was wrapping up a series of posts (part: one and two) about the oddly-interesting Towel Museum in Imabari, Japan, and I ended with a shot of the flowers on our table at the museum's cafe.

For context, here's our table...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Waiting for Mommy

... and here's the little shot-glass of flowers on the table...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Unassuming

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

But the little unassuming collection of flowers becomes great fodder for exploration with the creamy goodness of the Cosina Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5, so while waiting for our food, I took a few minutes to try different compositions. I was working handheld as I always do (almost), and just putzing around until the food came.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Too Much Going On
but the drop of water is a nice detail, I suppose

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sliver of Focus
I like the abstract feeling, as with this shot

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/11, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Posterized
the big version razzle-dazzles the retinas

I almost always use the Voigtländer wide open, for obvious reasons, but I shot at the one above at f/11 to increase depths of field. The result turned out to be boring and clinical, so in Lightroom I blasted most of the frame with the negative-clarity funky joy technique.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ultra Thin

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Violently Violet
( I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool, sort of )

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pollen

Really, this lens opens up such opportunities, you're just limited by your own skill and artistic sense. This doesn't bode well for me, but it's fun to putz around.

Continued here...

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Moderating blog comments — the triage to weed out spam and such before making submitted comments visible to the public — can get complicated. Obvious spam is easy (delete it), as are obviously on-topic relevant personal comments without links (approve it). But there's a lot in between.

In particular, if there's a link you have to consider where it goes, and the commenter's purpose for including the link. On one end of the spectrum, spammers will just copy the text of a previously-approved comment and add a link to a site they're spamming for. Or someone will write something that at first appears to be relevant, but in such a generic way that it seems its only purpose is to get their link to show up on your blog. For example, after I post something like “A Few Japanese Swords of Note”, I'll see comments along the lines of "Thank you for nice and informative data. Japanese swords can be full of history and a good investment", with a link going to some commercial site trading in Japanese swords. Spam.

(Years ago, I posted “Creative Street-Sweeper Design” about a street cleaner that four-year-old Anthony had made out of Lego, and got a comment with a link back to a company that makes actual street-cleaning vehicles, but rather than spam, I felt it was cute, so approved it.)

But what if someone offers a comment that simply disagrees with you? What if they're annonymous. Or on the other hand, what if they provide a link to their site? Could half their intent be to get a visit back to their site? But what if the link would actually be a benefit for your readers?

There are no clear answers, but I find the following two situations, when taken together, to be telling...

A month ago, I made my disappointment clear about some shameful marketing by Scott Kelby (in my “The Amazing Marketing Power of Scott Kelby” post, and a followup), but even though I wrote those in response to specific posts on Scott Kelby's site, I never attempted to mention them in comments on his site, because that could be considered self-serving spam, rather than a benefit to him or his readers. I offered a benefit to his readers by simply pointing out his error and asking for clarification. When a few days later I developed a new solution to address some of the issues under discussion, I didn't attempt to even mention it in a comment on his site even though it would have been a benefit to his readers, because I thought it might be considered rude.

So that was then. A week or so ago, I tried to leave a comment on the blog of one of Scott Kelby's business partners, Matt Kloskowski's “Lightroom Killer Tips”. He posted a two-paragraph item “Lightroom Tip - Facebook and Flickr Commenting” in which the first paragraph was an unrelated advertisement for Scott Kelby training DVDs, and the second pointing out a potentially-overlooked aspect of Lightroom's built in Publish feature. The ensuing comments by his readers brought up questions/concerns about how these features worked, but no answers from Matt or other commenters. Well, considering that I've written more Publish plugins than the rest of the world, including Adobe, combined, this is an area I'm familiar with, so I thought to offer a comment to help those readers..

Here's the comment I submitted to Matt's post:

The question facing Matt when this comment arrived in his inbox: is this spam or a benefit to your readers?

If you read the post and the other comments, what I've added is clearly on topic, relevant, and helpful, but yet, there are links, so you've got to be more careful. Do these links benefit Matt's readers? Two of them are specific answers that solve specific reader questions, and the third is of generic interest to any Lightroom user, so yeah, overall this is an obvious benefit for Matt's readers, and a comment that one would think Matt would be happy to get.

However, when I looked the next day, the comment had not appeared, even to me with the “your comment is awaiting moderation” note it had right after I submitted it. That's odd.

Perhaps I had made a mistake and didn't actually submit it, so I sent it in again, and waited. After four days, I'd seen many other comments on Matt's site being approved, so I knew that he wasn't on vacation or something, but my comment was still invisible to his readers, appearing only to me (and, of course, to Matt). Could he be withholding this help for his readers out of spite for me? It'd be sad to see an adult be so petty and small, especially at the expense of his readers, so perhaps it had just been overlooked. I added a private followup comment asking whether my comment might be approved....

The next day, my comment was no longer visible even to me, indicating that Matt had simply deleted it.

Sad. And telling.