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I took this photo today, and thought to use it for one of my “What am I?” quizzes. As if often the case, the image metadata will give a strong hint to those who know how to read it (that is, to those who know how to click on the “map & image data” link under the image 😉 )
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dusk Arrival at the Dougo Onsen
道後温泉
Matsuyama, Japan
This post picks up from “Day 2: Bridge Bicycle Ride Part 2”, about our short trip to Imabari earlier in the month. After spending the day riding bikes across a long suspension bridge, we made the drive south to the city of Matsuyama, to visit the oldest (or one of the oldest) hot springs in Japan, the Dougo Onsen. It's mentioned in literature more than 1,200 years old, but the building itself is brand spanking new, having been built a scant 117 years ago.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Building at the Dougo Onsen
with the “Tama no Ishi” (玉の石) in the lower left
There's some legend related to the creation of Japan and some rock that some mythical/legend dude danced on..... and now you can pour water on the rock with a long ladle, for some reason.... (???)
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Long Reach
“Tama no Ishi” (玉の石)
This was the first time I'd seen actual gas street lights...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gas Street Lamps
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Underexposed For Detail
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op at the Main Entrance
We got a course of services whereby we could have a small private room for an hour, using it to get ready for the bath, and to have some tea and sweets after. The room was on the third floor, overlooking the second floor roof and open to the sounds of bath and food and relaxing...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/25 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
From The Third Floor
For reference, the railing seen left of center, in the distance between the two parts of the building, is exactly that one that Fumie is next to in the first photo of this post.
The light in the fading sky was really nice, but made nicer by the apparently strong natural vignette of the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 when it's used wide open. The following shot loses all its character when I enable the profiled lens corrections in Lightroom (so I left them disabled)...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm, cropped — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Before Our Bath
We then went for our bath, Fumie to hers and Anthony and I to ours. It was okay, but frankly, nothing particularly special. Sort of boring.
Returning to our room, we found tea and Bocchan Dango sweets waiting.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just a bit Impatient
The writer of a famous 1906 novel, Bocchan, liked this onsen (hot springs), and now they make ample use of his name and works everywhere, including in the name of the sweets.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
First Taste
They were apparently tasty enough for Anthony to want mine, so I have to take his word on it.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Silly Mirror
on the way out
Anthony was asleep 10 minutes later, as we drove back to the hotel in Imabari.
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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — 1/3200 sec, f/5.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Class Trip to Shogunzuka
将軍塚 Kyoto, Japan
I often make the short drive up to the Shogunzuka overlook to catch the sunset or just enjoy the nice view, but it's usually to the public overlook, and only a few times to the actual Shogunzuka gardens next door (500 yen to enter... about $6). I should go more, because it's quite pretty in its own right, and the views are wonderful. Last time I went was about two years ago when my friend Ram was in town. I went today, and though it was quite pretty, you could definitely tell it was two weeks deeper into spring than that previous trip, with more green and less blossoms.
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/640 sec, f/11, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Temple Gardens
from the observation platform
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/2500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking the Other Way
throught he perpetual haze of Kyoto
( the center of the photo is about here )
The “Temple Gardens” photo is a bit misleading, in that there's plenty of color under the canopy. I haven't looked too much at my photos from the day yet, but here are a few...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — 1/2500 sec, f/6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gazebo
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240 mm — 1/3200 sec, f/6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Starting to Look a Bit Ragged
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — 1/3200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Tad Lonely
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shows Potential
Let's try it at f/2.5...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Well, it's still not in the same class as “Half Bloom” or “Almost Lost”, but I guess I'm just a sucker for the Voigtländer 125's macro bokeh.
Back to the views, there was indeed a lot of spring green, and a class that had apparently hiked up was eating their bento on one of the observation decks...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 78 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
From the deck the kids were on, I could see the big shrine gate near my house, though it looks like a toy in this shot...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — 1/2500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Gate of the Heian Shrine
height of a 7-story building
This is a nicer shot than a similar one I took in 2008. And for something completely different, compare it to this view from 2006.
I love how the distance compresses things.... it's hard to believe by looking at the photo above, but that area is more “city” than not. For example, in the photo above, to the immediate right of the orange gate, there's a reddish taxi. I was standing at that exact spot when I took this picture, and in looking at my photo proximity search for that spot, you'll see a mix of city and nature. That's one thing I like so much about where I live.
Anyway, I headed back to my car at the public overlook area, and came across a different set of kids on a class hike, having their lunch in the same spot from which we watched a helicopter take off a few years ago...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lunch on the Grass
This was Anthony's class, here on a field trip. Knowing he'd be here, I came up to catch a glimpse of him in his own world that's separated from ours at home. But as soon as I got close, kids started yelling “Your dad's here!”, so, so much for sneaking a peek.
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Coming Over To See Daddy
somehow looking a bit more mature than his eight years
( it could be that he looks different because he's still chewing on the lunch I interrupted)
How he looks in this picture makes me think he's taken the next step past last year's Tipping Point. They grow up so fast.
He was actually happy to have me there, I was glad to hear, and asked that I stick around for no apparent reason other than he liked the idea that I was around. Sweet. I wonder how long that will last.
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lunch with Friends
trading snacks
Fumie had made a killer bento for lunch, but for a snack after, they were allowed to bring 200 yen worth of candy (about $2.50, which is really quite a lot, I thought). A lot of trading goes on.
However, it was cut short by rain. I could see the rain approaching on radar on my iPhone, and then look out and see a wave of rain approaching in the distance. After letting the teacher know, I walked over to Anthony and pointed at it and asked whether he knew what it was. He didn't, so I told him it was rain, and that he might want to start getting his stuff in order. He didn't really believe me, but the rain hit about two minutes later...
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yikes!
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95 mm — 1/640 sec, f/5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bummer
They were more prepared for the rain than I, so I went home. It turns out that it let up after a few minutes, and so they continued on their plan to hike down the mountain to Kiyomizu Temple, and then make their way home.
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I've had a number of posts recently about the Cosina Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 and the ultra-creamy bokeh it has in close-up macro shots, as featured in “Exploring the Edge of Creamy Macro Bokeh with Lily of the Nile”, and other recent examples here, here, and here. All those examples were taken in less than ideal conditions, with the camera held by hand while the flower or whatnot jiggled in the breeze. So today when I noticed some nice fluffy dandelions by the river, I thought to bring some home to give the Voigtländer a whirl with the benefit of a tripod and a subject that's not moving.
Considering the subject, though, the focus of these falls more on the sharpness of the fine hairs rather than the creaminess of the bokeh. The steadiness of the tripod (and lack of wind) was most helpful in this regard.
I set the dandelion in a glass and placed them in front of a window, propping up a sheet of whitish paper for a background...
Later I grabbed a piece of faded-blackish construction paper from Anthony's art-stuff pile and used that as the background, and the results seem more striking than the white-background versions, which again follows the “sharpness not creaminess” theme of today's post.
Here's a different variety of dandelion, smaller than the first one, at f/22 where my Voigtländer rarely ventures....
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1.3 sec, f/22, ISO 640 — full exif
Sharpness
there seems to be some
Each time I set up a shot, I took a series of pictures encompassing each aperture setting of the lens, from f/2.5 through f/22, just so that later I can get a feel for the effect on the depth of field, bokeh, and sharpness. A quick glance at the series this one came from makes me feel that probably f/8 is the sharpest, but I need to spend more time with it later.
One thing I didn't realize until taking these shots is that this tiny dandelion is constructed quite differently than the first and its “dimply” appearance. This one has more of a “mad scientist” vibe going on. Maybe one or both aren't even dandelions... I don't know.
This particular specimen exhibited the most exquisitely-perfect roundness until I started to walk with it from the riverbank, at which point the wind took half of it for itself in measured amounts with each step. Some creative composition hides that half of it is gone.
But this lens wants to be used wide open, so it took the following photo of its own volition, from the same position as above...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/80 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — full exif
Barest Edge of the Cloud
it's instructive to view the bokeh of the closest hairs in the large version
Back to the first, larger dandelion...
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/160 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — full exif
Back Edge
nothing's very sharp because it's looking through the puff to focus on the rear edge
Here's one from the same position, but with a different focus point and aperture, in black & white....
I like this one a lot. I wasn't intending to post it in black & white, but while in Photoshop to make the desktop-background versions, I bumped something and accidentally switched to viewing only the blue channel. The result had some impact, so I returned to Lightroom to redo the photo in black & white, dropping the luminosity on many of the channels to zero or close to it. It really accentuates the back-lit nature of the shot.
I don't break out the tripod like this very often, so this was fun and instructive for me. And considering that my first post with this lens featured some dandelions from the same riverbank, it seems appropriate that my first post with this lens and a tripod does as well.
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In my previous post, about factually-incorrect hype of a photo-editing application that claimed it provided “Layers in Lightroom”, I noted that an idea had come to me to almost actually provide “Layers in Lightroom”.
I had a proof-of-concept version out to friends that evening, but it's taken a couple of days to spiff it up enough for a beta release.
— Jeffrey's “Photoshop Layers” Lightroom Plug —
It's slow and a bit kludgy — definitely not “Layers in Lightroom” — but unlike other external-editor solutions like the hyped app, this plugin allows for a non destructive workflow.
With it, you build a persistent link between images in Lightroom and layers in a new Photoshop PSD that's added to your Lightroom catalog. You can edit that new PSD pretty much as you like... add new layers, resize, crop, transform, mask, add text layers, run actions and filters, edit pixels, etc.
But the key here is that if you make subsequent edits to the originals in Lightroom, those edits are reflected through the Photoshop edits and back into the composite in Lightroom..
Some might call this a “game changer” :-). I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it'll sure be handy at times.
The plugin page explains it more, but all in all, this plugin might be described as:
| “ | A slow but mostly-effective way to get a somewhat layer-like experience in a Lightroom non-destructive workflow by using Photoshop as an external rendering engine. | ” |
It's still very beta, so I'm looking for feedback of all kinds, including how you find it useful, where it's not quite enough to be useful, etc.
How much I work on this in the future depends on the kind of feedback I get. If you think it'll be useful for you, let me know, and if you think it's a waste of time, let me know that too. (The first reply I got from the first group of friends that I released it to was “not worth the effort”, but I disagreed, so here we are.)
Frankly, the method I've come up with for this plugin could be used with Perfect Layers (and other editing applications) if some relatively-small hooks were added to them and their companion Lightroom plugins, and so if OnOne is watching, here's your chance to have your product actually come close to living up to its hype. That would be a good thing for the Lightroom community, so I hope you do. It took me one afternoon.