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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Welcome Home”
Mother Nature prepares this welcome just for us 🙂

After returning last night from a short trip to Imabari, I got a good night's sleep and slept in late, and awoke to a warm, beautiful day and the cherry blossoms further on their way toward full bloom.

The first blossoms appeared a bit more than a week ago, and soon they started appearing in droves, and after three days away, they're maybe halfway toward full bloom.

The weekend should be fantastic!

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
What am I?

Okay, so I didn't challenge anyone with yesterday's post, but being tired from another 400km of driving today, I'll post another “What am I?” quiz today, of a photo I took this afternoon.

I expect this one will be a tad more formidable, but as is often the case, the image metadata provides valuable clues to the answer.

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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
What am I?
besides “3-A2 + 53” up close and personal, that is

I thought I was beat after the long drive yesterday, but today was a whole new level, so I'm absolutely exhausted, so tonight just this unchallenging “What am I?” quiz. It's something fairly common, but uncommon to see this close.

I can't imagine anyone would be stumped, but if you are, following the “full exif” link under the photo will certainly clear things up....

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/6400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Highway Rest Stop
Seto PA, Westbound
( near Okayama, Japan )

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Busy as a Bee

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/6400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Half Bloom
this one makes me feel like a budding (so to speak) Danial Sroka

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/16, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flying High
From Mt. Takami, Mukoujima Island
( near Hiroshima, Japan )

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 420 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/10, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Low Tide

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/10, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Low Tide
( slightly wider view )

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Blossom

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Snuggle Time
on the observation platform

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cute Puppy and Friend?
carving on a building at the Takanawa Temple (高縄寺), Ehime Japan

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/8000 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Blinding Reflections
at 1,000 meters up, at the top of Mt. Takanawa, Ehime Japan

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/13, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Only in Japan
small shrine and large communications tower at the top of a mountain

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 @ 50 mm — ¹/8000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bird's Nest as Sunset

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1600 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Super-Hazy Sunset
over the Inland Sea

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rush Hour

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dirty Wall

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Winding Down
Imabari International Hotel, Imabari Japan

After 430km of driving, I'm ready for a snooze...

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
All-Natural Dreamy
Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto

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Today was a laid back Saturday for me. Anthony was on a trip with his grandparents and Fumie was working on ballet, so I stayed home to try to make a dent in the unending backlog of stuff I'm behind on. But with the blossoms starting to come out in force and the temperature approaching 20°C (66°F), I couldn't resist to step outside a bit with the camera. The mood outside was wonderfully relaxed, an uncrowded, low-key version of the cherry-blossom joie de vivre that I've written about before. It was really nice. I expect next weekend will be the crowded hectic (but still nice) version.

The blossoms above are on the same branch as the first blossoms in the area that I reported the other day because that one branch has the added benefit of being low enough that I can photograph it with something other than sky as the background. It didn't matter in this case because I was fairly zoomed up with my Cosina Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 that I got last year, so being that zoomed up left the background nothing but other blossoms. This is my first cherry-blossom season with the Voigtländer, so I'm excited to put it through its paces in the coming weeks.

A macro can make things so creamy... the photo above is captioned “all natural” because it looks as if I've given it the “funky joy” treatment that I most recently used at the head of the cherry-blossom preview three weeks ago. I'm partial to that effect in measured doses, but other than setting the white balance, the shot above is straight out of Lightroom with all-default settings.

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Coming Along Nicely
but still a long way to go

The blossoms are still in the early stages, with some trees still almost entirely blossomless. Those that have them still have a long way to go before mankai, full bloom. You can see in the photo below how anemic things look from a distance...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shirakawa River
from the Biwako Canal

I like this close-focus version better...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

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That close focus on foreground foliage is another effect that I seem to be partial to... it reminds me of one of my favorite shots, Serenity at the Sanzen-in Temple.

Over at the canal, I got this sort of odd photo...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1250 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stacked

That's a cherry-blossom-viewing boat passing under the bridge. They run during this season every year (I've written about them before, such as here and here), but I wondered whether I'd see them this year because this morning I saw a news report about similar boats in Tokyo sitting idle because people felt it would be inappropriate to enjoy them under the current circumstances. Kyoto is far enough away to not have those concerns; the boats I saw today were full.

On top of the bridge were some Buddhist monks collecting donations for the earthquake....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

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

I probably wouldn't have even thought to snap these shots except that lately I've seen similar shots on another Kyoto blog (here and here), so I thought to give it a try. And now that I'm writing this, I realize that today's group is the same as in the second post I linked to; they're from the Shogo'in Temple. The temple is just half a mile from my place, but I'd never heard of it. I'll have to pay it a visit soon.

Back to the blossoms, they've still got a way to go, but even so are sure pretty...

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

And of course, when the blossoms come out, so do the cameras...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm, cropped — ¹/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op?

I'm not sure what was going on with the guy photographing a doll in front of a backdrop of blossoms, but most scenarios I can conjure up would fall under the heading of either “heartbreaking” or “creepy”. But maybe he's just an artisan taking a snapshot of his latest creation. Who knows...

This final shot of a mess of blossoms had some punch to it, which I then enhanced a tad in Lightroom. It grabs my attention, though I'm still not sure whether in a good way..

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Punchy

I hope the spring and cherry blossoms help bring some peace to the people up in the quake-ravaged northeast.

There was another shindo-5 quake today, just like yesterday and the day before. A “shindo 5” (damage-level five) quake is one where people in the hardest hit area might feel either

“Most people try to escape from a danger. Some people find it difficult to move.”

for a 5 minus like today's, or

“Many people are considerably frightened and find it difficult to move”

for a 5 plus like yesterday's.

Unlike the magnitude measurement common in the West, which measures absolute energy at the source of the quake (however far away and remote it might be), The Japanese shindo scale rankings are specific to each location, and are based upon ground movement actually measured in three dimensions at the location by an accelerometer. There are thousands sprinkled across the country.

For reference, the tremor my friend felt when he wrote “Big f#@*!ng earthquake. Currently under table” was only a shindo 4 in his area, though he was on the 9th floor in a building on a man-made island at the time, so I'm sure the effect was amplified. The same quake was an impressive six minus further up the coast, though none of this is anything compared to the magnitude 9 quake that had struck out to sea half an hour before, which registered only as high as shindo 7 because the scale goes no higher.

Anyway, shindo 5 and above quakes are fairly rare, and under normal circumstances the occurrence of one would be the lead item on the news, but the one today didn't even merit a mention even though it happened a few minutes before the start of the 7pm news, probably because there have been 25 of them in the last three weeks. Until a few days ago it had been settling down, but there were clusters of them in the week after the big quake, as my one week of quake accelerometer data video shows.

(Special just-to-be-clear note for my mom: none of these have been felt here in Kyoto.... all the problems are hundreds of miles away.)

With ten-to-twenty thousand bodies still not accounted for, the cold weather has been a blessing in one sense, but once they're recovered, I'm sure a warm spring with cherry blossoms will be at least a slight big of welcome relief for the folks up there.

At least I hope so. Not much else I can do.