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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 290 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Passing The Time
waiting to start his shift driving the train

As I mentioned in the previous post, on Friday we went to KidZania, a wonderful place covered in these many posts.

Unlike the first time, which was crammed full of families at absolute capacity, this time was on a school day that Anthony had off, and there were only about half the kids (capacity is 800 kids, and there were about 400, we were told). The breathing room made it much more enjoyable, especially for the parents because you could move easily when you wanted, and sit when you wanted. For the kids, there was a lot less waiting... often, Anthony didn't have to wait at all, and was the only one doing an activity, such as the radio announcer of yesterday (which normally is a task shared among six kids, as seen in this post from last year).

Last year Anthony's must-do-first job was working at a gas station. This year it was driving a train, so when we got in, he made a bee-line directly to the train station. The combination of there being fewer kids and our getting in earlier (we had checked in and gotten our entry number earlier, before having lunch in the mall) meant that he was actually the first kid at the train station, so he could pick the train job he wanted: driver.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 78 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Suiting Up

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 290 mm — ¹/8 sec, f/6.3, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hanging Out with His Colleagues
waiting for some starting ceremonies to be over

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 140 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Freshman Orientation

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 420 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
On the Job
with tongue buried firmly in cheek

That's about the most we could see him while he was on the job... the boy working as the conductor stood at the doorway window the whole time, as that gives him the proper vantage to take care of his job of dealing with the train doors when they're at a station (and I have the impression that the distance between each station during their 15-minute shift was covered in mere seconds, to give more station-arrival and station-departure fun).

The train was laid out with three separate driver cabs, so three kids could drive at any one time. Earlier, I had snapped a picture of one of the driver consoles that was more easily visible from the outside, so I could see what he would be working with...

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.3, ISO 8000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Driver Console

As sparse as it looks, it's quite accurate (much more so than the 747 cocpit he was in last time for his flight school). Even the old pre-computer style train console was pretty sparse, as seen in this photo.

Above the two yellow buttons is a pocket watch sitting on a bed of green felt. A real train driver brings his pocket watch with him and sets it in the bed of green felt when he takes his station... I've seen it in real life and thought it was a great personal touch (it's the driver's responsibility to be on time, and there's no blaming the clock when you're responsible for the clock). In this pretend train the watch was sealed behind plastic, which is too bad... it would have made a nice touch here as well.

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/1.8, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Copy Check

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
About to Activate his Mic

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
From The Control Booth

(All these photos are through multiple layers of glass from outside the studio, so sorry about the quality.)

Anthony did a solo radio show today for “Funky 802” (FM802, a popular Osaka pop radio station). It was his first time on the radio, and though he started a bit rough, he quickly warmed up to it.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
ON AIR

( Either that, or we went to KidZania for the day. )

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Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Three Generations

Well, it's not “Three Generations” quite in the same way as this shot or this one, but you get the idea.

As you can tell by my lean posting schedule of late, I'm buried with work on my Lightroom plugins, hoping Lr3 doesn't come out before I'm ready. But I had the opportunity to use an amazing lens today, and took it for a short stroll near my place.

The lens — an all-manual Cosina Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — is a full 100% macro, something I'd never used before. I got close with the 64% macro of the Sigma Bigma + 2× TC combination that I reported on in Walkabout with the Sigma Bigma: Versatility Galore a month ago, but this lens is in a different class.

(While the Voigtlander might be in a diffretnt class, unfortunately, I'm still in the same class, so the quality of these first shots are somewhat lacking...)

One of the very first shots I took when I got my hands on it, scrambling around the house for something to try it out with, was this shot of some flowers still hanging on from our wedding anniversary two weeks ago...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/100 sec, f/4, ISO 3200 — full exif
Creamy Jumble
nothing's really in focus, but I like the vibe

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Spider Web
( you won't see it until you look at the 100% view, then will be amazed at the clarity )
( direct out of Lightroom with default settings )

What really amazes me about that shot is that the wind was whipping the little guy around, and you can see some movement blur on him, but the spider web is sharp as can be, so the movement at that one instant must have been in a direction exactly parallel to the web.

At 125mm, it's the longest telephoto I've ever used without VR (anti-vibration technology), and I could most certainly tell the difference. If I ever find free time again, I definitely need to break out the tripod.

There were only a few dandelions in the area I was walking, but I seem to have been attracted to them....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Moss

Those “big” red plants in the background are almost invisible to the eye unless you're looking... they're very small. Compare to this shot with the Sigma at 32% macro.

I don't really care for the shot... the thin depth of field is more annoying than artistic in this case.

Here's another one I don't care for, but it's illustrative of the close-up abilities:

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/800 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
taken with
My New Best Macro Lens

Compare with the identically-titled photo on my post about the Sigma Bigma. Today was lacking the bright sun that gave the other shot such great texture, but unfortunately I wasn't at liberty to change the weather to suit my personal needs, so I went with what I had.

Here's a non-macro shot. The full-res version is nicely sharp....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shirakawa River
Kyoto Japan

And finally, a crop from a larger photo..

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5, highly cropped— ¹/800 sec, f/4, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dinner
baby bird is about to get a beak full of bug crammed down its throat

A 125mm manual-focus lens is not really what one would use for wildlife photography, but they were feeding in front of me, and I had the camera, so why not.

All the photos on this post are straight-out-of-Lightroom at the default settings, except for the crop in the last shot, a touch of extra exposure in two shots that I'd underexposed, and a white-balance fix on the Creamy Jumble (because it was taken in incandescent lighting, which Nikon's cameras tend not to auto-whitebalance very well).

Continued here...

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4, cropped — ¹/5000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sunainosato Cherry-Blossom Orchard
Shiga Prefecture, Japan

As I wrote in yesterday's post about the doggy funeral, we had lunch at a great cafe. In the southern part of Shiga Prefecture, perhaps an hour's drive from Kyoto, is a private business called Sunainosato (寿長生の郷), which consists of a restaurant, a cafe, and a confectionery, all on 50 acres of wonderfully wooded land in the countryside.

The grounds are open as if it were a public park, and they're very nice.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Drop-Off Shelter
near the parking area

The little drop-off shelter near the parking lot illustrates the simple, understated class of the entire site.

From there, one enters a small orchard that has more than a dozen varieties of cherry tree....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/4000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Arrival

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/5000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Investigation

Portrait-Mode Desktop-Background Versions
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some Kind of Weeping Blossoms

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
White Blossoms and Thatched Roof

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Welcome House

The first building you come to is a welcome house, with a mini cafe and a gift shop selling some of the confections they make on site. The mini cafe really isn't a cafe, though, since they don't charge you for the sweets and tea they offer anyone who wanders in.

We wandered in.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tasteful

There's just something about a tastefully done decoration on a cafe table that sets it so far apart from a flower dropped in a vase. This simple item, though looking fairly plastic in this unflattering photo, reminded me of my “Japanese Attention to Presentation” post a year ago.

The snacks and tea they brought were very nice, and I was shocked when I found out that we didn't have to pay. For Anthony's part, he was in a good mood with some sweets in his tummy...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Content

We then moved on toward the small cafe that was our lunch destination, and along the way I took one of the most surreal photos I have ever taken...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/3200 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Surreal Family Gathering

Other than a white-balance correction, this is straight out of Lightroom with its default settings, but (particularly in the large version) it looks as if I Photoshopped them onto the empty scene. The nondescript gravel path combined with an almost complete lack of shadow and the sliver-thin depth of field at f/1.8 make for something that looks completely fake, destined to appear on Photoshop Disasters. Except it's totally real. Weird.

With some sugar in him, Anthony was in a dinosaur-play running mood (as described here and here), and I used it as an opportunity to practice manual focus on a fast-moving target.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/2500 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Dino Attack
staying one step ahead of the focus plane

More commonly, this was the result...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/2000 sec, f/1.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Two or Three Steps Ahead
of the focus plane

Frustrated with a complete lack of success, I asked him to stop so I could focus, but to strike a pose as if he were running, so I could fake out the viewer....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/2500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Totally Convincing
unstaged pure-action running shot

Meanwhile, Fumie set up shop at the casual cafe...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Outdoor Terrace

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lunch

There's a big formal restaurant somewhere on site that's apparently very famous and very expensive, but the cafe was perfectly reasonable (maybe $12 for lunch), and the food was very good.

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Huck
1992 - 2010

Fumie's folks' dog, Huck, died last month, aged exactly 17 years 8 months, which made him one very old puppy. I think Fumie had just started high school when he joined their family.

He'd been in poor health for a long time, since prior to me getting any kind of photographic skill, so the best photo I could find was a blurry crop from an old snapshot.

I'm not sure what people normally do in Japan when a pet dies and they don't have a yard to bury him in (come to think of it, I don't know what people do in The States, either), but he'd been a member of the family for a long time, so Fumie's folks wanted to say goodbye in a meaningful way. So, we brought Huck to a pet cemetery the next day, where a mini version of the same kinds of Buddhist rites done during a person's funeral took place....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos

Having gone through the real thing when Fumie's grandmother died two years ago, it was familiar, though this version lasted only a few minutes.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Matsunaka Family — Huck Memorial”

The altar in the background is similar to that at a Buddhist temple (such as this), but filled with various pet snacks that were apparently favorites of some recently departed pets.

It was all slightly comical — the whole business was housed in mobile trailers, and the guy in charge wore a tie with puppies on it — and everyone involved understood it to be just a little bit silly, but at the same time, a beloved pet is hard to lose and so perhaps the mix of somber and silly were just the ticket Fumie's folks needed.

After the short ceremony, the wooden memorial and Huck went off in a special truck to be cremated in the mountains, and we went out for lunch at a wonderful place I'll write about some day. (Update: here). It was cherry-blossom time and beautiful out. It was at that lunch, at an outside cafe, that I took the photo featured in “Anthony Growing Up: the Tipping Point” that I like so much I'll repeat it here:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/1250 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

After lunch, we returned to the pet cemetery where, just like at a human funeral, Huck's mostly-cremated remains returned still hot, and there were rites involving the bone fragments that remained.

The “pet cemetery” actually has no graves or burials... it's just a couple of trailers at a parking lot, with one large shared monument at one end.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/2500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pet-Cemetery Monument

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Very Tall
much taller than it looks in this picture

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Past Pets
Anthony is pointing to a shitzu, like Huck, he found on the facing wall

That was six weeks ago, and just like a human funeral, it continues after 40-something days for a placing-of-the-bones type ceremony at the shared monument (though in case, the pet cemetery's motives in pressing the service was likely more related to increasing the billables than to assuage grief). That was today, which reminded me that I wanted to post this.

Huck is, I'm sure, in Doggy Heaven enjoying all the non-dairy coffee creamers he can get his tongue on.

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