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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 1000 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/13, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
What Am I?
very long shot at 1000mm

Going through the photos from our recent trip to Awaji Island, most recently mentioned in the previous late-afternoon sun at a beach post, I noticed that I had a lot of geometricish “interesting shapes” photos (such as the opening shot in last week's “Hyakudanen: 100 Terraced Garden Squares” post).

I was collection some of them for a post when I came across this one, and thought that it might make for a “What am I?” quiz. The previous quiz (the more geometrically-simple Egg-Slicer “What am I?” Quiz) yielded an unexpectedly broad and entertaining collection of answers, so it'll be interesting to see what this more complex entry garners...

Unlike the previous quiz, the image metadata this time practically gives the answer away.

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Dancing on the Beach in the Late Afternoon
Sunset at Matsubara Beach, Awaji Island, Japan
photo by Fumie Friedl

On the first day of our mini late-April trip to Awaji Island a few hours' drive south of Kyoto, we saw the sunset from a beach on the south-west part of the island, as I posted the following day.

I had my recently-acquired Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm superzoom, and had fun playing with its long reach.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Throwing Rocks
is something little boys tend to do around bodies of water

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
With Mommy

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mommy Photo Op
she's snapping a picture with her flip-top cell phone

Photo She Took
photo by Fumie Friedl

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shoe
I was paying attention to his right shoe while manually-focusing the lens, and did okay, I think

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 380 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Matsubara Beach
Cleaner than many Japanese beaches, which doesn't say much 🙁
( there's nothing in focus in this picture; I hope it's because I had the VR off, or something! )

Most beaches I've seen in Japan are full of trash, either left behind by a throng of uncaring visitors, or blown in from the ocean over the years and left to collect. This one was much better than most — perhaps a local association cleans it every so often? — though still a far cry from the best (Kotobikihama) or the secluded, protected beach we visited in Ishigaki last year.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 750 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/13, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Impatient at 750mm

I don't know what he's doing in the photo above, but it sort of looks like he's waiting impatiently for the sea to fulfill some command he's just issued....

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 6400 — map & image data
Lunch at Quarirengué
Kyoto, Japan

Yesterday was our twelfth wedding anniversary, so I took Fumie out for lunch.

I'd planned to take her to a particular restaurant I knew, until at almost the last moment I realized that they were closed (doh!), so I had to scramble for a new idea. I checked my go-to resource for restaurant info (Deep Kyoto's post archives) and quickly found one that looked perfect, a review of a cafe named “Quarirengué”. I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it looked nice.

They're mostly open for cakes and coffee, but we were hungry so partook of the two real-food items on the lunch menu: Fumie had the chicken pilaf (seen above), and I had the Japanese-style spicy curry. Both were great, but the pilaf was really great. And very filling.

Both come with a coffee and mini desert...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1800 — map & image data
After-Meal Coffee
tasted and smelled as good coffee should: heavenly

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data
Mini Deserts
not much larger than a shot glass

The setting, as is growingly common, is a restored machiya traditional city house, along the same lines as featured in last year's “An Evening of Eclectic Music Fusion” post, though this time with wooden flooring instead of tatami matting.

The promise of the interesting coffee menu and decedent cake menu remains untested, something we will have to remedy.

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I got back today the lens I sent to Sigma a week ago. They replied that they couldn't reproduce any of the problems I reported (which doesn't surprise me, because it was so intermittent and unpredictable) but sent me a new one as a replacement.

We'll see how it goes... hopefully this one won't freak out like the first.

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Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/7.1, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slightly Disorienting
I think the gazebo is a bit off vertical

The hotel that I recently wrote about (at which we stayed during our recent mini trip to Awaji Island a couple of hours south of Kyoto), Westin Awaji Island, is part of a conference center and park called the “Awaji Yumebutai” (淡路夢舞台;, “Stage of Dreams”, English home page), a complex array of buildings and visuallly-interesting areas built on the side of a mountain that had been half taken away in the early 90s for use as sea-fill during construction of the man-made islands that are now Kansai International Airport.

One of the “visually-interesting areas” is known as the “100-level garden” (百段苑; hyakudan'en), which consists of 100 squares of terraced gardens.

On the hotel post the other day, I showed the view looking left from our room balcony, and if it were possible to look further left still, through the hotel, this is the view I would have been able to show:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/10, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Hotel's Elevator Lobby

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse-Angle View
view from near the kids play area at the Akashi Straights National Park

We weren't able to explore the area around the hotel except for our last morning just before checking out, so having time for just one of the many interesting areas, we picked the squares to pay a quick visit.

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Top Elevator Platform
we didn't have much time so we took the elevator up; yes, I felt lame

Reverse Angle Back to the Top Elevator Platform
Photo by Fumie Friedl

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/18, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Highest Corner
the big building is the hotel

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Going Off Trail

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/18, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Closer to the Bottom

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Common Sight at this Site

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 340 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wish

Most of the squares' flowers were decorated by school kids with pinwheels or the like. This bed of little yellow flowers (the same flower bed that lead on my Pretty Flowers to Brighten the Day post) had wishes by the kids, The one above, by a third-grade boy named Naoki, says “Preserve nature; don't litter in the mountains”.

And speaking of wishes, I wish I would have had time to explore the visual opportunities the site offered. Most of these shots are just pedestrian establishing shots that merely document that we visited. We were there for just 13 minutes. Pausing a moment as I was racing down the stairs to catch up with the family, I made one quick effort at a “geometric art” shot of some stairs running up to the side...

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 116 mm — ¹/1600 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Meh

I'm not really happy with it, but a minute later, my last shot at the terraces turns out to be my favorite shot at the terraces...

Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos