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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Canopy of Color
Himukai Shrine, Kyoto Japan
In my previous post, “Changing Lenses”, I showed a picture of a friend in front of a serious splash of fall colors. The leaves were so low in the view because we were at the top of a set of stairs. From the bottom of the stairs, looking up, the view was the impressive canopy seen above.
The view was pretty impressive from most everywhere...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — 1/100 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Up
In the background of the center of the shot above, you can just barely make out bits of the namesake for my “Gate of Disrepair” post.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/100 sec, f/5, ISO 560 — map & image data — nearby photos
Distractions
keeping us from the shrine at the top of the steps
The shrine area itself is fairly small, but picturesque...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/160 sec, f/13, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Arriving with a bit of Sunshine
The small buildings at right, with thatched roofs, were interesting, as thatched roofs tend to be....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/4000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ready for Winter
Roofs can be thatched in various ways; these are thatched with large, rough reeds...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/800 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rough Thatch
They're usually a bit more tidy, such as this, but often the rough nature can be used to preserve a natural feel, such as with or these thatched walls. (A much cleaner appearance, though certainly much more expensive, is to thatch with thin strips of ceder, such as this, this, and this.)
It seemed that only the top layer had become roughed up by nature.... the bulk of the roof seemed to be still neatly trimmed....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/3.2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Neatly Trimmed
reed thatch at least a foot thick
The roof looks to be glowing a bit, because as the sun had just come out, the dew had heated up and started to steam. I first noticed it on the roof of a small wall fronting the further thatched building...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steamin' Hot
It was sort of dramatic in how it wasn't steaming at all when we first walked up, then suddenly started. As mist tends to be, it was difficult to catch with the camera....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Steam in Grayscale
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse Angle
looking back toward the entrance at the top of the stairs
Stepping back even further added a foreground splash of momiji (maple)...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Momiji at 85mm
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Momiji at 14mm
In a competition between 85mm and 14mm, it seems that the winner is us.
Stepping back a bit further shows the bridge I was standing on (and the same guy who stood right there for five minutes, seemingly intent on doing nothing but spoiling the photos I and others were obviously trying to take)....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The site continued back and up the mountain a bit, so I could step back and up further for a nice view. Playing around with one shot in Lightroom, along the lines of the Barbary style, I ended up with something that I think's sort of pretty...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zak in Silhouette
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Changing Lenses
Zak Braverman at the Himukai Shrine
Kyoto, Japan
Fall, 2009
From our visit last month that yielded the “Gate of Disrepair” post.
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So, the other day, I posted the above photo without a title, soliciting captions. Almost two dozen suggestions later (all of which were kept hidden until after I posted this followup, so as not to influence subsequent suggestions) and the overwhelming theme is “layers” and “strata”.
Of course, the wonderful banding of different colors and textures is what prompted me to take the photo in the first place. It took it from my balcony, looking across the little stream next to our place to the path on the other side. I've lived here for four years and never noticed it in this way before.
After I did notice it and grabbed the camera, I became more struck by the difference of the one line to the rest, the leaves accumulated on the ledge that rises from left to right. This struck me as a connection between the layers above and below, so I thought about captions such as “Bridging the Gap” and such. But nothing I thought of really captured what I wanted, so I asked a friend, William Maton, via Yahoo Messenger what caption he'd put on it....
His response, “Sea, Forest, and Mountains” was on a whole different level than what I was thinking. Wondering whether anyone else would have a completely different direction, I posted the photo sans caption or explanation. I'm gratified at the response, and it was fun. Thanks for playing. 🙂
I finally went with “Going Up” because in the end I saw the line of leaves rising more than I saw it bridging, though those looking at the photo from right to left might not quite see it that way.
As a bonus, I got my desktop-background image machinery working again – I installed Photoshop on my new machine – so the copy above has links to desktop-background sizes.
I have a version with an extra layer, but it struck me better in a landscape orientation that emphasized the banding. But FWIW, here's the portrait mode...
I also toyed with a different theme that required a bit of timing to get right....
Nikon D700 + Zeiss 100mm f/2 — 1/200 sec, f/16, ISO 2200 — full exif
( So, What Caption for This One? )
It's somewhat surprising how such a small thing — a touch of the human element — can change a picture so much. I was actually hoping for more impact, but I still like the result. It sort of along the same lines as this shot from “Artsy Fartsy in Kyoto at f/1.2”.
And for good measure, here's a shot taken at about the same time that I sorta' like, even though nothing is in focus...
(Those not familiar with “Bokeh” might find the description on “Funky Spectral Highlights in My Bokeh” helpful.)
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Someone With Their Work Cut Out For Them
Guy with a weed whacker, off the road in the rural mountains of northern Kyoto, Japan
Chipping away at the backlog of things I want to share, here are some photos from a short outing with vacationing American Jon Van Dalen in July. He was traveling Japan with his wife and her sister, and while in Kyoto I took them on a drive in the mountains north of the city.
Along the road in a small village, we noticed a shrine gate over a path leading away up a hill. It was visible from the road only for a moment as driving by, so we were lucky to spot it. I'd driven by many times in the past but had never noticed it before, so we stopped to investigate...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Steps
leading from the road
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Honest Living
The pathway wasn't obvious, nor was our right to take it, so I asked an old lady working the fields whether it was okay. She seemed to be about 200 years old, with 198 of them having been spent in arduous but fulfilling toil of the land. I'm sure she's in much more robust health than I, and will certainly outlive me by a few generations.
It is not lost on me when I meet people of a certain age that they were teenagers or adults during WWII, likely with vivid memories. In this case, though, it wouldn't surprise me if the entire era of war passed unnoticed while she worked the fields. (I'm exaggerating. Slightly.)
Sadly, she declined my request to take her portrait, though did so with an endearing smile, a wave of the hand, and a muttered comment along the lines of “a photo? of the likes of me? Naaaah, you don't want to bother with that, you silly man.”
She did say it was fine to head back to the shrine we couldn't see but knew must be there, so Jon and I left his wife and sis-in-law at the relatively bug-free steps leading from the road, and forged up the bug-filled path past terraced fields toward the mountain treeline...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Looking in at the Treeline
it was dark under the trees, but appears less so in this styalized version
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Adjusting to the Darkness
there were lots of tall trees
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/60 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Relentless Expansion
big tree outgrowing its enclosure
The shrine, I learned later (from finding it labeled on Google Maps) is called Hiyoshi Shrine (日吉神社), and seems to be fairly simple, there just to serve the local community. A large tree to the side of the main building sort of stole the show, though it's hard to capture the grandeur in a photograph.
Didn't stop me from trying, though....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Only Thing
that perhaps might be older and more robust than the lady working the fields
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Old Standby
The stock “At an Angle” view
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ambiance
Nikon D700 + 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 @ 300 mm — 1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bound
The lack of focus in this shot is bound to annoy.
Otherwise, it would have been a nice desktop-background photo
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bosom of Nature
It wouldn't surprise me if the site was very old, but the current shrine buildings were fairly modern work-a-day structures. They lacked in “character”, but the aura of being cloistered away under the trees gave the area a quite pleasant feel.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Departing for Civilization
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from Below the Treeline
It's hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see Jon's wife and sis waiting in the distance, to the lower-left of the dark roof. The dark roof is actually quite a distance beyond them, as the photo below shows, but distance is compressed in the long view above.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sharing Photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Me* and Jon
photo by Teresa Van Dalen
*My appologies to the grammar Nazis; I should have thought about proper word order when posing for the shot.
This outing was just a small slice of the day for Jon, which itself was a small slice of his whole trip. Jon has an account of the day on his blog, as well as the full rundown of his many adventures that make for good reading.
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Just a short followup to last week's ”Giving Up on Picasa Face Recognition” post, I've gone ahead and released the Lightroom plugin I'd built before realizing the major problems plaguing Picasa's face-recognition feature. If you've invested time in Picasa's face recognition, use Lightroom, and are lucky, the plugin may be of use.
Here it is: Jeffrey’s “Picasa Face-Recognition Import” Lightroom Plugin