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百点満点
It seems that Anthony had his first “test” in school, in Japanese class, and he came through with flying colors. I don't think I would have realized that the (2) in the lower-right was a monkey, so I would have missed some points.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Monet in the foreground, Anthony jumping at right, Gen sitting on the far bank, and two other kids
On Saturday Anthony got to play in a park with two friends he hadn't seen in a while, kindergarten classmate Monet, and Gen (my friend Zak's boy). The park near Gen's house in Otsu (just over the mountains from Kyoto), ojigaoka park, is wonderful, both for kids to play and for parents to photograph.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
It has Rocks to be Thrown
Gen
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
It has Sticks to Poke With
Gen and Anthony
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
It has a River for Play and Walking
Monet and her daddy, Arthur
The boys gravitated toward destructive play that involved “building” a “road” near where some minor construction was going on. This “road building” mostly involved throwing rocks....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Construction”
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Throwing Rocks
Here's a view from the other side, showing the little construction zone they were violating...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35 mm — 1/100 sec, f/11, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
I was curious what it might be behind the barriers, so stuck my camera up and over...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Hole
I've no idea what it might be for, but there it is.
Anyway, as the little river leaves the park, it becomes overgrown, making for a nice little jungle, ripe for exploration (just as Anthony and Gen did more than a year ago), so Arthur and Monet forged in...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Into the Wilderness
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — 1/250 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Joins In
Then it was time for apple juice. Anthony claimed that he wanted juice “for everyone”, which I inferred as a certain willingness to share, but when we got to the vending machine, it turns out that he wanted me to get one can per person Doh!. I figured that they needed to hydrate, so everyone got their own can..
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pause that Refreshes
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Can you Hear Me Now?”
Monet yelling into a storm-drain grate, Anthony listening on the pipe-outlet end
What I found amazing is that this was the only part of the park they played in this time. The park offers so much more for kids, from a big bowl to run around in to a huge set of interconnected multi-story monkey bars to a tall two-story slide. We've made many visits to this park, and I have many photos I want to share... just no time.
To provide a bit of context relative to some previous posts, here's a wider shot showing the “wilderness” and the bottom of the “road-construction zone” where the boys where throwing rocks....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The orange crane in the distance is the very one featured on my Raising Crane in Otsu post two months ago, and the tall building at the far left, half obscured by trees, is the Otsu Mary, one of the tallest buildings around.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 6400 — full exif
Checking the Instructions
Since starting first grade, Anthony has been collecting an allowance. He gets 50 yen a day (about US$3.60/week), which is substantially more than the five-cents-a-week that I got 40 years ago, but still much less than many of my own peers got at the time. In any case, 50 yen a day seems to be the right amount to help instill a sense of value and a respect for saving.
He's still not really grasping the concept of money – value to him is in the physical number of coins, not in their amount – but it's coming along. He'd not spent anything lately, so he had a big pile of coins that added up to almost $20, and was in the mood today to spend it.
Fumie took him shopping, and he selected a Lego set that cost just about exactly what he had, and came home and put it together.
The instructions that come with these kinds of Lego sets are absolutely atrocious, designed neither for humans nor, apparently, by humans. But, he's got a lot of experience, and so seemed to have no trouble.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thick Bark
very thick bark
Sorry for the lack of interesting posts lately... I've been going all out working on my Lightroom plugins lately, and seem to have no time for blogging. The plugins are like black holes.... I've got a new one in the works, and the nearer I get toward being able to release it, the more energy I devote toward reaching that goal, sucking energy away from, well, pretty much everything else.
Anyway, today's (uninteresting) post is about a tree I noticed on the grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace park, during a family bike ride two weeks ago. It was a fairly large tree, but I neglected to get a shot with something to show scale, so here's the best I happened to have:
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
The bark was all cracked into sections, like an ice floe breaking up. Except it was clear that this is how it grew. Some of the fissures were two inches deep....
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
I've no idea what kind of tree it was (and in retrospect, had I had any smarts, I would have taken a picture of its branches / leaves).
Odd.
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Last weekend, Anthony went on an overnight trip with Fumie's folks to Okunoshima (大久野島), “Rabbit Island”, a small island in the Seto Inland Sea a couple-hour train-ride and a short boat-ride away. The small island has a large population of wild but friendly rabbits that have trained people to visit and feed them.
FinePix F50fd @ 8 mm — 1/950 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Whoa, Ran Out of Veggies, Sorry!
FinePix F50fd @ 8 mm — 1/600 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Restocked With Bunny Food Pellets
FinePix F50fd @ 8 mm — 1/600 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
...A Big “Whomp” Sound
of bunnies converging on food
FinePix F50fd @ 24 mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
later in the day...
Evening Feeding
I didn't know why the island was full of rabbits until I came across its Wikipedia article while trying to figure out how to pronounce its name (大久野島). It's an interesting (and disturbing story), which you can find at that link.
UPDATE: we took Anthony ourselves a few years later.