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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Today was a wonderful day in Kyoto... warmer than it's been lately, and sunny. And with spring break over and kids heading back to school, it wasn't crowded in our area. The cherry blossoms are almost at their peak, so today was perhaps one of the nicest days of the year in one of the nicest areas of Kyoto (which is one of the nicest cities in Japan).
So, of course, we left, and spent the day elsewhere.
The cherry blossoms seen above were on a tree next to the parking lot of where we had dinner, more than a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Kyoto. We didn't go looking for cherry blossoms, but they were a little bonus.
Here's what we did go looking for...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/2000 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Among the Flowers
at the Awaji Hana Sajiki, the “Awaji Flower Review” Park
Awaji Island, Japan
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/800 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/1600 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Yours Truly
Photo by Anthony Friedl
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116 mm — 1/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pause for a Bit of Play
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 190 mm — 1/2500 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mommy Calling
the parking lot was about to be closed
We got home late and so I don't have much time to prepare a proper post, so just these few pictures for now. You see mostly yellow and purple flowers above, but there were all kinds... it was beautiful. And almost empty... it was just amazing to have the place almost to ourselves.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 290 mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200 — full exif
A Few Blossoms Blossoming
Today was a really lovely day... warmer and less crowded than yesterday. So, of course, I stayed in all day working on my Lightroom plugins. But I did take some pictures during the day yesterday, in addition to the cherry blossoms at dusk that I've already posted, so I'll share some in this post.
Most regular cherry trees in this area are at 50%-70% full bloom, but the trees right outside my window are closer to 100%, so they made for a nice view, and attracted the weekend crowds. Most everyone had a camera.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 220 — full exif
Shielding Against the Setting Sun
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 145 mm — 1/640 sec, f/10, ISO 1000 — full exif
Moment of Respite
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 340 mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 280 — full exif
Crossed Signals
he's looking at the blossoms; I'm looking at him
I don't think he even noticed me
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 260 mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 900 — full exif
The Perfect Japan Picture
The picture above includes almost all the elements that make Japan Japan. There are the camera-toting tourists, of course, and the cherry blossoms, and the bicycle. And the utility pole placed for maximum ugliness. And a bit of a pink kimono in the background. And even some left-over momiji (fall foliage) in the foreground. The only things missing are someone smoking, and some rice.
(The blur in the lower right is Anthony's head, and not among the quintessentially Japanese features of the photo.)
Anthony's head was in the window because we were looking out for Gen and his family, who were on their way for a visit...
Zak normally doesn't lower himself to come to the slums of Kyoto from his penthouse suite in Otsu, but he needed to return a tripod he had borrowed from me, and thought to bring his family to check out Kyoto's pathetic excuse for cherry blossoms. (His blog is filled with all the Otsu cherry-blossom photos he takes that are better than my Kyoto cherry-blossom photos.)
After dropping off the tripod, we all headed out to the park so the kids could play. On the way, I snapped a picture of the blossoms I'd been seeing from the house...
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 120 mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
River and Blossoms Near Sunset
At the park the kids played, and the camera-toting dads alternatively cursed the light and reveled in it. The sun was just going down, and sometimes the light was excellent, but sometimes still harsh.
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 340 mm — 1/640 sec, f/5, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Maki and Tamaki
Zak's wife and daughter
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 120 mm — 1/640 sec, f/5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ugly Tree, Interesting Light
it'll be interesting to see what he came up with
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 175 mm — 1/640 sec, f/4.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Drag Race
it appears to have been a photo finish
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 120 mm — 1/640 sec, f/8, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Minor Slide Mishap
parenting sometimes gets in the way of taking pictures
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 220 mm — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Loose Caboose
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 260 mm — 1/400 sec, f/4.8, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Buddies in Play
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 160 mm — 1/250 sec, f/4.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tube Full o' Kids
Zak got a great photo from a better vantage; hope he posts it
As the sun went down, it got quite cold, so we headed back. On the way, I snapped a shot of the still-in-progress cherry blossoms hanging over the canal...
D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 + 1.7×TC @ 120 mm — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fifteen Minutes Before Sunset
6:06pm
After saying goodbye to Zak and his family, I dropped off Anthony at home, picked up my tripod and a warmer coat, and headed out to the bend in the canal that you can see in the picture above. I then faced the camera toward where the picture above was taken, and took the bunch of pictures in the increasing dusk that I posted yesterday.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 20 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherry Blossoms at Dusk
over the Biwako Canal, Kyoto Japan
So, unlike yesterday's gloom and rain, today was clear and sunny. The cherry blossoms are not yet near full, and they don't seem to be particularly good this year anyway (we had an extended cold snap just as they were starting to blossom, which seems to have messed them up in varying ways), but nevertheless, I took the tripod and headed out for the last evening of the local cherry-blossom lightup.
Last year I took shots from closer to my place, but this year I wanted to try the long view, from where the canal bends, so I made the arduous 60-second trek down there. (What burdens I endure for my readership! 🙂 )
I'd shot the evening cherry-blossoms, sans lightup, from this same spot two years ago (see Nighttime Long-Exposure Cherry Blossoms), so I thought it'd make for a nice comparison, to see whether I've learned anything since.
(I like this spot anyway, as the nearby photos links under the pictures illustrate; they show the many other photos taken from near this spot that have appeared on my blog over the years.)
Anyway, I arrived at about sunset (6:20pm) to find a few other photographers looking bored, waiting for the lightup to start at 7pm.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 4 sec, f/11, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
6:36pm
15 Minutes after Sunset
The lights were turned on earlier last year, which made for much better photos because (as I discussed in last-year's post) you could get a nice balance between the deepening sky and the lit-up blossoms. This year, I knew that the sky would be too dark to matter by the time the lights came on, so I actually expected to get the best shots before then, without the lights.
As the clock ticked away toward 7pm, I kept trying test shots, looking for that perfect balance of sky/ground light. The crowd grew thicker, but I seemed to be the only one taking photos.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm — 3 sec, f/10, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Five Minutes Later
6:41pm
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 25 sec, f/13, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Getting Closer
6:47pm
In this last one, I changed the white-balance setting to give it more of a daytime look (removing the extremely blue cast one gets during dusk), but because it's such a long exposure, the lights along the road and beyond the trees really get a chance to glow, giving it a surreal look that I like much better than the dreary dull reality of the view at that point.
Ten minutes later, just before the lights came on, I took this fairly-overexposed shot...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 20 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Overexposed and Dramatic
6:57pm
This is just how it came out of the camera, and I think it's got some unearthly (but appealing) aspects to it. The overexposure, though, robs the sky of the richness a long exposure at this time of dusk should give, so I played with Lightroom's develop settings on a copy of this image to come up with a version with more “punch”. The resulting image is what I led this post with.
As a point of further comparison, here's a third version of the same image, this time with a wild white-balance setting perhaps more appropriate for a Venusian landscape...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 20 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Whoa, Cool
It's completely unreal, but I like it, so I threw some desktop-background versions in there as well.
The lights started coming on at 7:00, but it's not any kind of big dramatic thing. Some lights come on, then more, then more, and you can easily imagine some low-level worker somewhere hurriedly moving from switch to switch trying to get them all on.
The camera, however, can make it seem much more dramatic...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 10 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lights On!
still a touch of blue in the sky at 7:00pm
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — 6 sec, f/13, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Much Nicer than Reality
7:03pm
I often complain that my photos don't do such-and-such a beautiful scene justice, but this evening lightup is definitely a case where the images are much nicer than the reality. If you enjoy the evening with someone special, well, that's a different story, but from a wholly practical level, a cherry-blossom lightup is much less impactful than many of the other “lightup events” on the calendar.
Much more interesting in person are some of the fall-foliage lightups (such as this one at the Eikando Temple and this train-line foliage tunnel), and the Kyoto Higashiyama “Hanatoro” Lightup. (Arashiyama, on the other side of Kyoto, also has a lot of lightup events, but I've never been to them because they tend to coincide with those near home, and I'm too lazy to make the trek and fight the crowds.)
I also tried a portrait orientation...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm — 6 sec, f/13, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
7:04pm
Soon after, some ducks came in for a landing and messed up the relatively smooth water, and with the sky approaching total darkness, I decided to pack it up.
There were a good 30 people in the immediate area when the lights came on, but the crowd thinned considerably soon after, as those who had waited got their shots did so, then ran off in search of brighter pastures. Some remained, and others were continually joining the churn, so I thought I'd snap a shot that included them to place my vantage point into some additional context. I turned the camera 90 degrees toward the left, looking down the canal as it flows away from the right-angle bend I was standing at...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 0.4 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
7:10pm
The camera's auto-whitebalance did a nice job here, ignoring the horrendous green of the street lights (which you can see on the ground under the fencing).
Like most shots on this post, the one above is much brighter than it actually was. This next shot give a better feel for what it was actually like at that time...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 0.6 sec, f/11, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty Dark
7:10pm
The tall building with the bright top at left is a wedding venue, with a glass-enclosed top floor reception hall. On weekends you can always look up and see a wedding reception going on, as was the case this evening. Congratulations to whoever it was.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — 1/4 sec, f/3.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty in Pink
crazy white-balance settings can be your friend — 7:18pm
Before leaving, I stepped back to take another “context” shot. This time, I “corrected” the white balance for the foreground, but I have to put “corrected” in quotes because you can never really correct for the horribly-uneven light from most street lamps. The really wonky compensation needed to restore the foreground colors to some sense of normalcy turns the mostly-incandescent fine-was-it-was background wonky.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 0.4 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wonky Color and Overexposure
let's file this one under “artistic license” — 7:21pm
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56 mm — 1 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mini Hanatoro
Okazaki borrowing some of Higashiyama's lanterns — 7:37pm
Walking back home, I came across a short string of lanterns, the same kind used during the Higashiyama Hanatoro Event (Hanatoro combines “flower”, “lantern”, and “road”; Higashiyama is the neighboring ward), as shown here in detail. The big building in the background is the National Museum of Modern Art.
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/6 sec handheld freestanding, f/4.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wet Cherry-Blossom Lightup
in cold, wet Kyoto Japan
The shot above is pretty horrendous, of course, but that's expected at 1/6th second handheld, freestanding, while on a bridge that quivers as people and vehicles pass. It pretty much reflects the mood for the cherry blossoms in Kyoto this year.
We were on track for a slightly early season, but just after some of the trees started to flower, we were hit with a long cold snap that continues, so the blossoms have been struggling. The cherry-blossom lightup that my area of Kyoto holds every year is scheduled for just three days this year (yesterday, today, and tomorrow), but we're nowhere near full bloom yet.
Last year, by comparison, was spectacular, as I attempted (but failed) to capture in my Kyoto Cherry-Blossom Lightup, 2008 post.
Although it was raining a bit, we stepped out to witness the lights turn on at 7pm. Almost as a joke, I tried to snap a picture of the canal before the lights turned on, cloaked in the gloom of the rain...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35 mm — 1.3 sec handheld freestanding, f/6.3, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gloom
The Nikon D700's low-light ability is astounding, as I've shown before (especially in Pushing Lowlight-Photography Limits: The Atta Terrace Hotel at Night), but this was a ridiculous situation that I didn't even bother trying to rectify, and hence we have the ridiculous result seen above.
Actually, the camera's meter way overexposed the shot, making it look like daytime. What you see above is the result after I dropped the exposure by about 3EV in post.
The D700 tends to overexpose in the dark, as I've mentioned before (“In the Ballpark of Hope: Okinawan Grave In the Dark”, and in “Impossible Photography: No Light, No Tripod, No Hope. D700 and a 50mm f/1.2”). Perhaps it's just trying to show off.
I would have taken another shot with some exposure correction dialed in, but moments later the lights started coming on...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 1/4 sec handheld freestanding, f/6.3, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
We were sort of hoping for a magical moment as the lights came on, but with the lack of blossoms, the cold and the rain... well, it was overwhelmingly “eh? that's it?”
As crappy as the pictures on this post are, they make it look nicer than it was. Here's one that's sort of pretty, with a crosswalk light that puts a nice red shimmer all down the right side, and with different colored lights in the trees...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/13 sec handheld freestanding, f/4.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sorta' Pretty.... Sorta'
Some of the lights were still warming up, and unlike our eyes/brain which can compensate for the off color (making all the lights appear more or less “white”), the camera can't so you get a mix of colors.
The weather is supposed to be nicer tomorrow, so perhaps I will be able to get some better shots. (UPDATE: I was.)
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/640 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wooden Roses
or, at least, they look like wooden roses
When I posted yesterday's “What am I?” quiz, I did so thinking that the answer was “parts of a pine cone”, and I suspected regex.info's resident botanist (“Peter, in Wales”) would provide that answer. Indeed, he provided the correct answer, as did Alexander before him and Earnest after, but it turns out that I would have been wrong because the photo does not show parts of a pine cone, but rather of a fir cone. I had never heard of such a thing.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fir Cones in a Fir Tree
The cones are made up of scales, and it seems that they shed off while still on the tree. In the upper-left of the shot above, you can see that one cone has shed about half its scales. The upper part of the cone next to it is just about ready to shed, it looks like, with lots of space opening up among the scales.
Unlike pine cones, these cones protrude up above the branch that hosts them (which is seen more easily in the shot below than above, although they are indeed protruding up above their respective branches in the shot above).
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/1000 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ground Littered with Scales
The ground under the tree was covered with scales in the same way the ground under a deciduous tree is littered with leaves in the fall... a nice even coating everywhere. The scales are extremely brittle (they have no “give”.. they snap with the slightest pressure), so walking on them gives a decidedly crisp and pleasing crunching/crackling sound.
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Vestiges of a Former Self
For reference, here's a cone I snapped a picture of elsewhere during my walk...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60 mm — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Different Tree, Different Species, Different Cone
I grew up in an area with pine cones, and I'm glad I did, because I suspect any kid would like pine cones better than these fir cones. Pine cones are prefect for throwing at siblings, for example. A fir cone would just crumble in your hand as you tried to throw it, like a snowball on a really really really cold day. Useless to a kid.
Anthony and I were out with Arthur and his kids, Monet and May, for a walk in the nearby woods. As evidence for the previous paragraph, I'll notice that none of the kids paid much attention to the fir cones.
Anthony had borrowed some wheels for the short trip to the park at the edge of the woods, and in snapping a shot of him on the way back, you can see the tall evergreen that hosted today's cones in the background...
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1/640 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
