NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Early Plum
Kitano Tenmangu Shrine  ·  Kyoto, Japan

Anthony had a school event near the Kitano Tenmangu shrine three miles away toward the north-west of town, so I took the opportunity to stop in with the camera for a few minutes. The shrine is famous for its collection of plum trees that blossom in pure whites and deep, vivid pinks, both due to its breadth (50 varieties) and scale (2,000 trees).

The shrine dates from 947, although their February 25th Plum Blossom Festival dates back only to 1109. This year will be the 900th anniversary.

Today's visit was my second. I wrote about my first trip in two posts last year: Late to the Party and Part II.

Anyway, notwithstanding geographical shenanigans, plum trees blossom earlier than cherry trees, and so I tend to post about plum blossoms in March (such as this post about Plum Blossoms and Photographers, or a first-week-of-march Plum-Blossom Preview). Once I even did a “first blossoms” post as early as Valentine's Day.

I didn't expect to find blossoms today, but, as it turned out, there were already a few.

The front area of the shrine property butts up against a major street, and there's a large area for taxis, so it's not too photogenic, but a big stone torii and ladies in kimono go a long way...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Property Entrance

There are lots of big stone lanterns lining the path to the real shrine area, as well as another big stone gate....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading In

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Classy
Even the grill over the rain gutter is cut stone

As you get closer to entering the actual shrine area, you come adjacent to the orchard of plum trees that holds half of the shrine's 2,000 trees. I was just tall enough to see over the surrounding hedge a bit, and saw a lot of buds and a few splashes of pink...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Orchard
from the side

As you go up and in the entrance itself, if you turn to the side you're treated to a view of the orchard that must be fabulous when the trees are in bloom...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/14, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Orchard
about a month too soon

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
same scene
Different Focus

Inside the shrine area proper are another 1,000 trees scattered about (at least according to their web site. There are a lot of trees, but I'm a bit suspect of the count). The tree near this map has huge buds, and already a few blossoms....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Studying the Map
because, he tells me, he's a ninja and will lead the way to the inner shrine area

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Holy Cow!
next to the map

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
White Plum
next to the cow

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Skipping Toward the Central Gate
( personally, I didn't realize that ninjas skipped )

The sky was really nice today, and having just put a polarization filter on the lens, I knew the sky would come out even better, so I tried a composition to grab a lot of sky...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/11, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Sky

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Blossoms
gave me a craving for popcorn

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside the Central Shrine Area
( some close ups of this area are here )

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/9, ISO 2000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Brilliant

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Less So

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just Playing Around With Focus

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Others Were Too

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Behind the Curve

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/10, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
In Front of the Lantern
(close up of some blossoms seen in the first picture at the top of this post)

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chilly
Kinosaki onsen district, Toyo'oka City, Hyogo, Japan

After spending most of last week with a mild cold, I finally felt better toward the weekend, so we took off on an impromptu overnight trip to the onsen (hot springs) at Kinosaki, a three-and-a-half hour drive through the mountains north-west of Kyoto, to Toyo'oka City in the neighboring prefecture of Hyogo.

We haven't had snow yet in Kyoto, but hoped to see some on the way. I envisioned the scene we saw in 2007 in Hokkaido with clean dry streets surrounded by pretty snow, but just in case, I had new snow tires on the car, to avoid the problem I had last year driving in some light snow.

We started seeing snow about half way into the drive. The roads themselves weren't covered, but they looked really wet and shiny. That wouldn't be a problem except that the temperature was below freezing – about 25°F – and so I was never sure whether the road was really wet, or was wet-looking black ice.

The last hour of the drive was white-knuckle slow, but we arrived in one piece half an hour after sunset. I was seriously stressed from the drive, so while Fumie checked in to our minshuku (Japanese inn), she let me run out for some photographic stress release.

I knew that the dusk lighting would be great, and hot off my recent successes with handheld low-light photography (although in much warmer climes), I hoped for the best.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stream Bisecting Kinosaki's Onsens

The main onsen area had a small river with dozens of bridge crossings, so if you could ignore the pervasive utility lines and wires, there was always a nice view.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos

You had to be vigilant in taking care with your footing, though, because the ground was either extremely slippery or puddled-up wet. So if your concentration faltered, you'd end up with either wet/freezing toes, or a nasty fall.

The cause of both the slipperiness and the wetness was the same, and it wasn't snow:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/20 sec freestanding handheld, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mid-Street Ice-Rink Production

Many streets and walkways in the area had these little fountains of liquid ice-to-be spraying all over. This is, of course, the answer to my What am I? quiz from the other day. They apparently have sensors that turn them on automatically when it snows.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Frostbitten Toes?   Broken Tailbone?
Decisions, Decisions

It seems like a pretty-freaking stupid idea to me, but they've had them for 10+ years, so apparently it somehow balances out on the plus side.

Meanwhile, in the deepening twilight, everything got bluer and bluer, except where there was incandescent lighting, which became oranger and oranger. The outside really did become more blue as dusk settled in, but the incandescent lighting merely appeared to be getting more orange because in the context of the deep blue outside, our eyes/brain stopped trying to reconcile the two as the same, and so stopped trying to perceive them both as “white”.

Thus, we could now see the orange and blue for what they were, and it made for a pretty scene...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pretty
Pretty darn cold, too!

I ventured around a bit, but it was cold and (did I mention this?) really slippery, so I didn't go too far. I did see another guys taking pictures, with a tripod but without gloves...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo Op

The next morning it was FREEZING (well, colder than that, actually). Having grown up in Ohio where 25°F would be considered downright balmy in the middle of winter, I feel like a wimp thinking that it was so cold, but it's been 20 years since I lived in that kind of cold, so now I am a wimp.

Anthony is not a wimp and wanted to play in the snow, so we bundled up and headed out for a while before breakfast.

Already, people were in the streets on their way to an onsen for a hot bath...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Geta on Ice

The little road-sprinklers were still slightly flowing, so a thin band down the center of the street was standing water, while everything else was a flat sheet of pure ice.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos

It was much better (and more deterministic) where there were no sprinklers...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/10, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sure Footing

One of the little bridges across the river was slanted completely down from one side, with water from a large pipe at the high end covering the entire bridge in a steady stream.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
River Above and Below the Bridge

If the thing runs all the time, it's an excellent way to keep the whole bridge clear of snow and ice, but the water has to go somewhere, and so the road on either side was icy...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slippery When Wet

Anthony, of course, doesn't care about any of this... he just wants to play. We found an area where the road sprinklers were still spritzing a bit, and he enjoyed it.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos

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Well, the Lightroom plugin that I released yesterday was mostly a waste of time, but a commenter reminded me that I still hadn't written a “Run Any Command” plugin for Lightroom 2, to complement the piglet of the same name that I released for Lightroom 1 just over a year ago.

So, I put my nose to the grindstone and pounded this out today:

Like the preview-cache image-extraction plugin that I release yesterday, I have no need for this myself, but this is one that I know at least one person will appreciate. 🙂

I'm sure I'll eventually add the ability to create and recall presets, but that will have to wait for another day.

The full list of my Lightroom plugins is on my Lightroom Goodies page.

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Well, if anyone needed convincing just how much of an idiot I am, here it is....

I spent half my time last week being sick with a cold, and the other half working on a new plugin for Lightroom that I knew I'd never use myself, nor would it be of any interest to most people.

This plugin allows you to extract as individual JPG files the internal preview images that Lightroom makes for a catalog. If you don't have your original image files handy (because you've deleted them, or you forgot to bring the drive that contains them with them) and you need something, this might help you out of a pinch.

So the real “I'm an idiot” moment was – after I finished the plugin – finding out about Marc Rochkind's most excellent-looking LRViewer tool, which looks just awesome in that it does what my plugin can do and so much more: it uses the image cache and the Lightroom database to offer a full-function (but read-only) image viewer that doesn't require Lightroom itself.

Had I known about LRViewer, I probably wouldn't have bothered writing this plugin. But, I did waste a week on it, so here it is if you care.

The full list of my Lightroom plugins is on my Lightroom Goodies page.

NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/10, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
What am I?

I took the photo above this afternoon. What is it?