Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 2.5 sec, f/6.3, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lightup at the Kiyomizu Temple

I went out again to the Kyoto Higashiyama “Hanatoro” Lightup event last night. The word “Hanatoro” is made from the characters for “flower”, “lantern”, and “road”. The event had plenty of them all.

I used a tripod for all my shots, with shutter speeds ranging from half a second up to 30 seconds.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — 4 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lightup at Maruyama Park

The cherry tree above is perhaps the most famous in Kyoto, although here its branches are still bare. In a couple of weeks it will be breathtaking, although sadly, you won't be able to enjoy it then unless you like loud, drunk, smoking hordes.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 5 sec, f/6.3, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Old and New
Pagoda and Tower Lightup

The big five-story pagoda is of some random temple, while the tower a mile and a half away in the background is Kyoto Tower, across from Kyoto Station.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 6 sec, f/9, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos

Yesterday was a national holiday (vernal equinox) so the crowds were heavier than when I went the other day, but still not too bad. I'm sure they'll get bigger during the weekend. The event ends on Sunday.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 4 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flow of the Crowd

A longer exposure helps to melt the people away. This next shot uses a 25-second exposure (the one above is 4 seconds). It's taken from the same spot as the one above, but pointed up the street the other way.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 25 sec, f/11, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Flow but Less Show

The roads were mostly closed off in the lightup area, but sometimes active roads cut through, so there were traffic guards with flashing vests and glowing batons.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — 3 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Traffic Guard Lightup

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — 0.6 sec, f/3.2, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lanterns

There were lanterns of all types everywhere, but they were so much brighter than most anything else, so it was impossible to get a wide shot of them that showed their detail without turning everything else black.

So, here's a closeup of one of the lanterns. It says “Kyoto Hanatoro”.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 98 mm — ¹/8 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Kyoto Hanatoro” Lantern

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 25 sec, f/8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Different Road, Different Lanterns, Different Pagoda
( same enjoyable atmosphere )

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 25 sec, f/11, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

There were ikebana (flower arrangements) displays every so often, but they were surrounded at very close range by high-powered lights. This made it fine to look at, but current camera technology lags far behind God's whole state-of-the-art “eye” thing, so the lighting made for horrible photographs of the ikebana, with powerful “hot spots” and fast falloff to darkness. I didn't even try.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — 10 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 40 mm — 1.6 sec, f/5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photo-Op at the Kiyomizu Temple

The Kiyomizu temple (daytime pics) represented the southern end of the lightup zone. It looked quite nice from outside, and I'm sure it was even better inside, but it was getting late and I was getting cold, so I deferred.

The lanterns in the entire zone were turned out at 9:30, after which the crowds quickly dissipated.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 105 mm — 1.5 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Heading Home

I ended up staying out for another hour or so, until both of my camera batteries were out. I got only about 350 pictures between the two batteries, which is far less than I normally get from just one. I'm sure it's because I had the “image review” feature turned on, via which each photo shows up on the camera's LCD screen just after I take it. I normally have that turned off, but when I do long exposures with the tripod, I turn it on so I can judge whether the results are even close to okay.

(Normally I'd write more about the event and augment that with more links, but I've got a pounding headache this evening, so today's post is a bit short on details.)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/2, ISO 250 — full exif
Emperor and Empress
Hinamatsuri display made by 5-year-old Anthony

Hinamatsuri – the doll festival – is from a tradition that dates back about 900 to 1,100 years. Young children and older girls put out displays of dolls of the Heian court (the Japanese imperial court from about 800 to 1200 AD). Some people put out huge, elaborate displays with many dolls and accessories, but I much prefer to see Anthony's artwork. All the kids at preschool made them in the same basic form, but each ended up quite different, with its own personality.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/160 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — full exif

I've got to wonder whether the emperor's frown is on purpose or an accident. Japanese never smile for formal pictures (school pictures, pictures for ID badges, etc.), so maybe the emperor was intended to look stern. It's probably simply that Anthony wasn't paying attention. I like his big eye, too.

Both figures are holding folding fans, hers being open and his being closed.

We had this on display in front of the living-room window for a while...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/180 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — full exif

I went out again this evening to photograph the Kyoto Higashiyama “Hanatoro” Lightup Event as I did the other day. I go some nice shots that I'll have to post soon...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ropes of Paper Cranes

A preface to today's post: I have two monitors, one that's really good (a mid-level Eizo LCD), and one that's on the high end of normal (a Dell LCD). The intense colors of the cranes make today's pictures look amazing on the Eizo, but they're utterly bland and pedestrian on the more consumer-oriented monitor. Oh well.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 23 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance Gate, Tanigumisan Kegonji Temple
Ibigun, Gifu Prefecture, Japan

As I mentioned the other day, we recently made a trip to the Tanigumisan Kegonji Temple several hours away in Gifu. In the picture above, you can see Anthony standing under the gate, just to the right of the leftmost tall white banner. Behind and around him are large bundles of strings of origami cranes.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 18 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bundles of 1,000 Cranes Each

It's likely that the larger bundles each have 1,000 cranes. The current Wikipedia entry for senbatzuru has a nice writeup about the practice.

When not in bundles of exactly 1,000, they're probably simple offerings for world peace. In Japanese culture, origami cranes have very strong connotations of peace.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Origami Waterfall
from above

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Single White Crane

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

While we're at the main gate of the temple, here's a shot showing some of the detail under the eaves....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Under The Main-Gate Roof

I'd have loved to see the design drawings when it was being planned (and I wonder when that was; the temple itself dates from 798, but doubt this gate is more than three hundred years old).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 0.3 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
River of Bamboo Lanterns

I thought today was going to be a continuation of being overwhelmed with photo opportunities, but luckily, my subconscious saved me from too much damage by arranging for me to forget to charge my camera batteries before heading out to the target-rich environment (photographically speaking) that is the Kyoto Higashiyama Hanatoro night lightup event.

It's going on every evening for a week or so in the Higashiyama (“Eastern Mountain”) district of Kyoto just south of where I live, where quaint streets are closed to all but pedestrians and rickshaw, and lined with lanterns and the occasional brightly-lit display of ikebana. To add to the glow, temples along the way illuminate themselves with their own lanterns, floodlit trees, etc. It makes for an exceedingly warm and nice atmosphere, at least during this weekday evening that wasn't heinously crowded. (The Wikipedia page for the event says that over a million people will visit during the 10-day-run, and I believe it.)

Here's scans from a four-page pamphlet about the event: these scans: page 1 · page 2 · page 3 · page 4.

The light-up area is just south of me, so when I visited with my friend Britto this evening, we entered into the lightup area from the north. Unfortunately, the north third of so of the area is really lame (relatively speaking; it's still wonderful, but nothing at all like what follows after you pass south through Maruyama park).

Unfortunately², I didn't realize how much nicer it would be later on, so I wasted a lot of time in the lame area at the beginning, only to find that it got better and better (as my battery got lower and lower). The big “doh!” moment came when I found that my spare battery was not charged. Oops, that's a first.

I have a visceral dislike for Maruyama Koen Park (mostly because it is the poster child for the ugly side of cherry-blossom viewing, but it was really nice this evening. It had a lot of displays of “modern ikebana” (現代生花), which would normally have me running in the opposite direction, but because most dealt with warm lights in interesting ways, it was really nice.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1.1 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bamboo and Clothespins

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — 2 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stack of Small Wooden Blocks
(perhaps eight feet tall)

I really hope that the wooden blocks that make up the item shown above are glued together.

The “River of Bamboo Lanterns” were clusters of cut bamboo with candles in them, filling much of a small stream that runs through the park. Toward the start upriver, they were spaced out and washed in soft green light from a lanterns along the banks. Here's a three-second exposure...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — 3 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not a Whitebalance Problem
it really was that green

As it progressed, the green lanterns got fewer and the candle-filled-bamboo became more. There was a stepping-stone bridge cutting through at one point; in the photo below, you can see a man crouching on the bridge, trying to get a shot with his point-n-shoot...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — 1.5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

This next photo is (to overuse a word) lame compared to the glow of seeing them. It was nice; this photo is bland.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 2.5 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Lights and Twigs

The blue thing you can sort of see in the background was either someone's “modern ikebana” display, or a bug-zapping light. I'm not sure which.

I would have liked to show more of the pieces on display, but my camera battery died. Oh well. Britto and I continued south sans camera, and found that it just kept getting nicer and nicer.

The car in this next photo (which I took in Maruyama Park) had nothing to do with the evening's events, I think, but was parked off in one corner of the, er, park. I guess if you have enough money to afford a custom car like this, you're allowed to use a famous thousand-year-old public park as your private garage.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — 6 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
“I Have More Money Than You”
Much much more

This is a six-second exposure of a scene that was very dark. The only light was the wash from one of the ikebana displays. I can see much more in this photo than I could when I took it. This was a very stylized modern car meant to evoke a feeling of the old 1930s (?) classics. I should go back tomorrow when I can actually see it clearly. (My batteries should be charged by then.)

Finally, here's the first shot I took this evening, albeit somewhat stylized:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 6 sec, f/8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stylized Row of Lanterns

The original photo was unexpectedly bland, so on a whim I applied a Lightroom preset I'd made by following these instructions on a Scott Kelby blog post that attempts to reproduce the “Dave Hill” look. The results were highly dependent on the white-balance setting I chose, because the wall wash washed at some points with incandescent floodlights, and at others with yellow street lights. In the end, I chose to leave it at whatever the camera's auto setting selected. I think it's at least a little interesting.

Continued here...

I feel absolutely overwhelmed with stuff I want to write about and share.

I was hoping to finally get around to posting about some interesting things from last week's trip to Kanazawa. I'd already done one post with a few pics from Kenrokuen Gardens, but there's so much more, including the interesting “Modern Art (Japanese Style)” train station, and a pool you can go into without getting wet...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Kanazawa Station

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/90 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside-Out Pool

However, those plans got interrupted because Saturday was the graduation ceremony at Anthony's preschool, which created its own subject matter that awaits posting. I did do the one already, but I could do a few more just on the cuteness of Anthony's classmates, including....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Grace and Poise: Nonoka-chan

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Ever-Delightful Kana-chan

Kana's been on my blog many times. Some of my favorites include Anthony Getting Out of Line and the related Anthony Staying In Line, With Kana, and also Silly Mountaintop Lunch With Kana-Chan.

So, after that event I thought I'd write about it for a few days, but that got interrupted immediately because of our trip back home. I'd hauled Anthony's bicycle to school on the back of my own, and so we could return from the graduation ceremonies by riding home (about three kilometers!), which includes a trip through the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. Of course, that leads to many opportunities for a geeky dad with a camera who wants to foist pictures of his child on the world...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
It's a Big Park

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pushing with One Hand, Snapping Pics with the Other

So, that was Saturday, and I thought that finally Sunday (yesterday) I could get started on catching up, but it turns out that yesterday we made an impromptu six-hour round trip to a really interesting temple in Gifu-ken with Fumie's mom. I could post every day or the next month with new and interesting shots from this temple, which is full of cut stone of all kinds, and a lot of paper cranes...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ropes of Origami Cranes

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Stone Lanterns and Such

I thought today I might actually get through a 24-hour period without adding 100 pictures to my “must share!” pile, but that turned out to be wishful thinking when Monet's dad, Arthur, invited us to a really fun playground in nearby Otsu. We had intended to go to the Yumekko Playland that I wrote about before (and about which I still have plenty to post), but it was closed, so he took us to a most-excellent park nearby.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/3.2, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
This was a “Rocket”

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony Loved Pretending
to be a neutrino passing through a carbon atom
(no, not really)

This park was within sight of Zak's condo, so I immediately called him up and give him grief for having kept this most-excellent park to himself. I then proceeded to take 249 photos.

So, that's just a hint of the new things that I want to write about, and that's just stuff added in the last week or so. Even after having cleared out hundreds of throwaways, my photo library has 1,598 pictures so far this month, although that includes 425 pictures I took at a ballet recital last week that came out pretty poorly because I had too little skill to overcome the too-little light.

I could look back to most any week lately and find as much stuff that still awaits.

We're heading to Amami (again) at the end of the month, but I still have so many things to post from our earlier trip that I'd like to add to my Amami category, including a freaky tree straight from a horror movie, and the most affable and interesting Hirozo-san...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Haunted Tree

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/2000 sec, f/2, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hirozo-san: Amami Guide Extraordinaire
Hirozou Yasuda

I feel totally overwhelmed, and it doesn't help that cherry-blossom season is fast approaching...