Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
In Preparation

In my earlier cherry-blossom previews, I featured pictures from years past (standard cherry blossoms, some crepe-paper fluffy blossoms, and some plum blossoms), so for today's post I'd show what Kyoto's cherry blossoms look like today.

Around lunchtime, I found myself on the grounds of Kyoto's Imperial Palace, which is filled with all kinds of cherry trees. Pictured above is a nice stand of four surrounded by an old bamboo fence, but like the others, it's not yet their time. In three weeks or so, they'll be glorious. (See yesterday's timelapse movie for a sense of the timing.)

This next one features a raintree-shaped tree that will certainly be stunning, but it's still bare, just as it was last fall when it appeared at the bottom of a fall-colors post.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 23 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/7.1, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

The palace grounds are not without their color; there are a few trees brimming with pink blossoms and a few with white or light pinks...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/750 sec, f/5.6, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos

Sadly, photographing for the blossoms on a clear day calls for an exposure that lets in so much light from the sky that the sky tends to get washed out like in the first two shots, or blown out altogether (essentially turning the sky white in the photo). That happened to this last shot, so I lifted the properly-exposed sky from another picture and dropped in this one to restore the photo to an accurate representation of the scene. I didn't do that great a job of it, but if you didn't notice until I mentioned it, perhaps it's good enough.

D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/18, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos

Earlier I posted a few preview pics of late-blooming “bundle-of-tissues” blossoms, and of plum blossoms, so today I'm posting a few pics of Kyoto's run-of-the-mill “cherry blossom” blossoms.

D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/13, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos

These first three pictures were taken a year ago by hooking up a bunch of extension tubes between the camera and my big Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom. I didn't yet have my good tripod, so this big, heavy combination on my previous (tiny, flimsy) tripod made for a comical view.

D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 190 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/16, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos

The three pictures above are fairly so-so – nothing special – but I've included them here to delay you a bit so that the images in the feature below have time to load. Drag your mouse over the image below to see a month-long time-lapse that shows just how fleeting blossoms at full bloom really are....

Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto, March 25 – April 27
scrub mouse side to side over image to see movie

(If you're reading this post via an aggregator, you'll likely have to come to the post on my blog to get the time-lapse to work.)

I took these fairly haphazardly last year, just walking out onto my veranda and aiming at the bush you can see in the center (most clearly in the first shot). I've been sitting on this time lapse for the last 10 months, just waiting for this year's season to approach so that I could post it.

I really should figure out a way to mount a camera that can automatically take a picture each day for a year. That would be cool...

Adobe has just released a very minor upgrade to Lightroom, version 1.4, available for free download here. This comes about four months after Lightroom 1.3 and its support for export plugins was released.

Full details are in the Lightroom 1.4 ReadMe, but in short this upgrade adds support for some new cameras, and fixes a few bugs (but unfortunately, not the “FormatMessageW failed” uploading bug some Windows users of plugins have seen).

Added Cameras

Bug Fixes

The big fix is enhanced compatibility for printing on OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The “Color Noise” setting is now enabled even when you switch to grayscale, and there is some kind of fix related to the “Calibrate” panel in the Develop module (whatever that is).

My Plugins

The update reveals a boo-boo in my plugins – I neglected to indicate “or later” when specifying that they were designed for Lightroom 1.3 – so if you upgrade to Lightroom 1.4, you'll need to pull a new version of the plugin from the appropriate page:

• Lightroom Export Plugin for Zenfolio
• Lightroom Export Plugin for SmugMug
• Lightroom Export Plugin for Flickr
• Lightroom Export Plugin for Picasa Web

Lightroom 1.4 doesn't really show very much progress, especially for so much time having passed since 1.3 came out. It might lead one to suppose that they've been busy with other things, perhaps the “new and improved versions of Lightroom” that Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty wrote about in January. This minor update doesn't even hint at what I'm sure is going to turn out to be a great and exciting year for users of Lightroom. 😉

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Entrance, Kyoto Station
North, “Karasuma” Exit

Zak sent me an article about some planned large-scale redevelopment around Kyoto Station, which reminds me that I've still not followed up on my earlier post about the area: The Most-Excellent Architecture of Kyoto Station.

When I snapped the picture above, I was standing in the huge atrium that is the shell around which Kyoto Station was designed. Beyond the glass oval thing in the center are the ticket gates, beyond which are the trains. Above the ticket gates is a glass-enclosed walkway connecting one area of the station with some restaurants and a hotel.

I really like the glass oval thing. When standing there, you can look up and around at 10-stories worth of atrium above you, and look down at two stories worth of diving escalators and walkways below.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from the 3rd or 4th floor
(The oval is on the ground floor, with many basement floors and a subway below)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wide-Angle View from the Left
from perhaps the 4th floor

Portrait-Mode Vertical Desktop-Background Versions
1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560     

You really have to look at the picture above in its larger detail to appreciate the scale here. The glass oval thing is in the lower center-left, with the ticket gates at the far lower-left.

If you cross the atrium and go up a number of floors on the other side, to near the big Christmas Tree (I took these shots last fall), you can look down past multiple levels of restaurant, each with its own set of people looking down at the lower levels as well.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from the 5th floor, or so
(The oval is way down there somewhere)

Turning back and moving around to the front of the Christmas Tree....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
9 or 10 Floors of Stairs
from the 5th floor, or so

If you don't want to walk up all those stairs, you can take the escalators. The escalators go at normal speed, but it still takes almost two and a half minutes to get to the top from this point. It's far.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Some Bozo Taking a Picture of Stairs
( Who on earth takes pictures of stairs?? What a moron! )

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/45 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
View from the Right
from somewhere around the 12th or 13th floor

It's hard to see, but there's actually a publicly-accessible suspended walkway cutting across the top of the frame above.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Zooming Up for a Sense of Scale
(and you can see inside the walkway a bit)

I think I was on one of those far escalators when I took the “Wide-Angle View from the Left” picture above.

I took some of these pictures while out and about with the family, and a few others on the spur of the moment one evening after returning from a trip to Tokyo. As such, getting photos was an afterthought, so I'd really like to go back and spend some quality time exploring with the camera. There are so many areas of the station I've yet to see. For example, while writing this post I noticed what looks like a huge lobby of a hotel visible through huge 2nd-floor windows in the upper-left of the first “View from the Right” photo above. I've never even been to that half of the station.