Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bamboo Floor

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Bamboo floor of the outside walkway at the tea house of the Murin'an gardens, taken last summer when my friends KFC and Verena visited Kyoto.

The next two are stones on the beach of Honohoshi Cove on Amami Ooshima, of the Amami island group in the far south of Japan, about where the East China Sea becomes the Pacific Ocean. The curved stones make a surprisingly calming sound as the waves wash up and down them.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Smooth Rocks

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Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Smooth Rocks II

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The final one today is also from our trip to the Amami island group, a beach on the southern tip of Kakeroma-jima filled with bits of dead coral.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Coral Beach

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Over the years, I've posted a lot of desktop-background pics, including other sort-of-abstract ones like these:

I don't actually use these for my own desktop background (I use this moss-and-fern mountain path at the moment), but somehow I feel that these somewhat plain, repeating abstract images make for good backgrounds. I don't know that anyone actually uses them, so perhaps I'm just wasting my time.

If I am wasting my time, I'm wasting less of it these days. It used to be a lot of work to crop the image to the exact proper aspect ratios then write out all the different sizes, but a couple of years ago I wrote some Photoshop scripts (in JavaScript) that made everything much easier, and now it takes less than a minute to generate all seven versions from any one original image. The time savings is good, because my overall blog-writing workflow takes enough time as it is.

I'll share those Photoshop scripts in an upcoming post.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/180 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherry Blossoms and the Snowy Bridge

Being March already, I thought I'd look forward to Kyoto's cherry-blossom season, which should be ramping up in to full swing in a month or so. The orange blur in the background of the picture above is the Snowy Bridge from a post week ago. Photos in that post were looking down the canal toward where today's photo was taken.

The photos in today's post, of course, were not taken today; they were taken in late April last year after most cherry blossoms in this area were long gone. The blossoms here are of a late-blooming variety that appeared on the post 10 Gallons of Blossoms on a 5-Gallon Branch, and also on a hot July's Cooling Off with Pastel Cherry-Blossom Desktop Backgrounds.

Picking up on yesterday's Selective Focus post, I thought I'd show a few of the many different compositions that I tried while applying my “carpet bombing” approach to photography. The next two shots focus on the same cluster of blossoms, but the first one has more of the background in focus, due to a smaller aperture and a little less zoom.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 170 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Background

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Less Background

I prefer the less-background effect, and the framing of that shot as well.

In the next pair, the exposure settings remain the same, but the point of focus shifts from the foreground to the background.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 78 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Foreground Focus

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 78 mm — ¹/180 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Background Focus

I suspect that the first one leaves too much to the imagination when you don't know what the background scene is, but once you do, I prefer it to the second one. The boat, by the way, is one of several cherry-blossom sightseeing boats that ply the canal during the spring when the canal is lined with cherry blossoms (as seen here, and in one of my first posts several years ago, here).

The photographic issues discussed on this post are of the most basic nature, straight from basic intuition and Photography 101, but I wrote about them because they gave me an excuse to post more cherry blossoms 🙂

I still have my best “snow at the Heian Shrine” photos to post, and the current forecast if for more snow early next week, and with all the snow that's been in my blog lately, I thought today would make for a nice change.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shrine Patronage

Still feeling miserable from my cold, today's post is simply a collection of a few thin-depth-of-field shots. The one above is of a line of posts that forms a wall at the edge of a shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto, each post having the name of a shrine patron. I took it while doing some night cherry-blossom photography. You can see a more conventional shot of the same scene on this Aunt Jeannette In Kyoto post.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/350 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Preschool

The chairs above were awaiting the kids for one of the events at the Preschool Mochi Production day.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/45 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
^#1036

Bidding farewell to my good friend Ram Kulkarni at Tokyo Station last fall, I thought the train-station lockers made interesting fodder for my Nikkor 85mm f/1.4.

Continuing with the Snowy Gardens of the Heian Shrine series (earlier parts: Part I, Part II) from last Sunday's snowy morning walk in Kyoto, we had just arrived at the garden's covered bridge when it started to snow again.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 19 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance to the Bridge

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
View over the Water
just as the snow was starting

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 20 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
View over the Water
a few minutes later

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — ¹/30 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Snowflakes

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/40 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photographing the Snowflakes

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 30 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Protecting Mommy from the Snowflakes

Quite coincidentally, a few days before I took these pictures, I happened to have posted some pictures of the gardens from last summer, including one of a bride having her picture taken at this spot:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 28 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Popular Picture Spot

Here's why that spot is popular:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Background View
from that spot

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chilled Flowers

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Exiting the Gardens

Finally, here's a shot that's not particularly great, but I thought I'd share it because for some reason it really makes my eyes spin. It's almost as if it's been taken with a Lensbaby (a special-effects lens)...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Just a tad Freaky

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Playing at Otsu's “Yumekko”

I came down with a cold the morning of the snow in Kyoto the other day, likely because I spent the previous day at a kids' play spot with Anthony. Anywhere where kids congregate is a human petri dish of microbial fun, so I probably picked up something then.

Kyoto City has a wonderful play spot for infants and preschoolers, the Play Land at its Kodomo Miraikan (“hall for children's future”), and Anthony has been enjoying it for the last four years. Zak invited us to come to Otsu City's version of the same thing, and I was astounded at how nice it was.

Otsu's Yumekko (“dream child”) play land is of a similar style to Kyoto's – lots of wooden toys and activity areas — but larger in every respect. Like Kyoto's, it's free for all.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 38 mm — ¹/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Balance

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 23 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mountain Peaks

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Making Train Noises
With Zak's son, Gen.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm — ¹/125 sec, f/3.2, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
A “C” of Polished Wooden Balls

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — ¹/180 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
There's Something About a Kid's Feet....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/90 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Checking Out the Marine Life

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/45 sec, f/5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mini Slide

We were there for a number of hours, yet there were whole sections that we didn't get to. We'll definitely be back again (once I get over my current cold, and restock my supply of cold remedies).