Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Joe Being Gentle With His New Sister
as Anthony looks on

Australian/Japanese friends of mine, Peter and Tomoko, had their third child baptized at mass today. Mariko Theresa was 12 days old at the time, although she has aged an additional 4% in the half day since. 🙂

Their oldest, Joseph, is just three months older than Anthony, so they enjoy playing together. We normally have lunch together after mass, and often go to a playground together after that. Their second child is two-year-old Kyoko.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320, — map & image data — nearby photos
Peter's Folks Became Godparents As Well

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Sleepy Kyoko Hugs Her Mommy
while Joe, in red, serves his first mass

12-day-old Mariko was, of course, just cute enough to eat (although she's so tiny you'd need to go back for seconds). She slept the whole time, waking up only for a few seconds to yawn at one point after mass.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/45 sec, f/4, ISO 320, — map & image data — nearby photos

As anyone with kids can tell you, babies don't really develop facial expressions until three or four months old, at least not ones unrelated to bodily functions (hunger, pooping, distress, etc.). A first smile – at perhaps four or five months – is definitely a red-letter day.

So it was with considerable amazement that I saw 12-day-old Mariko break out into a smile just after receiving a soft touch from her grandma. She had the look you see in the picture above for the whole time before and after, but for a moment after Grandma's pat on the head, she had the smile you see below.

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — ¹/40 sec, f/4, ISO 320, — map & image data — nearby photos
Little Smile

(Sure, it's probably true that she was just making a coincidentally-timed little baby poop, or something, but I like the smile story better.)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 30mm — ¹/40 sec handheld, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fern and Moss at the Giouji Temple

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Peter requested some fern pictures. I happen to have a few poorly-photographed fern pictures in my library, so here they are....

The next three fuzzy shots were taken in the dark shade under deep forest cover, handheld, while on a short hike in the hills with Anthony last May. I've got a monopod on order now, which hopefully should make this kind of situation easier to photograph, but in any case, here are the shots I did get:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/40 sec handheld, f/4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Delicate

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/60 sec handheld, f/2.8, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/45 sec handheld, f/2.8, ISO 500, P.P. boost: +1.11EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Baby Fern

The next picture is sad. I took it when we stopped in the mountains in the middle of nowhere to eat our picnic lunch, on the drive that later yielded these wonderful purple irises. We'd pulled off the road onto a little clearing overlooking a gully perhaps 15 feet below, into which someone had dumped a TV (visible in the center of the shot, far behind the plants in the foreground).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 26mm — ¹/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fern and Junk

It's something I've never understood, but it seems that a sufficiently large fraction of Japanese feel it's a worthwhile endeavor to haul garbage long distances to beautiful nature spots so that they can dump it there. I've traveled around much of the country by car and motorcycle, and no matter how deep you get into the mountains, hours from any “civilization,” you always have a wide selection of rusted out refrigerators, TVs, and washers lining the bottoms of gullies and ravines. Certainly, every country has its own things to be ashamed of, but this is one of Japan's.

It reminds me a lot of the public service ads I saw as a kid in the US, showing an American Indian shedding a tear at the garbage people left around. The poor guy would cry a river if he came to Japan. I just can't comprehend what would drive someone to do this kind of stuff.

(Sorry to end this Fern post on such a downer, but the pictures weren't that good anyway. I'll try to take some nice ones once I get back from an impending trip to America....)

Here are a few more shots from Kyoto's Giouji Temple (祇王寺), to add to the other posts in the set (linked via the “related posts” box below).

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 32mm — ¹/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Small Stone Lantern

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/90 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640, — map & image data — nearby photos
Bell-Shaped Flowers and Bamboo
(European Foxglove)

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rope Gate

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Tending the Moss

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Small Cemetery

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/60 sec, f/4.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Do Not Enter

I love how the “do not enter” gate uses a piece of bamboo set into notched pillars of granite. A classy touch.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 125, P.P. boost: +1.20EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Hazy View From the Top
Kyoto, looking west-south-west, from the top of Mt. Daimonji

Continuing with the story about last fall's hike up Kyoto's Mt. Daimonji and the ensuing silly lunch on top, here are some hazy views from the top. Kyoto is usually fairly hazy, so when it is nice and clear, I'm tempted to make the hike back up there for better pictures.

These two shots were taken at either end of my Nikkor 70-200/2.8 zoom's range, with the one below showing
this area (mouseover here) in the one above.

Below, some notable sites include the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (seen earlier in this post), the Main Gate of the Heian Shrine (seen in many posts), the Kyoto City Chamber of Commerce, the National Museum of Modern Art, the Kyoto Prefectural Library, and the Kyoto City Zoo.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +0.95EV — map & image data — nearby photos

It looks like a total concrete jungle, but it doesn't really feel like it in this area (at least not when compared to many areas of central Kyoto), perhaps because the mountains are so close and there are a lot of trees that are not apparent in these pictures. For examples, mouse over the titles of some of my earlier posts below: an image from the post will show to the right, while the location where the image was taken is shown above. Click on the title to visit that post....

• Pink Flower and Green Canal
• Kids Love Bubbles
• Sakura and the Main Gate of the Heian Shrine
• Long Night Exposures and Cherry Blossoms
• KFC and Verena in Kyoto
• Lunch with a Great Blue Heron
• Mt. Daimonji Hike
• Our 2007 New Year's Card
• 10 Gallons of Blossoms on a 5-Gallon Branch
• Enjoying the Cherry Blossoms

I like this area a lot.

Continued here...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Something Seems Irresistibility Funny
What could it be....?

So, picking up where I left off at the end of my post the other day about last fall's Daimonji Hike, we were at the top of the (short) mountain and sat down for lunch.

At one point, Anthony and Kana-chan sat quietly eating lunch....

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sitting Quietly

The functional part of the sentence above is “one point,” because at all other points they were being crazy and silly, as this pair are known for.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos
Let's Laugh About Our Sandwiches!

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120mm — ¹/80 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Singing Something

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/60 sec, f/11, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sizing Up the Opposition

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 22mm — ¹/50 sec, f/11, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Can Make The Biggest Smile

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — ¹/60 sec, f/11, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
No, I Can!!

It went on and on.

I was giving my relatively-new Nikkor 70-200/2.8 a try, prior to getting its autofocus repaired, using it manually. One of the shots was way out of focus......

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
(Unfocused) Unbridled Joy

I like this one better than the properly-focused ones I took right after because while you can still see the unbridled joy and fun, you can't see the half-chewed sandwich hanging out of Anthony's open mouth.....

Continued here...