Having just gotten back from Malaysia, which included something like 10 separate flights (two each direction, and some round-drip excursions within Malaysia), Anthony certainly had plenty of time to absorb the “airport experience.” So I thought it only slightly odd when he wanted me to make a “baggage checker” (baggage X-Ray machine) out of paper and tape. What he did with it, well, I thought amazing.
Airport Security Gate, Anthony Style
The white paper thing in the center is what I made for him, under his close direction and supervision (of the luggage chute, for example, he animately directed that “this needs to slope down”). The rest he did while playing all by himself...
To the upper-right is a desk with the X-Ray video display, and a chair for the person monitoring the video display. To the lower-right is the “people checker,” with related barriers and such.
(Scattered around the top of the picture are small pieces of luggage that I'd made for him the other day, to fit in the trunk of a little toy car he has.)
The previous post (“Amazing Cherry Blossoms in North-East Kyoto”) featured Anthony playing with a bubble maker. Bubble soap being messy, it's for outside use only, but he liked that the fan turned when he pressed the button, and wanted to play with it inside as if it were an airplane. I said fine, and a few minutes later, he brought this to show me....
Bubblemaker → Airplane Conversion
He cut and colored some wings, horizontal stabilizers, passenger windows, and two windows up front for the pilots.
I know I'm biased, but this is just amazing for a four-year-old kid, no?
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155mm — 1/200 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Pleasant Sidestreet in Kyoto
We took a meandering drive today to see some blossoms, and then a nice ride up into Kyoto's northern mountains. Some of the areas we visited were so beautiful it just hurt, because I wanted to capture the beauty and I knew there was no way I could. So, instead, I took a few pictures, and just tried to enjoy it.
We drove along waterways for a long time, up the Kamo river, then the Takano River, then across to the Kamo river (the 2nd “Kamo river” being written differently than the first). The whole way was lined with cherry blossoms in full bloom, and was just splendid.
Then we found a little out-of-the-way area along a small waterway called the Shirakawa Canal (which ostensibly is part of the Shirakawa River, which runs by our house, but I don't think it's actually connected). This area was just amazing, both for its abundance of cherry trees, and for its lack of abundance of people.
All the pictures on this post are from one tiny part of that area, which runs for well over a mile through mostly quite neighborhoods in north-eastern Kyoto. (Note to Nils: this is pretty close to you; check out the map link under one of the pictures, and pay the area a visit with your camera!)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 23mm — 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cloudy and Snowy When We Arrived
Of course, that “snow” are a hail of cherry blossoms. It was sort of warm, but Fumie's been feeling a bit iffy since getting back from Malaysia, so was bundled up.
The sun came out not soon after we arrived, and with it the wind died down. However, because of all the blossoms on the ground, we could see little mini “dust devils” from time to time, that we'd never have seen otherwise. Nature is amazing.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — full exif & map
Nature in the Middle of the City
The picture above is the little river/canal as it curves in its huge mile-long arc across sleepy Kyoto communities.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 48mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
More Important Things On His Mind
Anthony, of course, totally ignored the abundant beauty to concentrate on his bubble maker. It's a little battery-operated fan with a quad of bubble loops mounted in front. Dip into the bubble soap, press the button, and volumes of bubbles and fun come out.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 20mm — 1/400 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +0.62EV — full exif & map
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying Anthony Enjoying the Bubbles
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 105mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Layer After Layer After Layer of Blossoms
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Bubbles Are Better Released from High Ground
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/320 sec, f/9, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Friedls of Kyoto, Hanami 2007
Open the trunk for a few moments to get the camera and it gets littered with cherry blossoms....
I have so many more pictures from this stop that I want to share, not to mention those from all the various places we visited up in the mountains. I just don't know where to begin....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 18mm — 30 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100, P.P. boost: +1.24EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Easter Evening in Kyoto
After a day of cold drizzle yesterday, today (Easter Sunday) was glorious: sunny, warm, and cherry trees laden with blossoms. The area were I live was crazy-crowded, but I didn't have to endure it much because I was out most of the day.
I attended Easter Mass at 10am, which was full of mixed emotions because when I got there, I found out that the head priest, Fr. Asada, passed away this week. Every time I carried Anthony while going to receive communion, he'd pause to bless Anthony, then pat him on the head with a kindly “good kid.” He'd been sick for the last month or so.
After mass, I took Anthony to an Easter-egg hunt sponsored by “CLONES”, a name I don't care for but must begrudgingly admire for its wit. It stands for something along the lines of “Children Living with One Native English Speaker” or “Children with at Least One Native English-Speaking parent.” In any case, it's for bilingual kids, and Anthony found a few chocolate-filled plastic eggs, and made new friends.
After he was down for the evening, I went out to take a few pictures. The one above is facing the same direction as the top one from this night-sakura post from the other day, but from the bridge you can see in its far distance. It was really dark, so even the 30-second exposure needed some post-processing boost (to mimic a 71-second exposure).
(The building slightly visible toward the upper left is the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art)
Being so dark, that area wasn't getting much attention this evening. However, turning around to look back across the width of the bridge I was on, and there were plenty of people enjoying a brilliantly-lit bank of cherry trees (the same ones that can be seen on the left of the previously mentioned shot from the other day).
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1.3 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cherry-Blossom Fireworks
Ho-hum, more night long-exposure cherry-blossom pics. You must be getting bored of them by now, so here's a 15-second night shot without any cherry trees.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 15 sec, f/8, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +0.40EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Waiting for a Taxi Home
It's not only cherry blossoms that add color to spring in Kyoto. Kawabata Street, which parallels the Kamo River as it slices north-south through the eastern part of Kyoto (kawabata means “riverbank”), is lively with botanical color. There are blossoming trees of some sort or another pretty much its whole length, and also vibrantly green wispy weeping-willow type trees, and on top of that, the hedge that separates the walkway from the road becomes fiery red for a short time in the spring.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 150mm — 1/180 sec, f/7.1, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Many Colors of Kawabata Street
It's really beautiful, but hard to get a nice picture of because although in real life one is drawn to the beauty to the point of totally ignoring the utility poles, delivery trucks, traffic signals, road signs, power wires, and other random urban clutter in the same way one ignores the hum of an air conditioner in one's workplace, such things stick out like a sore thumb in photographs.
By the way, in rummaging through my archives from last year (the same place I found the picture above), I found a daytime shot of the Biwako Canal from the same vantage point as the nighttime long-exposure cherry-blossom shots I posted the other day....
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR @ 48mm — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Biwako Canal in Okazaki, Kyoto
The building in the far background is the Lake Biwa Canal Museum of Kyoto, half a mile away.
I tried some long-exposure shots in the same quaint area of Kyoto — Gion — in which I got some night cherry-blossom shots last week. All the photos last week were hand-held, short-exposure shots, so today, I thought I'd try a followup to the nighttime long-exposure shots from my previous post.
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 50mm — 42 sec, f/22, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cobblestone Street and Cherry Blossoms
It was much more crowded now that the blossoms are in full bloom. Pretty much everyone in Japan who owns a camera was there with their camera. But despite the crowd, it was really nice. The only people who didn't have a camera were the geisha and maiko who were walking or scurrying about.
In order to “see through” all the people, I used a tripod and relatively long exposures. The one above is 42 seconds, at f/22. The small aperture (large “f” number) means that something has to remain unmoving for a while (or be really bright) to actually make it into the image, and as such, people milling about would become translucent, or even remain invisible.
My biggest worry was that a car might come along and ruin the shot with its bright lights, but it all worked out well. (It seems that I caught some kind of repeating yellow light in lower-right corner of the shot above, but I have no idea what it was.)
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 33 sec, f/18, ISO 100, P.P. boost: +1.00EV — map & image data — nearby photos
Reverse-Angle View
Anthony was with me, having returned from Malaysia with Fumie and Fumie's mom (in a repeat of last year's trip to Malaysia, this time sans me), and he helped me pick some locations.
Having picked them up at the airport early this morning, I'm beat, so just these two pictures for now...