Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Quiet Moment
at the Murin'an Garden (無鄰菴), Kyoto Japan
I spent a few hours today in the Murin'an Garden (無鄰菴) in eastern Kyoto, doing a photoshoot with Ting Ting, which you might remember from “Photoshoot at the Peak of the Haradanien Garden’s Awesomeness” two days ago.
Like two days ago, I was with Eric, Gigi, and Damien, but this time Gigi was behind her own camera as well...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Typical Scene
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Easy Smile
I really enjoyed the situation with three photographers and one subject. While someone else is directing Ting Ting to look this way or move that way, I can capture pseudo-candid shots that I'd probably not get otherwise.
For example, early on while being directed by Gigi...
From time to time, Ting Ting would also be the photographer...
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos
Enjoying the Garden
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Listening
to one of the photographer's direction
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wrapper
for the sweet that comes with the tea
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Typical Scene
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/2.2, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gorgeous Light
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slight Rimlight
using the iPhone flashlight to add a bit of hair highlight for Gigi's shot
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Following
Damien's direction on posing and movement
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Slight Correction
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/800 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Quite
the hands feel staged, but with a smile like that who cares?
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rich Light
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gigi After the Shoot
doing an exaggerated pose
Eric and Gigi return to America tomorrow. It was great fun with them while they were here.
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Not Foam Filling From a Cheap Pillow
but then, what is it?
It's been a month and a half since my most recent attempt to confound with a “What am I?” Quiz, but I fear today's may confound but may not interest. There's not much to go by. We'll see.
As always, I'll hold replies from public view until I post the answer in a day or three...
I visited the super-duper unbelievably amazing Haradanien Garden (原谷苑) today, in the mountains above the Golden Pavilion temple in northwestern Kyoto. It was my first visit since the photoshoot with John and Ai two years ago.
This time I went with Eric, Gigi, and Damien just to practice portraiture. Gigi wore a kimono she bought yesterday.
I can not begin to tell you how wonderful Haradanien is. When the blossoms are at their peak, such as now, it's 100× better than any other garden I know of, anywhere.
金閣寺の近く、原谷苑、は今メチャメチャメチャ美しいです。 行きにくい所ですが、今週はおすすめです。今日は全然満開でした！
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Can't Get Enough of These Blossoms
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inviting
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Engulfed
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Focusing Via Live View
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Posing for Her Husband
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Posing for Me
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Touching Base
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 720 — map & image data — nearby photos
Easy Laugh
I wanted a different kind of shot of Gigi than Eric did... they tended toward the serious, “refined” look (easy to get with Gigi), but I wanted more levity and spontaneity, so those are the kind of shots I'll share here.
Well, except this one:
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 110 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Smile I Was Looking For
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Candid Moment
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
A Different Look
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Have No Idea
what the glove was for
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Best Friends
that just met
Gigi was getting a bit tired, so never one to be shy, Eric approached a couple of ladies and asked whether they'd be interested in having us photograph them. They readily agreed.
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Joanne and Ting Ting
They had seemed like best friends, but it turns out that they'd just met each other earlier in the day, here at the garden. I was shocked at how easily they worked together and with us. They said that they weren't models, but they acted like what I imagine a pro model would act like. Super easy and enjoyable to work with.
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
Substitute Shooter
Gigi uses one of the girls' camera to shoot them
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Appreciating Gigi's Handiwork
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Joanne
sort of inspired by this shot
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ting Ting
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Damien's Turn
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shooting Joanne
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shooting Both
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Guns
Damien pulls out his Nikkor 200mm f/2
Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
What They Were Shooting
It was a really fun time, on top of the feeling of accomplishment I have for having ridden my bicycle there (about 40 minutes, including at the end a short but killer 100m ascent over 1,000 meters distance).
It turns out that Joanne is leaving Kyoto today, but Ting Ting will be around for another week, so we may get a chance to meet again.
Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Soggy Carpet of Petals
in rainy Kyoto Japan
ずぶ濡れた花びらのじゅうたん（今日、京都市）
Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95mm — 1/500 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
After the Rain
雨の直後
One day of rain changes everything with the cherry-blossom petals. It was lovely yesterday with trees full of blossoms, but today's rain knocked many of them off.
A few days ago, the area seen above looked like this:
Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hanami Lunch
three days ago
同じ場所、三日前
Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 110 — map & image data — nearby photos
Solid Blossoms
three days ago
Not all areas/trees are affected the same... I think it depends strongly on where each specific tree is in its blooming cycle. Another cherry tree not far away seems unaffected by the rain...
Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210mm — 1/500 sec, f/6, ISO 125 — map & image data — nearby photos
Three Days Ago
三日前
Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 210mm — 1/1000 sec, f/6, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Today
compare the cherry tree in the background with the one in the center
今日
Some varieties of cherry haven't even started to bloom yet, so there's still much awaiting those arriving in Kyoto today (such as Gigi and Eric; Gigi arrived today to join Eric, who arrived a couple of days ago).
It's been 10 years since I started my blog with “Choosing a Car to Buy in Japan”.
That was followed the same day by “Essentials for a First-Time Parent”, and then another 10 years and 2,327 additional articles (not counting this one 😉) containing 18,133 photos, as well as other little additions such as the interactive map of blog photos and the sporadically-maintained prettiest-photos photostream.
今日は私のブログの十年記念日です。十年間、2,329件、写真18,133枚。
I would have liked to post something spectacular for my tenth-anniversary post, but having just returned to Kyoto from a long trip to The States, I just don't have the energy.
I did, at least, make an attempt to try something new for this anniversary post: to make my first cinemagraph. I figured that this could be a nice complement to my wigglegrams, but my first attempt resulted in failure:
ugly view of what is (please try to believe me) a beautiful scene
The cherry blossoms visible from my balcony are currently in their most exquisitely-beautiful state, infusing a joie de vivre in all who witness them in person, but I just can't capture that sense in photos, and so my cinemagraph was doomed from the start with boring, bland, dull, ugly source material. But maybe I'll learn one day, and perhaps for my 20th-anniversary blog post I'll refer back to this with the same nostalgia that today I have when looking back at my early blog.
Indeed, looking back over the blog's Table of Contents to older articles, I think I've improved in writing and photography. Some of the old stuff is pretty bad.
I'd like to be able to list my “best” articles for the decade, but there's no easy way to understand what “best” means. Looking at which articles have received the most views is not as meaningful as one might expect because it's more of an indication of which articles happened to catch a high-trafficked website's fancy over the years.
Among dated blog posts, the top ones by overall view count:
- Nikon D3 Shutter Release in Super Slow Motion (Sep 2008)
- Source of the famous “Now you have two problems” quote (Sep 2006)
- Tasty Squid Pizza, and other Culinary Delights (Mar 2007)
- Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR Lens (Nov 2006)
- Jeffrey's Lightroom Configuration Manager (Mar 2007)
- Finally, Geoencoding in Lightroom! Announcing my GPS-Support Plugin (Oct 2008)
and here is the breakdown by blog year (April though March)...
These are mostly the kind of articles that get found via a web search, or linked from some high-traffic site like Reddit (or in the old days, SlashDot). Folks following a link from these places likely view the one page and leave without even realizing where they were (my blog).
Most of the articles listed above are, in my mind, tangents away from what I feel are the central core of what I want to share, stories about Kyoto, my family, and places I visit. Rummaging through my blog's Table of Contents, I selected a few of the articles that I think are representative....
In random order (mouse-over to see thumbnails for the photos)...
- Prucia Plum Wine from France, and Some Dramatic Lighting, and Rolling-Stones Beer (Jun 2012)
- Fumie’s New Pointe Shoes (May 2012)
- All Dressed Up in Kinosaki (Mar 2009)
- Badass Japanese Archery: Now It’s The Ladies’ Turn (Jan 2012)
- More Japanese-Garden Desktop Backgrounds from Kyoto’s Enkoji Temple (Mar 2013)
- Kyoto’s Jidai Matsuri 2012, #2 (Oct 2012)
- Slice of Americana: Anthony’s Cousin is Bat Boy at a Local Baseball Game (Aug 2013)
- Cliché Incarnate: Lame Formulaic Pictures of Plum Blossoms and Those Enjoying Them (Apr 2012)
- Deep In The Mountains Above Kyoto’s Kumogahata Village (Jun 2011)
- Kyoto’s Housen-in Temple Part 3: Rock Garden Desktop Backgrounds (Feb 2013)
- My First Look at Kendo: Masters Tournament in Kyoto (May 2014)
- Trying Some Hard-Edged Black and White (Jun 2011)
- Anthony Growing Up: the Tipping Point (Apr 2010)
- Presidential Visit means REALLY BIG hubbub (Nov 2005)
- Dabbling in Some Fine-Art Printing for My Office (Feb 2011)
- Kyoto At Night During a Heavy Snow (Jan 2015)
- A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto (Dec 2012)
- Taking It Easy With Some Flowers From Kyoto’s Gioji Temple (Jul 2012)
- Context for the Bamboo-and-Leaf Photo, and Some Crazy Post-Processing (Dec 2011)
- Fun Day of Snow Play, Snowflake Photography, and Birds (Jan 2014)
- The Quintessential Anthony (Dec 2005)
- A Visit to Suntory’s Kyoto Beer Brewery (Jun 2012)
- Photographer’s Low-Hanging Fruit: a Pretty Flower (Apr 2012)
- Anthony’s “Adventures of Craneman”, #1 (May 2009)
- Kyoto’s Eikando Temple Continues To Amaze (Oct 2011)
- Cosina Voigtländer Macro APO-Lanthar 125mm F2.5 SL (Jul 2010)
- Anthony the Supermodel (Mar 2006)
- A Bazillion Offering Statuettes at the Sanzen-in Temple (Jun 2009)
- Goldfinches in a Light Snow (Jan 2014)
- Going Vertical: Portrait-Mode Desktop Backgrounds (Nov 2010)
- Amazing Snow at the Heian Shrine (Feb 2008)
- Big, Moody Space of the Kosan Temple in Northwest Kyoto (Dec 2011)
- A Wigglegram of Three Lovely Ladies in Kimono at the Kyoto Imperial Palace (Nov 2014)
- A Superficial Overview of the Gardens Behind the Nishimura Stone-Carving Workshop (Dec 2009)
- Unusually Dynamic Views of Kyoto from Shogunzuka (Nov 2011)
- Gioji Temple Photoshoot Continues: Little Orange Mushrooms and Depth-of-Field Comparisons (Jun 2012)
- Elementary-School Water Polo (Feb 2013)
- Kyoto’s Amazing Haradanien Garden, Part 3 (May 2013)
- Japan’s First Whisky: Suntory’s “Yamazaki” Distillery (Apr 2012)
- A Bunch Of Blurry Pictures of Folks Pouring Wine (May 2012)
- Charcoal Preparation: Monochromatic Work of a Japanese Swordsmith (Jan 2012)
- Namiko Candid Bride Portrait (Nov 2010)
- Total Discipline: Anatomy of a Japanese Archer’s Shot (Jan 2012)
- Sleeping with Curious George: A Short Timeline (Dec 2009)
- First Look at the Ultra Modern (as in “Modern Art”) Benesse House Museum Hotel (Oct 2012)
- Setsubun Festival at the Heian Shrine: Intense Burn Continues (Mar 2012)
- The Towel Museum in Imabari Japan, Part 1 (Apr 2011)
- Ninja (Jan 2008)
- Elegance in Kyoto’s Tenjyuan Garden (Nov 2012)
- Views of Kyoto From Shogunzuka Over The Years (Feb 2013)
- Priceless: Candy and Pottery in a Surprisingly Tasteful Display (Mar 2013)
- Impossible Shot at Kyoto’s Enkoji Temple: Garden *and* Garden-Viewing Room at the Height of Fall Colors, Devoid of People (Feb 2013)
- A Visit to the Jikkouin Temple in Rural Kyoto (Sep 2013)
- Tea and Sweets Among the Fall Colors at Kyoto’s Daihyouin Temple (Nov 2012)
- Pierre Nadeau, Japanese Swordsmith (May 2011)
- The Towel Museum in Imabari Japan, Part 2 (Apr 2011)
A separate class of content on my blog are its non-dated “pages”, which each covering a specific topic and are updated in place so they tend to accumulate many more views than the dated articles cited above. Most-viewed pages include those for my Lightroom plugins (#1 and #2 are my plugins for Flickr and Facebook, while #3 is on plugin installation). The most-viewed non-Lightroom pages are for my autofocus test chart and the description of my image-metadata viewer. The ones I'm most proud of, though, due to the work that went into them, are
- An Analysis of Lightroom JPEG Export Quality Settings
- Digital-Image Color Spaces, Page 1: Introduction
- Jeffrey’s Photoshop Calendar-Template-Building Script
- Jeffrey’s Autofocus Test Chart
- Jeffrey’s Fake-Mat-Building Photoshop Script
- A Qualitative Analysis of NEF Compression
Back to trying to determine the “best” articles, One might look at the number of comments a post receives as proxy for “best”, but this too is skewed away from reality toward utility: the majority of most-commented articles are related to Lightroom. The most-commented blogposts not related to Lightroom include starting with “So Much For That Glorious iPad Screen: iOS and its Apps are Not Even Color Managed” (March 2012) and “Frustration with TracFone Prepaid Wireless” (July 2006).
The “pages” also accumulate more comments... the Flickr-plugin page currently has 696 comments (including a dozen or so I haven't gotten to yet). I need to figure out a better way to manage comments.
I'd like to be able to find out which posts were most appreciated by followers of my blog, but there's no way to know. I provide a full-article RSS feed, so many readers don't even visit my blog to read it.
So, without really knowing what people like, I guess I'll have to continue just doing what I like and hope folks that might enjoy it find their way here.