Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picturesque Path
at the Yoshiminedera Temple (善峯寺)
Kyoto, Japan

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I paid a visit to the Yoshiminedera Temple in the mountains of south-west Kyoto today, and the resulting photos pretty much covered all the main things I normally have on my blog. Let's run through some of them....

Above we have a vertical desktop background, which I started doing four years ago. I've now posted 385 of them.

And here's a wigglegram featuring Ai (who appeared with her husband in this photoshoot a year and a half ago)...

Animatable Wigglegram (16 frames) — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view 3D effect
写真の上をマウスで左右にゆっくり動かすと「３D」な感じが出ます。

I first started making these things that I call “wigglegrams” two years ago, and I still have a lot of work yet to make them better. I've only just realized that I really need to ensure a faster shutter than normal static shots, because (duh!) I'm moving; the frames at the end of the one above are quite blurry. And I've got to move more smoothly... this one is still a bit wonky.

Of course, I need to have a photo of people taking photos...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

... and of folks gathered to see a nice view...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

... and folks pointing at something...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 — map & image data — nearby photos

... and someone holding a quince...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos

Okay, that last one is not common on my blog, but you've got to start sometime.

It's been five months since I've posted a cautionary example about remembering to use a polarizing filter, so here's one:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Without Polarizer
偏光フィルター無し

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
With Polarizer
偏光フィルター有り

Three years ago I posted “Heading Out To Photograph The Fall Foliage? Don’t Forget The Polarizer Filter” using photos from this very temple, but I'm getting better in my processing because I can use my wigglegram technology to align the shots. (Other polarizing-example posts include wet grass, polished granite, wet rocks, lotus leaves, a mountain stream, a bed of moss, and my first post on the subject six and a half years ago, “A Few Polarization-Filter Examples”.)

And speaking of both “wigglegram technology” and “things that often appear on my blog”, here's killing two birds with one stone: another wigglegram, and Damien Douxchamps and his famous red hat posing Terminator Style with his Nikkor 70-200 zoom lens:

Animatable Wigglegram (15 frames) — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view 3D effect
写真の上をマウスで左右にゆっくり動かすと「３D」な感じが出ます。

This is on the steps leading up from the parking lot, before the entrance. They were the last photos I took before we moved on to the next temple.

But we're not done yet with the tour of stuff commonly found on my blog. Here's a normal landscape-mode desktop background (the 841^st), taken from about where Damien is standing in the wigglegram above, of the temple's entrance, a couple of hours earlier on the way in.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Entrance to the Yoshiminedera Temple
善峯寺の正門

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Of course, it certainly wouldn't be an autumn post without a photo of Paul Barr smiling...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

...or a photo of the back of his head while he snaps a photo of a pretty scene...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos

We need a photo showing people staring inquisitively at something, while also giving a sense of context for the scale or slope of the place...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos

... and of someone using a smartphone to take a photo of the thing being stared at, in this case, a garden-friendly spider...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos

I've much more to post out of the 706 photos I took at this temple (and the mere 270 at the other one we visited today), including even a “What am I?” quiz, but they'll have to wait for another day.

Continued here...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Imperial Boat
at the Shugakuin Imperial Villa (修学院離宮)
Kyoto Japan

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The fall-foliage season is in full swing in Kyoto, and with the number of photos I take in an outing I'm quickly filling up my laptop's disk. So before I can even look at this year's photos, I need to make room for them by cleaning up prior years' stuff. I've spent the last couple of months going through my photos from 2012, and have worked my way through to late November 2012, and my first visit to Kyoto’s Shugakuin Imperial Villa, and realize that I hadn't even looked at all those photos yet.

So, here are two more from that trip.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/8, ISO 900 — map & image data — nearby photos

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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Very Little Mushrooms
on the roof of the ticket-taker booth
The Kosanji Temple (高山寺; often incorrectly called the “Kozanji Temple”)
Kyoto Japan

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Almost-microscopic mushrooms growing in a bed of moss is hard to resist when you have a nice macro lens, as seen in prior posts here and here.

Paul Barr is back in Kyoto for the first time in a year, as is the fall-foliage season. Paul, Damien Douxchamps, and I made our way out to the Takao (高雄) area in the mountains of north-western Kyoto to see the fall colors. It was my first outing for fall colors this year (though in the past month or so I've posted a lot of fall-foliage shots from prior years, including here, here, here, here, and here).

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Muted Colors
it's still early in the season

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Detail
I love this kind of roof, and the “rain chain” (kusaridori; 鎖樋)

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/2, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wind Chime
from 1985 (though it looks like it could be 1885 or 1685)!

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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gate Roof Detail

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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Impromptu Photo Op
at the Saimyouji Temple (西明寺), Kyoto Japan

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Sip of Tea
at the Jingoji Temple (神護寺), Kyoto Japan

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
The Last 1%
final steps of a very, very long winding flight of steps from the bottom of the mountain

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
I Love the Curves
of the temple roofs in the background

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Rich Light

And, to celebrate Paul's return to Kyoto after a year...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
“A Paul Spotted In Its Natural Environment”

To be continued...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/22, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Roof
of a minor wall at the Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所)

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The grounds of the Kyoto Imperial Palace are open for tours most days, and like other imperial palaces in the area (Shugakuin, Sento, and, Katsura), holders of a foreign passport can visit pretty easily. It's much more difficult for a Japanese citizen to visit, except during a special open house for a few days each year.

During the open house, huge throngs of tourists (Japanese and foreign alike) visit, which makes it unappealing to someone who can visit on a less-crowded regular-tour day, but after finally making my first visit to the palace last week, I realized a great benefit to a photography-minded visitor of going during the open house: you can move at your own pace, and can stay as long as you like. (On the standard tours, your movements are tightly controlled and the group moves at a brisk pace.)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
North Gate
Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所)
one of half a dozen entrances along the almost-mile of surrounding wall

The palace is located within a larger city park that's always open to the public. Here's the Map view in Lightroom, with the yellow marker near the top where I was standing when I took the photo above (aiming at the gate in the wall to the south west of the marker):

The center block is the imperial palace, and as you can see from the other markers for other photos I took, only about half of the grounds are accessible to tourists.

The gate in the north wall (seen above, from outside) is similar to the south-east gate seen in the three-lovely-ladies wigglegram the other day, though that view is from the inside.

The only other photo showing on the map outside the palace walls is this next one, of the main entrance gate, after we'd had our bags inspected by police...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Main Site Entrance
Kyoto Imperial Palace (京都御所)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/500 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Palace Entrance
for use by visiting dignitaries

The first thing you see when you enter the grounds is a receiving entrance to a palace building. None of the buildings are open to the public, so the entrance is probably not used more than once or twice a century (since the emperor no longer lives here). Anyway, I love the detail in the construction of the ornate roof...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/8, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos

The site has many buildings and courtyards and walls and areas, and sometimes the view through a door would be across a courtyard through another door. I liked the geometry.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Through and Through

For some reason, an ox-drawn cart on display garnered a lot of attention...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 450 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ox-Drawn Cart

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wheel Detail

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cambered

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 110 — map & image data — nearby photos
Through and Through
again

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Courtyard

The leading photo of this article (“Roof”) was taken here, on the left side of the doorway.

There's not much exciting here, but it's been a while since I posted something, so here we are. At the doorway seen in the photo above, I took photos to make a wigglegram, and so I've been stalled at this point in my photos because for the last several days I've been consumed with improving my wigglegram-making software. It's really been quite fun (though the math makes my brain melt). I find it particularly interesting how different crops on the same set of photos can result in vastly different end effects. We'll see some examples soon.

Continued here...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Incongruous

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Doubletake
main gate of the Chion'in Temple
今日から二ヶ月知恩院（京都市東山区）の三門は足場包む

I was surprised today to notice that the huge main gate of the Chion'in Temple (Kyoto, Japan) is in the process of getting a huge wooden scaffolding. It seems that it'll be having its roof tiles repaired for the next couple of months.

This construction is in addition to the multi-year renovation of the main hall that includes taking apart its roof, but as I belatedly discovered the other day, there's so much more to this site, so it's well worth a visit.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Supplies
piled up on the main stairs up into the center of the gate

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/9, ISO 1600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Wooden Scaffolding

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 — map & image data — nearby photos
Simple Ties

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/800 sec, f/1.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
With Damien

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/800 sec, f/1.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
(the scaffolding is bigger than Damien)

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Inside

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/1000 sec, f/1.6, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos
this temple should be called the
“Temple of Staircases”

As I mentioned in a recent post, this place has a lot of flights of stairs. The flight seen above, parallel off to the side of the main flight that goes through the big gate, is now used as the main way to the temple proper.

From up the stairs a bit, looking back toward the back of the main gate...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/8, ISO 1250 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — ¹/400 sec, f/3.2, ISO 180 — map & image data — nearby photos
Back Edge of the Scaffolding

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Fall Colors are Starting

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — ¹/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Picturesque Scaffolding?

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — ¹/1000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 — map & image data — nearby photos