{"id":1130,"date":"2009-01-31T00:43:59","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T15:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-01-31\/1130"},"modified":"2009-01-31T00:43:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T15:43:59","slug":"a-visit-to-okinawas-kouri-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-01-31\/1130","title":{"rendered":"A Visit to Okinawa’s Kouri Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThe Lengths I Go<\/span><\/span>\nTo Get a Shot<\/span><\/span>\n— on my belly in the middle of a Japanese<\/span> road —\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I posted the other day a nice picture of the sun streaming down to\nlight a bridge<\/span><\/a> that I took<\/span> during our New-Year's trip to Okinawa<\/a>, and on that post\nI lamented<\/span> about the general unexciting flatness of the pictures from that\nday.<\/p>\n\n

Still, the visit to the small island was a fun<\/span> excursion, so dull photo\nor not, here they come...<\/p>\n\n

Kouri Island is a small, generally circular island about a mile<\/span> and a\nquarter<\/span> across, less than a mile<\/span> offshore from the Okinawa mainland. It's connected<\/span> by a big<\/span> bridge, but not directly: you have to cross three\nbridges and two other islands, traveling about five miles, to get there\nfrom the mainland.<\/p>\n\n

There's pretty much nothing on it of interest, but it was fun to\nexplore.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nView of the Island<\/span>\nfrom the nearest intermediate island on the route in\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 66 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/3.5, ISO 280 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nnear the parking lot at the start of the bridge:\nYellow, for a Change<\/span><\/span>\nJapan has lots of red berries<\/a> this time of year\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/3.5, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOne-Handed Photography At 70kph<\/span>\nthrough the windshield\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 24 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFirst Stop on the Island<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 35 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>200 sec, f<\/span>\/5.6, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMe<\/span>\n( photo by Fumie M. Friedl )<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Despite the wide open views seen above, much of the island was covered\nwith dense foliage of some sort... trees, sugar cane, etc., so if was often\ndifficult to tell where you were if you couldn't see the bridge for\norientation.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nShack<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 48 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/13, ISO 2800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSugar Cane<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Sometimes roads were barely more than paths through the brush or sugar cane....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nTight Fit<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 35 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nGunna' Get Tighter<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\niPhone \/ Google Maps \/ Live GPS <\/span>\nin action\n<\/div>\n\n

Half the fun of exploring new places is getting lost, but not too<\/i>\nlost. The rental<\/span> car had the navigation system, which was great, but what\nwas fantastic<\/i> was the real-time location on Google Maps satellite\nimages, via my iPhone.<\/p>\n\n

I snapped the screenshot at right while we were at an overlook at the\nhighest point on the island (marked with a blue<\/span> dot). I added<\/span> the red\narrow, to show where the two “tight fit” shots above were taken. (You can\nclick on the “map & image data” link under any picture to see where it\nwas taken.)<\/p>\n\n

You can zoom in on the satellite images to fairly good detail (both on\nthe iPhone, and in your browser) and get an amazing perspective on your\nlocation. There are a few<\/span> drawbacks, as one might expect. The satellite<\/span> views give you no sense of elevation, and on them the island looks flat.\nIn reality, it's the top of a mountain<\/span> sticking out of the water.<\/p>\n\n

(As an aside, I'll note that Google\nEarth<\/a> can give a great<\/span> sense of elevation.... one that can be downright\neerie at times. If you have<\/span> Google Earth, click on this link<\/a> to launch Google Earth and be\nbrought to a view<\/span> of a snowy<\/span> area. Let it load<\/span> completely, and be sure that\n“Terrain” is checked in the list of Layers. Try to visualize<\/span> in 3D what you\nsee. Then, try panning the image back and forth a bit,<\/span> and suddenly it will\nall be clear.)<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, while the location is real-time accurate due to the iPhone's GPS\nreceiver, the images, of course, are not. When you zoom up to the area where\nthe “tight fit” photos were taken<\/a>, it looks like a perfectly<\/span> nice,\neasily-passable road. Maybe the image was taken after the harvest. The\nlocation where\nthe blue dot is<\/a> is a park<\/span>\/overlook, but in the image it's a forest.<\/span> I take it<\/span>, then, that the overlook is new.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 32 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nThere's the Bridge Again<\/span>\n( the island is a small circle, so the bridge comes into view eventually )\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/11, ISO 220 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nAnd Again<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f\/2.8 @ 38 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>2500 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFerry Bypassing the Island<\/span>\nno need for a ferry since the bridge was build, three years ago\n<\/div>\n\n

I like the pictures for their memory value, but photographically they're\nuninspiring. Still, the day wasn't a total<\/span> photographic loss. On the way<\/span>\nthere we saw wild cherry\nblossoms blooming in January<\/a>, and on the way home I snapped<\/span> the Lonely Island<\/a> shot. And later<\/span> that evening is when I had<\/span> the amazing luck with the low-light photos at the\nhotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I posted the other day a nice picture of the sun streaming down to light a bridge that I took during our New-Year's trip to Okinawa, and on that post I lamented about the general unexciting flatness of the pictures from that day.<\/p>

Still, the visit to the small island was a fun excursion, so dull photo or not, here they come...<\/p>

Kouri Island is a small, generally circular island about a mile and a quarter across, less than a mile offshore from the Okinawa mainland. It's connected by a big bridge, but not directly: you have to cross three [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}