{"id":1909,"date":"2011-12-27T12:51:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-27T03:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-12-27\/1909"},"modified":"2011-12-27T12:51:31","modified_gmt":"2011-12-27T03:51:31","slug":"that-one-amazing-tree-at-the-imakumano-kannonji-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2011-12-27\/1909","title":{"rendered":"That Particularly Amazing Tree at the Imakumano Kannonji Temple"},"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 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/5, ISO 4500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

A month ago in “Another Day of Amazing Fall Colors in Kyoto<\/a>” I posted<\/span> on\nphoto similar to the one above, from that day's trip to the Imakumano Kannonji Temple (\u4eca\u718a\u91ce\u89b3\u97f3\u5bfa)<\/span>\nin eastern Kyoto.<\/p>\n\n

The tree with the red leaves had particularly impressive colors, but\nonly when viewed from about where the group is standing. From where I took<\/span>\nthe photo above, the leaves look fairly bland, at least relatively\nspeaking. As you can<\/span> tell from the shadows, the leaves were not being\nbacklit.... it was a hazy<\/span> day and the sun was more or less to my back in\nthe photo above.<\/p>\n\n

This little clearing was behind a building,<\/span> so most people never see it\nto begin with, but those who do generally arrive from behind the camera\nposition in the photo above. They see the view in the photo above, then\nreturn back to the main area, missing most of what the tree has to offer. In this respect<\/span>, we were lucky to have arrived via a back<\/span> route...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFirst Glimpse of the Clearing<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 5600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nMoody Light<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

The light in the clearing was a bit<\/span> other-worldly to begin with, likely\ndue to a combination<\/span> of the hazy day and the nature of the clearing, with\nhigh trees most of the way around but open sky directly above.<\/p>\n\n

This is the scene we found when we entered the clearing from behind.\n(The first photo appearing above was taken from the path near the corner of\nthe building.)<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>800 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 2000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nSelf Portrait<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

As we moved through the clearing to the red leaves, they suddenly came\nalive in a way<\/span> digital photography can not capture. They seemed positively\nluminescentb, as if they were somehow fluorescently turning non-visible\nlight into visible light. In the next<\/span> photo, I had to<\/span> tone the image down\nunnaturally — as evidenced by the dark background —\njust to keep all the red from blowing out the color\nchannels<\/a> to white...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 5000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBlown<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Despite darkening the whole photo quite a bit,<\/span> the red channels are\nstill blown out so that the leaves have become solid blotches of whatever\nthe brightest red your monitor can display. At times<\/span> like this the technical\nlimitations of digital photography makes me sad.<\/p>\n\n

I darkened things further to retain a bit<\/span> of detail in the leaves...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 3600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

With a brighter background I could keep more of the image in the sweet spot for the digital sensor, but to get it I had<\/span>\nto move my position, and so the red leaves reverted to a less<\/span>-glowing view...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 4000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n
Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n1280×<\/span>800<\/a>  ·  1680×<\/span>1050<\/a>  ·  1920×<\/span>1200<\/a>  ·  2560×<\/span>1600<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Voigtl\u00e4nder 125mm f\/2.5 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

When I suggested to a group of folks that they'd get a more<\/span> spectacular\nview by moving to the back of the clearing, they were happy enough to try\nbut it was clear from their exuberant ooohs and aaaahs that they hadn't\nreally expected much change. They were suitably impressed.<\/p>\n\n

I posted before about the benefits of a polarizing<\/span>\nfilter for fall-foliage photography<\/a>, and I know<\/span> that in some cases the\nhuman eye can also notice a difference<\/span> due to light polarization, but I\ndon't<\/span> think that's involved in this burning-red-leaf situation (because blocking\npolarized light would make it appear darker in real life, allowing it to\nappear more vibrant in photos due to the resulting change in camera exposure).<\/p>\n\n

It'll be interesting to visit again next year to see whether it was something intrinsic\nto the leaves or the area, or some kind of passing effect that just happened to occur that day.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A month ago in \"Another Day of Amazing Fall Colors in Kyoto\" I posted on photo similar to the one above, from that day's trip to the Imakumano Kannonji Temple (\u4eca\u718a\u91ce\u89b3\u97f3\u5bfa) in eastern Kyoto.<\/p>

The tree with the red leaves had particularly impressive colors, but only when viewed from about where the group is standing. From where I took the photo above, the leaves look fairly bland, at least relatively speaking. As you can tell from the shadows, the leaves were not being backlit.... it was a hazy day and the sun was more or less to my back in [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14,1,2,6,10,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909"}],"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=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}