Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 4

July 8, 2018

A Minor Warning About WhatsApp: The PC Version Doesn’t Work If Your Phone Breaks



Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 100 —
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Sunrise from Mt. Fuji

just prior to a storm







The photo above is from a hike on Mt. Fuji a few days ago, which I'll write about soon (I hope),
but today's post is about the WhatsApp messaging service, and something I discovered about it
during my Fuji trip.



On a bicycle ride on Mt. Fuji, while in the middle of taking a photo with my iPhone, the
iPhone just spazzed out and died, and I was left without a way to contact the
others I was traveling with. Unfortunately, the ride went some hours longer than I
had anticipated, and I'm sure my friends worried.



When I returned to the hotel, my friends had gone out and left a message for me expressing their worry,
so I wanted to contact them using WhatsApp on my laptop. But it wouldn't connect.... it turns out that
WhatsApp won't do anything if it can't contact your phone first. My phone was a useless brick,
so I was stuck.



Other messaging services that I use both on my phone and my laptop — LINE and Facebook Messenger — worked fine, so
I could contact others to report my mostly-unreachable-while-on-the-road state, but I was cut off from everyone for whom WhatsApp
was my main method of communication. This was unfortunate.



I've a special spot in my heart for WhatsApp, because it was created by a
couple of friends
, and I gave them some minor help early on. I was one of its first users, before it was a messaging app, and
was literally the first WhatsApp user in Japan. But these days I tend to use LINE more, both because it has more reach in Japan
(WhatsApp has much more reach outside of Japan), and because I find that LINE has more features that are important to me.



If you use WhatsApp, just know that you're running a risk: if your phone dies, or is lost/stolen, or runs out of battery,
you're cut off from all your contacts, even if you have WhatsApp running on your computer.

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Published on July 08, 2018 03:37

June 7, 2018

Announcing my Upload-to-Google-Photos Plugin for Lightroom: Prepare to be Disappointed



Six years after Google unveiled their “Google +” social network with photo hosting, with heavy emphasis on
photographers, and a couple of years after Google shut down Picasa Web Albums, the sort-of-backdoor way
to upload photos to Google, Google has finally released a photo-upload API, so that I can make
a Google Photos plugin
for Adobe Lightroom
.



Sort of.



What Google allows at this point is extremely limited, and I don't hold much hope that it'll expand.



As of today's initial release, the plugin can:



create an album in Google Photos
upload photos and video to such albums.


That's it. Nothing more. The plugin can't upload to existing albums or any album not made by the plugin.



The plugin can't delete or update photos, even ones it uploaded in the first place, so we can't make a
publish service.



From the employee-developer interaction I've seen so far, I don't hold much hope for this API.



More information, and updates as they happen, on the plugin's home page.

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Published on June 07, 2018 05:57

May 31, 2018

Finally Back on The Road, Exploring Roads Near Hiyoshi Dam

Good Satellite Tracking with three different units, as I rode along the south edge of this rode -- Copyright 2018 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/

Good Satellite Tracking

with three different units, as I rode along the south edge of this rode






Over the years I've reported on informal tests with satellite-tracking location-logger units (“GPS trackers”),
such as

More GPS Cycling Tests
from three years ago, and from six years ago,
Another Informal Location-Logger Test
(itself a followup to “iPhone 4s GPS is Shockingly Good”).



When cycling, I try to record my ride on at least three different units, because they tend to fail in the middle of a ride
a lot more commonly than one should think, and the data geek in me doesn't want to risk losing data on the ride. I've recorded every one of
the 23,827 kilometers I've ridden since getting into “real” cycling a few years ago, and I love every bit of it. (Hahah, “bit”... “data”.... see what I did there?

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Published on May 31, 2018 00:40

April 27, 2018

Nghia and Minh in Kyoto, Part 3

I'm very surprised to find that I prepared this article last year but didn't actually post it. It's the final followup to “Minh and Nghia Photoshoot Preview”,
its Part 2, and wigglegram.



We'd left off while at the Murin'an gardens, so we'll continue with a few more shots from there...





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — 1/200 sec, f/9, ISO 720 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 5600 —
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p






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 4500 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 800 —
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Cooling Off








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 500 —
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At the Nanzen Temple

南禅寺








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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 640 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48mm — 1/200 sec, f/5, ISO 3200 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 —
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Wafting the Smoke Over Yourself

is supposed to help what ails you








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A photoshoot at the Nanzen Temple must include a visit to the old (but still functioning) aquaduct.





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1250 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 29mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 —
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Final Shot






After this shot, I bade them farewell, and they continued on with their Kyoto sightseeing.

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Published on April 27, 2018 04:52

April 25, 2018

The Miniature-Life work of Tatsuya Tanaka



Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 1800 —
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Long Walk Home








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 12800 —
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Forehand










Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2200 —
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Somewhat “Spongy” Court







I recently went to an amazing art exhibition at the Takashimaya department store in Kyoto. It's now moved on from Kyoto,
currently showing in Yokohama for a couple of weeks.
Highly recommended for kids and adults alike. Fumie had brought Anthony earlier in the week, and loved it so much that they'd
recommended it to me.



It's a selection of the prolific art by Tatsuya Tanaka,
the guy behind the 2,500 works at Miniature Calendar,
works which are amazing both for their simplicity (we all could have thought of that),
and for their level of wit, which (in my case) are better than I could have thought of.



At the exhibition I attended, some works were there live, and some only as photos....





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 —
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Calm Broccoli World








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 720 —
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Detail

mundane, but somehow interesting








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 —
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Route








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1600 —
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“Let Me Check My Phone”








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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My Photo








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/100 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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my photo of

His Photo






Photography and social-media sharing were both encouraged, but it was not a situation where one could make good photos... I had no tripod, and it was crowded, so anything more than a few-seconds pause to take a photo would have been unsociable.



Also, the lighting for the displays was not well thought out (or, were perhaps the best that could be done with what was available). The lighting for the physical display of the large “Calm Broccoli World” seen above consisted of harsh spotlights directly above
each broccoli tree, meaning that the actual points of interest (the people) were all in dark shadow
making photography of them by exhibit visitors fairly meaningless.







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 —
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Time and time again I was struck by the wit of his creations, all just a little better than I could have come up with,
yet, as a photographer, I couldn't help but lament at some of his photos.



For example, consider this work that combines a motherboard and rice planters:





Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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Soldering On With the Rice Planting






His photo of this work looks very much like the one above, and the first thought
that comes to my mind when I see it is “he didn't use a polarizing filter”. (I've written about polarizers many times,
such as “The Effect of a Polarization Filter on Wet Rocks, Etc.”.)



So, I put on a polarizer for a few shots, to get more of the deep blue of the motherboard...





Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 7200 —
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Wide View








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 12800 —
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(Too-)Close View






These pictures are still no good, but in a controlled environment I thought they could have been very nice.





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 10000 —
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO 9000 —
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Victory






Race my photo of the display photo -- Takashimaya (高島屋) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2018 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50mm — 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 4000 —
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Race

my photo of the display photo






Here's one that has an aspect that was totally lost on me until Damien pointed it out.





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50mm — 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 4000 —
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As Presented






As presented, my eye first went to the right half, which I now realize is a “making of” kind of photo,
with the left half being the final product. But because I didn't see it in the correct order, I didn't
really pay attention that the edges of the books were meant to impart a sense of speed.... I just saw
books being used as a road. I hope my presentation here lets you get the full effect.



The “Victory” figurine is in the lower-left of the frame.



This work demonstrates another thing about his art: they have English titles, but all
the wit is in the Japanese titles. The English title for this
work
is simply “Spurt”, which like most of the English titles are a simple factual
word or two, devoid of wit or pun.



The Japanese title, as you can see in the phtoo, is “本”気の走り, which might be translated
as the boring “earnest riding”. The pun is that the first character of the word for “earnest” also happens to be
the character used for “book”, so with the quotes around that character it might give the sense of “feels like
riding on a book”.



This was probably not the best example because this pun is so corny. Let's try another:






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 —
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Here's the title card for it:



Troubled Waters 食器 ングな 事故 -- Takashimaya (高島屋) -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2018 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/ -- This photo is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (non-commercial use is freely allowed if proper attribution is given, including a link back to this page on http://regex.info/ when used online)

Troubled Waters


食器ングな事故






The Japanese title is a multi-lingual pun. It's nonsensical on the face of it, but it combines
the word for “dish/tableware” with some seemingly-nonsensical sounds to make something that sounds
like the English word “Shocking”, all followed by “Accident”. Perhaps the wit is lost in the need
for an explanation, but it's a fun title to look at and figure it out.







Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1400 —
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Another Pun

The word “foundation” is rewritten to start with the golf-exclamation “Four!”












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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 7200 —
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Surfing








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60mm — 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 3200 —
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“Ride The Wave While It's Fresh”

新鮮なうちに波に乗れ!








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 50mm — 1/200 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1600 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 —
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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Play Me Some Memories...








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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This Guy's in Trebel

but the Allegations are Baseless










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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm — 1/200 sec, f/3.2, ISO 3600 —
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Staple NYC








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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/3.2, ISO 1250 —
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“New Bread Line”






The title for this one, 新パン線 (shinpansen, “new bread line”) is a play off the word
for bullet train, 新幹線 (shinkansen, “new trunk line”).





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 2500 —
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Which Title is Better?

English: “Toilet”

Japanese: “Going for a new length record”








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 2000 —
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Library








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/200 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 4000 —
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Difference

between the live installation and the photo






There was often a difference between the live instillation and the photo of record for the work,
with many differences likely because of how the parts are arranged during setup. In the case above, though,
the long distance between the bride/father and the groom/priest makes it all the more funny, but
such a distance can't easily be accommodated in a close-up photo, so they're much closer for the photo of record.





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/160 sec, f/7.1, ISO 12800 —
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Harvest






Anyone in Japan recognizes this as a rice harvest, complete with
post-harvest field stubble,
and rice plants hanging to dry like this.





Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 12800 —
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There must have been 100 different works on display. It was thoroughly enjoyable.



The exhibit exits to a gift-shop kind of area where you can buy all kinds of miniature things,
and the artist's three books.






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 —
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I was disappointed to find that two of the three books had only English titles (they're both available on Amazon US, here and here). Since the
Japanese titles add so much, I bought the only one that actually had them.

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Published on April 25, 2018 04:59

April 19, 2018

Personalizing Lightroom’s Amazing New “Auto Tone” Feature



Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 130mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 140 —
image data

Unrelated Cherry-Blossom Snow

this photo, from this recent photoshoot, has nothing to do with this post






Lightroom 7.2 introduced an entirely new version of its “Auto Tone”
feature, a one-click adjustment of photo brightness and contrast to hopefully-pleasing results. The prior version of Auto Tone used what might be called a “stupid, brute
force” method that merely adjusted tone ranges to try find a numeric
balance. It wasn't very useful.



The new Auto Tone, however, is fantastic, being powered by an artificial-intelligence engine trained with thousands of
hand-tweaked photos from highly-regarded artists. It does a sufficiently-good job that I now use it as part of my new-photo workflow, to give me a better starting point
for my own edits. (I should point out, though, that a good photographer wouldn't need any kind of
better starting point for edits; a good photographer will do the work prior to pressing the shutter button. I'm not a good photographer.)



As good as the new Auto Tone is, I've found it tends to be a bit heavy handed with saturation for my
tastes. I gather that the artists who worked on the photos used to train the AI engine simply prefer to
lay on heavy saturation to make the photo “pop”, and perhaps this is
why they are highly regarded and I am not, but it seems cheap to me. I'd
prefer not to use that as my starting point.



So, to help quicken my workflow in this area, I added new features to my Bag of Goodies plugin for Lightroom that allow one to perform
a personalized Auto Tone.



Your personalizations are configured in a dialog brought up by invoking:


File > Plugin Extras > Configure Personalized Auto Tone and Apply

The configuration dialog is this monstrosity:





The plugin allows each of the nine develop settings that Auto Tone touches to be canceled, scaled back, or enhanced. The details are explained on the plugin home page.



Note that even though the new Auto Tone was introduced in Lightroom 7.2, the plugin requires 7.3 to
work, as that's when Adobe added the hooks that make the plugin possible.

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Published on April 19, 2018 21:55

April 6, 2018

Cherry-Blossom Portraits with Monet and May



Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 155mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 360 —
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Monet

in what was literally the first photo of the shoot





I've remained friends with the family of one of Anthony's preschool classmates, and even though they haven't
been in school together for nine years, we still keep in close touch. The other day I did a quick photoshoot
of the family's two girls, Monet and May, who should now be about 15 and 13 years old, respectively.



I'm sort of rusty with the camera, so wasn't sure what to expect, but the moment I took the first photo, I knew that the girls would do all the work and I could just press the button;
no photographer skill required when they're so photogenic.

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Published on April 06, 2018 02:23

April 5, 2018

Short but Lovely Hike on Mt. Daimonji

I recently made the short hike up Mt. Daimonji to the fire pits (which I first blogged about
11 years ago here), with Damien and Chris Rowthorn,
the author of the Lonely Planet guides for Japan and Kyoto. Chris often uses Damien's and my photos
on his Inside Kyoto site.





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 320 —
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Steep Stairs

it's closer to a “walk” than a “hike”







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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Super-Hazy View

air is filled with pollen, I guess








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200 —
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Cherry-Blossoms

in the center of the photo, the road leading to the Silver Pavilion Temple





The view from where we were, the center of the “大”, is lovely, but today it was ridiculously hazy...






Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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The spec of orange just right of center is the main gate of the Heian Shrine. Compare the photo above to those seen
on this post, and this one.



There are lots of paths that crisscross the mountain, and Chris knows them well, so he showed us an alternate way home.





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
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Heading Down







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
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Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 —
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Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 —
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Chance Encounter

with a friend of Chris, who in this shot is explaining something about the area







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.2, ISO 200 —
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Less “Steps”, more “Hike”







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 34mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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Approaching Sunset







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 640 —
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Marker

of some kind







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 400 —
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Lovely Canopy







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 41mm — 1/25 sec, f/2.5, ISO 3200 —
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Arrival at Civilization

at the Hounen-in Temple (法然院)





I'd been to this temple many times (example blog post), but had no idea
that a mountain path started here.



The cherry tree seen blossoming in the shot above is at the grave of some apparently-famous writer, so we went over to look. On the way, Chris pointed out this interesting gravestone:





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 50mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.7, ISO 3200 —
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Former Baseball Player







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 2000 —
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Quiet Resting Place







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/80 sec, f/1.7, ISO 3200 —
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All in all, even with our slow pace and all the chatting, the whole walk took only 90 minutes
(the walk on Strava). I should do this more often.

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Published on April 05, 2018 15:49

April 2, 2018

Okinawa Ride Day 1

I'm finally getting around to write about my first ride in Okinawa a month ago, which came
after my “ride”
to Okinawa
. I posted a few photos in a preview post, but I want to keep the full memory of
the lovely day, so I'm writing this report.







Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 400 —
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Mud for Breakfast

not really, but the character on the mug, 「泥」, means “mud”

(a character that we saw here two years ago)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/1.7, ISO 500 —
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Ride Preparation

looking sharp is half the job

( and Jason is a master at looking sharp on the bike )








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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Heading Out of Naha City






Here's the ride we did:





There are no big mountains in the south of Okinawa where we were, but there are plenty of short/steep hills, including
two that average 12% over 600m,

this and
this. These short, intense climbs are the kind that,
when I'm in good shape, I can do very well on, but trying that first one showed me just how weak I really was at the moment. I started out with what I thought was an easy pace, but had to scale even that back.



By the second one I had no illusions about my strength, so took it super easy and took photos during the climb...





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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Nishiguchi-san Powering Up

a particularly-steep section






Jason had shot ahead to position himself halfway to take some photos...





iPhone SE + iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1/4300 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 —
map & image datanearby photos

photo by Jason Eisenmenger








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Approaching the Top






We took a meandering, exploring kind of route that sometimes required getting off the bike...





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos






... but the results were worth it...





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Private Trail








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Hang Ten

or something like that








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 40mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Just Lovely








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 31mm — 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Abandoned Pool

It must have been wonderful to sit in the pool and enjoy the ocean view






There was lots of infrastructure in this area that looked to be abandoned,
as if the area grew too quickly after the war, and couldn't support what was built.






Panasonic LX100 at an effective 31mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Racing the Townfolk

(really just exchanging pleasant greetings)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Lunch Stop

ウージ畑食堂






This lunch-only cafe serves wonderful home-made meals for a ridiculously cheap 500 yen (about US $4.50)....





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 640 —
map & image datanearby photos

$18 Lunch

$18 total for four people









Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/1.7, ISO 800 —
map & image datanearby photos

Okinawa Guardian Lion

I mentioned these things, which normally adorn roofs above entryways, in a post many years ago









Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos









Panasonic LX100 at an effective 32mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

“Cubic”








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

No Idea

what this was








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.1, ISO 320 —
map & image datanearby photos

Spooky Shrine/Tree

off the beaten path








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Shouting Encouragement






The guy pushing his bike up the somewhat steep road was likely on his first ever ride, which seemed to be a commute. We'd encountered him early in the climb, prior to our side visit to the spooky tree, at the side of the road not knowing
how to deal with his chain having popped off his gears. We showed him and went on our way, only to encounter him again here.



He's got gearing on his bike such that he should be able to easily ride straight up a brick wall, but I guess it can be
overwhelming at first.





iPhone SE + iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 46mm — 1/1300 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 —
map & image datanearby photos

Nearing the Top

of the biggest climb of the day (1.2km @ 9%)

photo by Jason Eisenmenger








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 33mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Cycle Path with a View








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 38mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Where We'd Been








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/4, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

“Odd Art” Place

The black mannequin art piece sort of weirded Jason out








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Brisk Pace








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Lovely View

lovely descent






This sweeping road is the kind of dream descent that I'd normally like to ride aggressively
(segment at Strava), but in recognition of my
weak and out-of-practice state, I made the prudent decision to take it easy, and instead take photos of the group on the way down.



Unfortunately, despite going as slowly as I possibly could, it seems that I couldn't go slow enough to keep them in view behind
me, so I eventually put the camera away and just coasted down. It was lovely.



After joining up with another road, the descent continued down toward our next destination, which eventually came into view....





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Our Next Destination

way out there









iPhone SE + iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1/3500 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 —
map & image datanearby photos

Arriving

photo by Jason Eisenmenger








iPhone SE + iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 —
map & image datanearby photos

Big Fish

photo by Jason Eisenmenger







I'd seen this big fish on the
Google Maps satellite view and thought it'd be fun to visit.



The location also has a “heart bell”....





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

“Heart Bell”








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 52mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Common Photo-Op








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

20% Grade

the short little climb ending here is brutally steep








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 41mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Big Bridge in the Background








iPhone SE + iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at an effective 29mm — 1/3700 sec, f/2.2, ISO 25 —
map & image datanearby photos

Along the Rocky Coast

photo by Jason Eisenmenger








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 28mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.1, ISO 400 —
map & image datanearby photos

Another Freaky Tree








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Cafe with a View

but no seats above, so we went down to the beach








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Our Order Arrives









Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Colorful Drink








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 58mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Warm Sand

between your toes








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 26mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

A Bit Creepy

even more so than this one








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Test Riding Yasuko's Bike

seems a smidge on the small side

photo by Jason Eisenmenger








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Back to Naha








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Planning Tomorrow's Ride






To be continued...

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Published on April 02, 2018 19:56

March 29, 2018

Cherry Blossoms are Quite Early in Kyoto This Year

Cherry are blossoming quite a bit early in Kyoto this year. I had a shopping errand to do, so I took the long way to check
out a few cherry-blossom spots around town. Unlike a similar outing last year,
this year I had only a small little camera with me, so the photos aren't too exciting,
but they perhaps give a sense for some of the places. Many were at full bloom already.



Each photo has a map link under it.






Panasonic LX100 at an effective 37mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Chion'in Temple (知恩院)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Maruyama Park (円山公園)

ugly, as usual








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 72mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Partially-Retracted Roof

The ongoing roof repairs at the Chion'in Temple must be winding up








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 50mm — 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Maruyama Park's Main Tree








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 40mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Tourists








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 35mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Large Cemetery








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Nene-no Michi








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 46mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 54mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Don't See Many Of These

in Kyoto








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 30mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Cafe Collabo (カフェコラボ)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 34mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Toji-in Temple (等持院)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Hirano Shrine

from across the street








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Hirano Shrine (平野神社)

The trees are lovely, but the crowds and the vending stalls ruin it








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 60mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 67mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 29mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos






I swung by the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park (京都御所公園), which has some nice blossom areas
in its northwest, and wasn't disappointed... it was, by far, the nicest area that I visited today. It had such a lovely vibe.





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 56mm — 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 58mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 47mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos






Any of the “nearby photos” links under the shots above brings you to other blog posts from
this area, including many with wonderful blossoms (such as this) or fall colors
(such as this).






Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 52mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Shinnyodo Temple (真如堂本坊)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 38mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

(compare to this photo of the same path last fall)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Konkaikomyou-ji Temple (金戒光明寺)








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 67mm — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 41mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 47mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos

Back Close to Home








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 75mm — 1/160 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
map & image datanearby photos







Clicking through to the Strava activity below brings you to a map showing all the photos.

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Published on March 29, 2018 04:45

Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog

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