Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 45

Controlling Exercise Sweat in a Hot Climate: Under Armour HeatGear Sonic Compression Long-Sleeve

During aerobics at the gym I work up quite the sweat. It's good to work out, but the sweat is uncomfortable
and can be unsociable/dangerous if it makes for a slippery floor or
splatters someone, so I've been trying a few
different shirts to hopefully get things under control.

I'd been using the Uniqlo “Dry” T-shirts that I wrote about
two years ago, but they're for daily wear, and workout amounts of sweat overwhelm them.

I finally found a fantastic shirt, the “Under Armour Men's HeatGear
Sonic Compression Long Sleeve” (available at Amazon,
though I bought mine at
Amazon Japan). The Large size is perfect 6'4" (192cm)
height... the sleeves are actually long enough, and the clingy/compression
nature of the fabric puts an end to the sticky feeling that arises from wet
fabric repeatedly draping against and away from the skin.

In my limited experience so far, they dry quickly though don't stay dry during the workout,
but the drying effect makes for noticeable coolness, especially early on. It's much more
comfortable than other shirts I tried. And after the workout, they dry remarkably quickly.

I tried mine the day I received it, and ordered another the moment I got home.

Recommended.

Photoshoot with Ikuko Among the Plum Blossoms, Part 2

Note: this article may not appear properly in news readers.

This article contains interactive aspects that are likely removed by most news readers. Please see this particular article directly on Jeffrey's blog for full functionality.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 —
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Up Close and Personal

Ikuko and plum blossoms

This article continues from part
1 about last week's photoshoot with Ikuko-san among the plum blossoms
at the Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine.

先週、育子さんと一緒に撮影しました、北野天満宮の梅林で。
今日の記事は前半の続きです。

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Bobblehead Ikuko

good example of why one must be careful with a wide-angle lens

首振り人形の育子さん — 広角レンズ使えば注意しないといけないね

This is at the “banana-juice tree”.

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Less Bobbleyheadish

首振りぽくない








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Normal Smiling Ikuko

普段の育子さんの笑顔

“Tilt your head down a bit”, I instructed, and bam!, such a different look:

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Strong Presence

強い · 「おでこを一寸だけ下向きへ」の後

And another slight change creates another dramatic difference:

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Here's a wigglegram to give a sense of the orchard's feel.

div#dy4PhDkAkAlcA img { width:690px; height:497px; visibility:hidden; position:absolute; top:0; left:0; border: solid 10px #311}


















Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view effect
写真の上をマウスで左右にゆっくり動かすといろいろな撮影効果を楽しむことができます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


















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Just Happy

ただの御幸せ








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Slightly Thoughtful

考え込んでいる

Admission to the plum grove also gets you some tea and sweets.

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Plum Tea of Some Sort

梅の茶








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Just Add Water








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Inquisitive Look











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Not Bad

but wish it weren't cropped so tightly

育子さんはめっちゃスマットですが、写真の構図はちょっと狭い、ごめん








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Having Fun

遊び








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Okay, Enough of That

遊び終わり








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Put'em Up!

getting ready for the scooter ride home

帰りの準備








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Modern Progress: Japan’s First Utility Wires Coming Down After 120 Years

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image data

And The Angels Sang

unremarkable photo showing a remarkable situation

yesterday   昨日、やっと電気線なし！

Yesterday, for the first time in 120+ years, Niomon Street in Kyoto is not draped in utility wires.

日本初の電気街灯の位置場仁王門通り(京都市岡崎)は昨日やっと都市美化で120年ぶり電気線等が無くなりました。

The first electric-power generator in Japan was built just up the street
from where I live, around 1890. As such, the street in front of my place
became the first in all Japan to have electric streetlights. At the time, I'm sure the associated power lines were a source of pride as a symbol of
Japan's march toward modernity, but of course now they're just urban
blight, and urban blight that Japan has traditionally taken to extremes.

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR at an effective 142mm — 1/350 sec, f/10, ISO 400 —
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Eight Years Ago

八年前、電気線いっぱい






Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR at an effective 63mm — 1/250 sec, f/8, ISO 400 —
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Yuck

8 years ago — 八年前

The photo above appeared on my blog more than eight years ago, in
“It will be a traffic nightmare….. but I can’t wait!!”, when I found out about
the urban-beautification initiative that would bury the utility wires under the street. At the time, the view from my place was marred by 20+ utility wires:

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR at an effective 157mm — 1/80 sec, f/14, ISO 100 —
image data

Eight Years Ago

八年前、電気線いっぱい








Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR at an effective 27mm — 1/200 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 —
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Part of the Construction

Eight years ago

八年前、都市美化は始まりました

Unfortunately, the construction eight years ago to bury pipes and such
merely paved the way for the removal of the utility wires, but the wires
and the utility poles didn't actually get removed.

結局、八年前の工事は準備だけでして、電気線や電子柱も残りました。

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Ugly Utility Poles in the Sidewalk

four years ago, from this blog post

四年前、醜い電子柱は残りました








Nikon D700 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 500mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 —
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Right in the Way!

邪魔！

It's difficult to imagine just how ridiculously in-the-way these utility poles are. Check out this photo from
a post four years ago showing Anthony on the way to a haircut:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 —
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めっちゃ邪魔、電子柱さん

Every few years a few of the wires would come down, but it was slow progress. Just a year ago it was still pretty much the status quo.

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One Year Ago

一年前でも、ほとんどのワイヤはまだ残りました。








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Same Pole as in “Yuck” Above

a year ago

But finally they've been coming down more quickly!

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Same Pole as in “Yuck” Above

two weeks ago

二週間前、ほとんどなくなりました！








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Much Cleaner

wire-wise, at least, but the ugly in-the-way utility pole is just to my back in this shot

邪魔な電子柱は残ってるけれども、ワイヤはほとんど奇麗になりました、二週間前

As nice as it is to get down to just one wire, the difference between 1 and 0 is substantial, a point brought home in spectacularly clear
fashion a couple of weeks ago as I walked to the
Higashiyama Lightup. Jingu Street had apparently just had all its wires taken down,
and though I'm sure the following photo doesn't show it, it felt surreal to walk down it sans wires. It felt as if I was on a movie set.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2800 —
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Surreal

Jingu Street sans wires, two weeks ago

二週間前の神宮道、ワイヤ無しでシュルレアリスムな感じ。撮影所みたい。

Later that evening I noticed that all the wires and poles were down in
one of the more quaint areas of Kyoto, as illustrated by two photos
starting here. It was wonderful.

So finally, as of yesterday, all the wires strung in front of my place
are down. The utility poles are still there, just as in the photo of Jingu
Street above, but hopefully they'll be down soon as well.

And in other in-my-neighborhood news, cherry blossoms have started to bloom.

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Shirakawa River

yesterday

白川の桜は開花始まりまし

Photoshoot with Ikuko Among the Plum Blossoms, Part 1

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Behave!

いい加減にしなさい！

The other day I did some photos with Ikuko-san, the friend we saw quite differently last month in
“An Apprentice-Geisha Photoshoot Quite Unlike Any Other”. This time we could see her normal self.

この間北野天満宮で育子さんという友達と一緒撮影をしました。（先月、このブログでは育子さんの節分の「変身」をみました、本格的な舞妓になる事でした。）

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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Before Getting Started

recording the light color for later reference

ホワイトバランスの調整のために光の色を記録します

You'll perhaps recognize this scene from last month's
“The Many Lanterns and Overwhelming Sumptuousness of the Kitano Tenmangu Shrine”.
She, too, was drawn to the many lanterns...

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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Tentative First Try

wildly backlit, with weird reflections and ghosting

(the lantern above her dates from 1842　  この灯籠は天保１３年のものです）

Before we got into the photography in earnest, she wanted to pay her
respects (as described in the many-lanterns post).

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Paying Respects

お参り

And since we were at one of the best spots in Kyoto
for
plum
blossoms, I felt obliged to snap one (but only one) blossom photo. Here it is:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/5000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 —
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梅
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 —
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Still Tentative








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Not Much View

I think the trees in this area are maple, so we should come back in autumn








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Gave This a Try

the wide-angle from a lowish angle accentuates her legs, but this location just wasn't doing it for me

やっぱりここの景色はいまいち。梅へ行こう。








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Pensive Look








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Nice Smile









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Banana Juice?

Inexplicably, she said they smelled like “banana juice”. To me they smelled like plum.

「バナナジュースの臭い」と言いましたけれども、僕は梅の臭いと思いました。








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO 1250 —
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After We Stopped Laughing

about the banana-juice thing








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO 1250 —
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A Bit of an Attitude

The gardens were remarkably uncrowded, but I
found someone to impose on to snap a photo
of us. He knew he wasn't handy with the camera, so had his wife redo the shot when she came by, and it's a good thing
because her shots were better.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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Me and Ikuko

育子さんと私

photo by Subina Garyet

The lady who took the photo was there with her family, so I snapped some
photos of them. They were freakishly photogenic. I was so jealous. Just look:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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Freakishly Photogenic Family

I've since sent all the shots to the family, but I'll share one more here, my favorite, of the husband trying to coax his daughter to look at the camera.
(Good luck with that.)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
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“Look at the Camera, Honey”

“Hey buddy, I'm already busy here looking at my hand.”

Later I noticed Grandma off camera had the toddler's attention, so as
per the lesson about kid
photography I learned with my nieces and nephews, I quickly moved
myself and the camera to be near Grandma, to take advantage of the child's
attention focused in that general direction.

Back to Ikuko-san, one more photo before we end this part of the story...

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Lost in Thought

To be continued...

後で続く

One From Yesterday’s Portraiture Session

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Guess Who

at the Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine (北野天満宮)

It's been a week since my last post... where does the time go?

Well, yesterday a bit of it went into a
photoshoot.
This is not really one of my “What am I?” quizzes, but
do you recognize her from when she appeared on my blog
in the past?

Finally Inside the House at the Seifuso Villa in Kyoto

Note: this article may not appear properly in news readers.

This article contains interactive aspects that are likely removed by most news readers. Please see this particular article directly on Jeffrey's blog for full functionality.

9-image panorama —
map & image data — nearby photos

Main Living Room

Seifuso Villa (清風荘)
— scroll side-to-side — 水平にスクロールしてね —

or click through to a 6,300-pixel-wide version

Continuing with last fall's visit to Kyoto's visually-rich Seifuso Villa (清風荘), where the last installment
(“From the Garden to the House at the Seifuso Villa”)
left us finally inside the main house that has gone mostly unseen so far except for
its photogenic entrance foyer.

The grounds are opened to the public for a few days every year or two,
but the house is not normally open to the public at all, so it was a
wonderful opportunity to have an unrestricted tour.

The photo above is a 9-image panorama that you can scroll from side to
side. It's got quite a bit of geometric distortion that I wish I could have
corrected, but it's not bad for the amount of work I put into it (which is
almost none: I selected the photos in Lightroom, invoked “Merge as Panorama
in Photoshop”, and it did what it wanted. I made one small touch-up to
the result, and here we are.)

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Old Glass








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Master Bedroom

for the master of the house








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Ripply Shadows








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Table with a Chinese Vibe









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Tabletop








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Inlaid Shell

A section of this tabletop is the item in the other day's
A Red, Squiggly, Fairly Blotchy “What am I?” Quiz.
Unfortunately, nobody got it right. I was hoping someone would be able to tell me how the red squiggly blotches came to be. The tabletop was perfectly smooth, so I'm sure a lot of sanding was involved.

Another upstairs room with an equally-impressive view had two of the same table. Here's a wigglegram showing the view:

div#dRgocDfitfitPdA img { width:690px; height:492px; visibility:hidden; position:absolute; top:0; left:0; border: solid 10px #311}




















Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view effect
写真の上をマウスで左右にゆっくり動かすといろいろな影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which

If this looks familiar it's because one of the frames appeared in an
article a couple of months ago, at the start of this post.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/640 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 —
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Nice View of the Lawn and Part of the Garden

(The garden was covered in this post)









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Paul Taking the Same Shot












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Old Light Switches








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Random Room








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/50 sec, f/1.8, ISO 100 —
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Large Room Now Used for Conferences

Scenes from the 2014 Kyoto Higashiyama Lightup

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
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Yasaka 5-Storied Pagoda

given a bit of an artsy treatment

八坂の塔

Kyoto, Japan
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夕べ、友達と一緒に京都東山花灯路を見に行きました、６年ぶりで。光源と影の間の明るさは大きいすぎるので、撮影は中々難しいでした。

Yesterday after seeing the
plum blossoms in the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park, I made a trip out to see the annual Kyoto Higashiyama
Lightup. It was the first time since 2008, when I posed a report in two parts.

As I tried to take photos, I remembered why I skipped it all these
years... the difference between the dark of the evening and the brightness
of the lanterns and other displays is just way too much for a camera to do
anything reasonable with, unless you move to HDR and its often
unearthly results. (Unearthly results can be quite stunningly good, as Trey Ratcliff often shows, but
it's not really my cup of tea.)

I did bring my big tripod with me, but didn't use it all that much
because I'm just too lazy. The photos reflect that laziness, with a lot of
mushy softness due to slow shutters, high ISO, and heavy noise reduction in
Lightroom. The lead photo above was so mushy that in order to (perhaps)
recover something useful from it, I pushed the mushiness further and added
some grain. I guess I must like the result, since I'm leading with it.

My evening started at the Chion'in Temple where I met some friends. This is the
temple undergoing roof repairs that I recently wrote about. Since I had the tripod with me, I tried a crisp photo of its main gate (which I also wrote about recently, here)...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 0.8 sec, f/5, ISO 100 —
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Main Gate

Chion'in Temple (知恩院)

They had some kind of “light projection” artistic event going on inside, and the line to get in was huge...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
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Line Snakes Out to the Street

(You can't tell in the crappy photo above, but the path is quite nice, as seen here.)

As I waited for friends, I filled my time with the camera...

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Rickshaw Parking







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Well-Dressed Photographers

or, at least, well-dressed ladies snapping a cell-phone photo










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This Entrance Closed

please use the side door

We then made our way to the Shouren'in Temple, often seen on my blog due to the flower-arranging show they have every year
(pics: 2013, 2012).

Lanterns along a wall across from the temple (at a condo, which is actually where I lived when I first moved to Kyoto):

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Condo Wall

tastefully done, as should be, across from the Shoren'in Temple (青蓮院)

Facing the wall, between it and the temple proper, are several
800-year-old camphor trees. They're very hard for me to photograph for some
reason, but perhaps one is because the utility wires cutting through just
destroy it for me.

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Lit Up Camphor Tree

800ish years old







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I Do Love The Roots, Though







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Standing Steady

Damien doesn't seem to move during the six-second exposure

Over in Maruyama Park they had all kinds of various displays, many the same
as I showed six years ago. A new display had a bunch of
light cylinders on which people could put blossom-shaped papers with their wish written...

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Light Wish Cylinder... Things

Maruyama Park (円山公園)

When I walked up to them and saw that the blossom-shaped papers had writing, the very first text I noticed
was a wish that stock prices end high. The one immediately below it asked for happiness for all the world....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/2.2, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Full Gamut of Wishes








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Not really inspired by the technical difficulties in photographing such dark/bright scenes, I moved over to the little pond
and tried some longish exposures of quite dark scenes...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 8 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

10-Second Exposure

makes the moving crowd disappear








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 10 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Well, Mostly Disappear

the ghost in the reflection apparently stood still most of the time

Moving along...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/2, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Quintessential Japanese Aesthetic

refined sense marred by a useless traffic cone







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Rock

undoubtedly to encourage drivers not to clip the wall







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/1.4, ISO 5000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Cute Kid







Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 2200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Modern But Powerful

at the entrance to the Daiun-in Temple (大雲院)

The photo doesn't seem to capture it, but for some reason I really liked
the modern stone lantern at the entrance to the Daiun-in Temple (大雲院). Its lighting was really well done, which certainly helped.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Another Entrance

this time to the Entoku-in Temple (圓徳院)








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/50 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Yasaka Pagoda From Afar

(The photos I took from the same spot in 2008 came out better; then I used the tripod, and a much longer lens.)

One could also look down onto a lane that sort of leads to the Kiyomizu Temple, which looks quite different now compared to six years ago...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 cropped — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Last Night

昨日の二年坂







Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 at an effective 180mm — 4 sec, f/4.5, ISO 160 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Six Years Ago

６年前の二年坂。電子柱ばかり

Kyoto has slowly been trying to remove the ugly utility poles and
wires. It's been eight years since the big construction in
front of my place to make tunnels for the wires under the road, but the
poles still remain. The effect when they're gone, as seen above, is almost surreal.
Walking later on that road, I felt as if I was on a movie set.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Yasaka Pagoda

closer this time
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560

On the way home, I passed through the Yasaka Shrine (quite a distance from, and perhaps unrelated to, the similarly-named pagoda seen above)...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Quiet Path

Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社)

I don't really care for the Yasaka Shrine, but I do like this path,
which has appeared on my blog here
and here.

A Few from the Plum Blossom Orchard at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

“He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not....”

ignoring the plum blossoms

at the Imperial Palace Park (京都御所公園)

Kyoto, Japan

今日は京都御所に寄って、軽い撮影をさせていただきました。

It's that time of year for blossoms of various sorts at Kyoto Gosho (the Imperial Palace Park).
I've posted many times from there, including articles with an emphasis
on the blossoms themselves
and
folks enjoying the blossoms
and
photos at 300mm
and
everything mixed together.

Today I knew a photographer friend was going to be there, so I stopped by for a bit while I was in the area on an errand.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Pink









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

Taking it Easy







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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

"Wait for Meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

待てて〜！








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Relaxin' in Style

this lady knows how to do it








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 cropped — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 220 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Big

you almost don't notice until a kids is there for scale








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

Somewhat Incongruous

あんまり調和しない








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 180 —
map & image data — nearby photos

“No, That One”

違う、あれ








Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Akiko-san

photographer behind Eden Walkers

though lately she's more active on Flickr

アキコさん、写真家の友達

Akiko is who I stopped by to say hi to. I'd met her a year and a half
ago (during this
outing) while she was on a visit to Kyoto, but she now lives here.

While chatting, I aimlessly took a photo of one of the blossoms to the left of her in the photo above, and it seemed to have come out okay. Here it is, direct out of the camera except for a slight white-balance adjustment, and a slight crop to fit a widescreen monitor...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Quintessential Plum
Desktop-Background Versions

1280×800  ·  1680×1050  ·  1920×1200  ·  2560×1600  ·  2880×1800

To be continued...

A Red, Squiggly, Fairly Blotchy “What am I?” Quiz

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 4500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

What am I?

It's been a couple of months since my last “What am I?” quiz, so here's one.
What is the photo of?

As usual, I'll keep guesses private until I post the answer in a day or three...

“Photographer-World Problems”: Renewing a Passport

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/60 sec, f/8, ISO 500 —
image data

Passport-Photo Glaze

I have it

Renewing one's American passport by mail isn't too arduous for most folks.... you just need:

old passport
filled-out application form
photo
fee
self-addressed stamped envelope

For most folks the photo is probably the biggest hassle because you have to stop by one of those booths in a mall or something,
but if you're a photographer, “photo” means you really need (or at least in my case I actually used):

Camera (Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 lens)
Tripod (Gitzo and Really Right Stuff)
White foamcore board as backdrop
SB-900 speedlight as on-camera commander (why can't Nikon's pro body include a commander like the D700!?)
SB-800 speedlight as primary illumination
Reflector umbrella
Stand for umbrella
speedlight mount for umbrella/stand
SB-600 speedlight to light background
CamRanger camera remote-control unit
Apple iPad mini to connect to CamRanger remote-control unit
computer / Lightroom / photo printer / photo paper
patience

I have little experience with portraiture (though I
try), but even less experience/confidence with artificial light, so it
ended up being quite the ordeal to find everything and get it set up, then
figure out how to work the speedlights. Nikon, bless them, seems to be able to come up with a completely
different, completely horrible UI design with every new speedlight model.

Once I got things set up, actually taking the photos took only a few
moments. Then another 20 minutes to put everything away, and then another
30 minutes fighting with Satan's Printer (the evil Canon MG3600,
which I swear will be the last Canon printer I ever buy) to get the
hardcopy. Then carefully cutting out the 2”×2” square
required for the application took some time.

The application is a bit more complex living overseas because at least in Japan you can't write a check, so you have
to go to the post office and get a “postal money order” to include with the application. With a postal money order,
you pay in yen and get a paper redeemable (in this case by the passport office) for dollars at any post office in The States. It doesn't sound
arduous, but wow, it was.

Years ago you could buy these at the post office like buying envelopes
at a store.... simply say what you want, give the
appropriate cash, and get the money order. Now, you need to fill out all
kinds of forms in multiple languages in a very
particular manner, government IDs, specify exactly what the money is for,
etc. It was ridiculous, and took 45 minutes(!) to
get the thing. Oh, and they added a $20 fee to cover their own time, I suppose. All this for a
$100 transaction. I would have rather taken my
chances throwing cash in the envelope, were it allowed.

Anyway, I just got my new passport in the mail this evening, so I'm set
until I have to do this all over again in
2024.... or, at least, until it's time to renew Anthony's passport. But for a child's passport, America requires the
physical presence of the child and both parents at the consulate/embassy,
which is a hassle unto itself, but perhaps less
so than the friggin' postal money order because when you show up in person,
you can pay in greenbacks.

Then after that, the next passport hassle will be to renew Curious George's
passport, but that's still five years off...