Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 52

Hand-Picked (Hand-Grilled) Mushrooms in Japan, and a Tarzan Rope

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60mm — 1/100 sec, f/4.5, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Selecting Mushrooms for the Grill

At the Takatsuki Shiitake Mushroom Center (高槻しいたけセンター)

in the mountains of northern Osaka Prefecture, Japan

As I mentioned the
other day, we made the hour drive from Kyoto to the mountains of Takatsuki
to visit a small food/entertainment
area where the main attraction for us was picking (then grilling then
eating) shiitake mushrooms.

As one might expect, the mushroom area was like an old damp basement, but with more light...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

One of the Mushroom Rooms





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

They're Grown on Logs





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 42mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Large Selection






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Humid






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 34mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Inspecting




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Weighty Choices

There's a limit of five mushrooms per person, so you have to take care in how you select and pluck a mushroom, to maximize your take. If they were stuck together, they were considered one mushroom, so we tried to find groups.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Trying To Extract as a Unit





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Got It!



Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 —
map & image data — nearby photos






Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

My Mushroom

I picked just one, and let Anthony get the rest of my quota




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3600 —
map & image data — nearby photos




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Holes

where the mushrooms grow




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Spurned

They sell out pretty quickly, and we were later than we'd like, so we didn't have all that much of a selection.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

More Puffy Than Most





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Our Take

At some point while rolling around in the basket the big group of
mushrooms Anthony had picked broke apart, so our plan fell astray. It was a
good lesson in what can happen when you try to be greedy. I doubt they
actually enforce the five-mushroom limit with the strictness of the Soup
Nazi, but we didn't want to flout the rules and stopped our foraging.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

About Nine US Bucks

We then moved over to the restaurant where we order meats and veggies to grill along side our mushrooms...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Ready for the Grill

at Sasauri no Sato (ささうりの里)




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Mmmmm....

The mushrooms were not the same class as seen in
“Feasting Like Indulgent Royalty on Matsutake Mushrooms”
but they were still quite tasty.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Happy Tummies




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 26mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 720 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Somewhat Rustic Decor

The intermittent rain had let up and Anthony was itching to get some energy out, perhaps by kicking around a soccer ball, so we
paid the ¥220 per person to visit the Yamabiko no Mori (山びこの森) play area without really knowing what to expect...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 —
map & image data — nearby photos




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/80 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

“Tarzan Rope”

it goes only about 20 meters, but still fun




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/5, ISO 1800 —
map & image data — nearby photos




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/5, ISO 560 —
map & image data — nearby photos




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/5, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Me

with my height necessitating more of a Spider Man pose than a Tarzan pose,

it made me appreciate the abs work at the gym

photo by Anthony Matsunaka Friedl




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — 1/125 sec, f/5, ISO 2200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Rare

shot of me looking not wholly unphotogenic.

I like it. Silliness and fun can work wonders.

photo by Anthony Matsunaka Friedl

We then tried the
roller slide seen in the previous post.

We called it a day when the
rain picked up, but not before one more swing on the way back...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 140 —
map & image data — nearby photos

♪♫ ♪ I'm Swiiiiiiingin' in the Raaaaain... ♪ ♪ ♬




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Abrupt Stop

the trolley stops when it slams into the end

(Your body continues flying; how far, exactly, depends on how well you hold on)




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 560 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Wet, Dirty, and Tired

in other words, “heaven” for a kid




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 56mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Quality Time

Sliding Down a Mountain Slide, In Style

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

For a Quick and Colorful Descent

山びこの森

Mountains of northern Takatsuki, Japan
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 140 —
map & image data — nearby photos

View from the Top




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Picking up Speed




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Sudden Acceleration

right before the end

We had a fun trip today to a small food/entertainment area in the
mountains of northern Takatsuki City (高槻市), an hour or so west of Kyoto. The main objective that I'll post about another time was the picking of
(and grilling of and eating) shiitake mushrooms (椎茸), but we also had fun
at a play area that included a slide of rollers for 80m (260') down a
hill.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

From The Bottom

It was wet and dirty, but YOLO, so we gave it a go.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Mere Seconds Before the End




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/4.5, ISO 1800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Careening out of Control

I waited to catch Anthony at the bottom for his first run because the
slide shoots you at high speed off its end, into what was today a wet mess
of dirty dirt and painful gravel.

For his second run he said he could handle slowing himself down, so I watched him pass with the camera...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Seemingly In Control




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

One Second Later

control has mostly vanished




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Splat

less elegant than he planned




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Wet and Rocky Mess




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Got Juuuust a Bit Dirty




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 62mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Sooo Worth It

For another run I positioned myself halfway...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Mini Jump

where speed starts to increase quickly




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Breakneck Speed




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

(But Still Fun)




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 110 —
map & image data — nearby photos

The rain picked up noticeably at this point, so we headed home.

This call to mind some other mountain/roller/slide things we've done in
the past, most notably the Slippery Green Slidy Day of
Fun at Bluma no Oka five years ago, and a big roller slide in
Otsu.

Setting a Custom Search Engine in Firefox

Recent versions of Firefox inexplicably removed the ability to set a
custom search engine, which one used to be able to do easily via the
keyword.URL configuration. However, you can accomplish pretty much
the same thing by installing a new search-engine profile that you craft yourself in an XML file.

span.x2328 { color:#F88 }

Here's a sample profile file, for a custom Google search...

Google Today
Search Google for items added/updated in the last 24 hours
UTF-8

You'd copy this to an *.xml file and update the highlighted areas
for your needs, adding/removing “ParamR 21; tags as appropriate for your search. (The
“tbs” parameter in the example is the one that limits results to
those updated in the last day.)

Place the file in the “searchplugins” folder of the Firefox profile, restart Firefox,
and you can then select it as the search target. On my
OSX system, this sample might be named

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/profilefolder/searchplugins/googletoday.xml

The Richness of Miyajima’s Itsukushima Shrine at Dusk

The other day in “Getting Back Out with the
Camera a Bit” I mentioned that I stopped by the famous Itsukushima
Shrine (厳島神社) on Miyajima Island (a bit south of Hiroshima, Japan). I arrived at sunset on a gloomy day that was already dark, and
stayed for just half an hour.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Posing

on the path to the Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)

Deer roam the area freely, and are quite docile. This is in stark
contrast to Nara, where the deer are extremely aggressive, taking your food
right out of your hand or shopping bag if you're not quick enough to
protect it. I should write up a post about that.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Jerk

Some jerk used a stone lantern to dispose of a soda bottle. I've seen
this kind of thing daily in this country for 20+ years, but it still
boggles my mind each time.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

A More Reasonable

non-decorative use of a stone lantern





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 720 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Dusky Dull

As darkness quickly descended, incandescent floodlights conspired with the deepening blue of the overcast sky to make for some increasingly rich results.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Neon
Desktop-Background Versions

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

This shot is color balanced for the incandescent floodlights lighting
the scene from camera left. That color-balance choice accentuates the blue of everything else lit
by the fading post-sunset overcast sky. It seems that something about the ridge tiles (their material, finish,
shape, or angle) causes them to be highly reflective of that deepening-blue sky, giving somewhat of a neon effect here.

For what it's worth, here's a daylight view from the same location six years ago, during a higher tide (and aiming a bit further to the right)...

Nikon D200 + Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR at an effective 54mm — 1/1250 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Six Years Ago

during daylight, with the tide in

More daylight shots from the general area can be seen in this blog post from the time, and via the
“nearby photos” link under most any of these pictures.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/10 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Closing for the Evening




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/30 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Closed for the Evening
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Feeling Blue




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/1.4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Texting with Friends
Desktop-Background Versions

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

Possible Workaround for that Nasty Lightroom Publish/Selection Bug

I have an update on the nasty publish/selection
bug that been plaguing some Lightroom users of late, in the selection shown in the grid is sometimes wrong.

It seems that the bug exists only when Lightroom is started with a
section in the Publish Segmented Grid (“Modified Photos to Re-Publish”,
etc.) is closed. So, if you ensure that all segments are open, then restart
Lightroom and maintain them open, your grid-selection experience should be bug
free.

Example showing two sections, one open and one closed

clicking on the little triangle to the left of a section label toggles between opened and closed

The opened/closed state of each grid section is globally shared among
all collections, so opening all four possible sections (New, Modified,
Deleted, and Published) once takes care of it everywhere.

Bug or not, you can always trust the selection shown in the filmstrip,
so until this workaround is confirmed for sure, it's best to keep the
filmstrip open so that you can notice any divergence.

This seems to be a big breakthrough in understanding this bug, and I
know that Adobe is aware of it (because they tipped me off to the
workaround to begin with), so I have hope we'll see a fix sooner rather
than later.

I really hope “sooner”, because being able to close a grid section is
the only thing that makes the segmented grid useful in large collections. I wish the current grid header would be sticky to the top of the screen as
you scroll so that you know what section you're in if the header doesn't
happen to be visible. I have some collections with more than 100,000 items,
making a visual search utterly impracticable. Even a relatively small
collection of 2,000 photos makes for 300+ rows of thumbnails to scan; very
unfun unless you get lucky.

I wonder whether it'd be better overall to just get rid of the Segmented
Grid, instead adding a “Publish Status” item to the Grid Filter.....

Canopy of Bamboo

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/60 sec, f/14, ISO 5600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Either Or

Either Aeron is really tall, or I'm really short.

( or I'm lying on my back on the ground, as I sometimes do to get the shot )

I popped up this morning to the bamboo grove in the Arashiyama area of
Kyoto (嵐山竹やぶ) for a little project with Aeron. I hadn't been there
since last December, for the dramatic lightup event
they have every year.

After we were done, I took advantage of having a wide angle lens with me
so lay down on the street for some skyward shots. Here's another view
looking up from the ground, without Aeron's head...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/60 sec, f/14, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Desktop-Background Versions

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

Getting Back Out with the Camera a Bit

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Flat Bunny Project?

stuffed-animal version of the Flat-Stanley Project

at the Heian Shrine (平安神宮), Kyoto Japan

I'm still overwhelmingly steeped in Lightroom plugin
development of late, but did get out with the camera a few times over
the weekend. On Friday I met some friends visiting Kyoto, and in the shot
above one is taking a photo of a stuffed bunny at the Heian Shrine (平安神
宮), as part of a project for a friend's daughter, showing the bunny in
various situations around Japan.

Over Saturday and Sunday, I took a family trip to Iwakuni in western Japan to visit some relatives,
and as part of the trip stopped by Miyajima Island (宮島) and its famous Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) for a few minutes,
my first visit since 2007.

This time it was an impromptu visit after dusk (low light) without a tripod, so I probably didn't get much,
but I grabbed two shots for this post. Here's someone having a bit of quiet time on the seawall...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Moment of Solitude

Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社)
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Nightfall
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560

The next day in Iwakuni City, while looking down from a bridge, I saw potential in the geometric shapes of this scene:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm — 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Isolated

below the Kintai Bridge (錦帯橋), Iwakuni City, Japan
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560

I'm not sure what's lacking, but it doesn't quite have the oomph I'd hoped.

All the photos above are of someone's back (I'm getting “back” into the
swing of shooting, get it?), but here's one just to see some faces. These
kids asked me to take their photo, but had no interest in getting a copy... I guess they just like posing:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Just for the Fun of It

( whoever they are )

at the Nanzen Temple (南禅寺)

Worst Typhoon Since Godzilla About To Strike Into The Heart of Tokyo!!

Sensationalist headlines are always a problem in American media, but now
I'm seeing it in Japan as well. As I write this, Kyoto has partly cloudy
skies and chirping birds, but Tokyo 400km to my east is getting absolutely
shellacked by powerful Typhoon #26 of the season.

Yet, it was with surprise that I saw this headline on the Japan Times (major English daily in Japan) web site:

“ Largest typhoon in decade heads toward Tokyo ”

This “largest in a decade” surprised me, so I immediately switched to back to
current data about the typhoon, screen captured here for posterity:

The maximum wind of 50 m/s (112mph) is powerful, but doesn't seem to be
the most powerful I've seen even recently, much less in all the last 10
years, so the headline perplexed me.

Going back to the article, the first line of prose gives the answer:
“The strongest typhoon to reach Tokyo in 10 years...”. Ah, I see.
Someone apparently decided that an honest headline wasn't
attention-grabbing enough. Sigh.

Incidentally, Typhoon #18 that caused flooding in Kyoto (among
much else) a month ago was much weaker wind-wise,
but for whatever reason was amazing water-wise, producing “once in
a generation” rain
over wide areas.

Anyway, the next few hours should be quite lively for the folks in Eastern Japan, so best wishes for them....

Flower-Arranging Show at the Shouren’in Temple, 2013

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

Rich October Sun

at the Shoren'in Temple (青蓮院), Kyoto Japan

I paid a visit today to the Shouren'in Temple (青蓮院) in Eastern Kyoto
for a repeat of the Ikebana (生花; flower-arranging) event that last year
produced all these posts:

· Busy Hallway at Kyoto’s Shoren’in Temple


· Serene Photos to Calm the Nerves


· Cute and Colorful Scene at the Shoren’in Temple


· More Pleasantness From The Shoren’in Temple Ikebana Event


· Revisiting Flower Arrangements at the Shoren’in Temple

Today's visit won't produce so much, but this post is a first run at some of the shots I took...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/2000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Sundrenched Moss-Covered Roots

of a huge 800-year-old “Natural Treasure of Kyoto” camphor tree
Desktop-Background Versions

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





Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 52mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Display Maintenance




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 15mm — 1/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Stone Bridge
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Main Garden
Desktop-Background Versions

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

The light was really harsh today; somehow, it was better last year.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Flowers Suffering

from severe axial chromatic aberration

(just a camera-geek joke)
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Rich Light

nice smiles




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 320 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Water Basin

festooned for the occasion
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO 140 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Viewing Flower Arrangements

in the garden-viewing room
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 125 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Two Arrangements
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 180 —
map & image data — nearby photos

That Water Basin Again

with less sky reflections on the surface of the water
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Passages
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Weathered Handrail
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Side Passage
Desktop-Background Versions

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




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Garden-Viewing Room

from above the garden




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Cliché Bamboo
Vertical Desktop-Background Versions



1050×1680  ·  1200×1920  ·  1600×2560




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1250 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Bell

with a suspended log for a striker

The Joy of a Fast Photo Proximity Search in Lightroom

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — 1/60 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Boring Sunset Over Kyoto

the Shogunzuka overlook (将軍塚)

— Today —

I popped up to Kyoto's Shogunzuka Overlook (将軍塚) today for the first time
since March, hoping
for a nice sunset.

As you can see above, I didn't get it.

However, due to my blog's
proximity search feature, we can follow the “nearby photos”
link under the photo to see other shots from Shogunzuka that I've posted over the years, including:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO 5000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

June 2012




Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/11, ISO 320 —
map & image data — nearby photos

November 2011




Nikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/1500 sec, f/3.2, ISO 640 —
map & image data — nearby photos

July 2007






Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/8000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

November 2011






Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

November 2008

I added the proximity-search feature to my blog several years ago, and I
use it often in various ways because proximity search can be extremely
useful, but my blog proximity search is obviously limited to photos I've
actually published on my blog. My full catalog of photos in Adobe Lightroom
is much, much bigger.

Over the years I've written a bazillion (~45) plugins for Lightroom
that supports a photographer in all kinds of helpful ways,
but one of the first (already five
years ago!) was my Lightroom catalog Proximity
Search plugin.

To take advantage of proximity search, your photos have to be geoencoded to begin
with (that is, each photo must be associated with latitude/longitude
coordinates of where it was shot). At the time I first released the plugin,
there was no way to geoencode photos within Lightroom, so one had
to somehow take care of it before importing photos into your catalog. It was a pain.

But, while working on that plugin I figured
out a tricky way to build another plugin that
allows you to geoencode within Lightroom, and my Geoencoding Support
plugin was released a couple of weeks later;
it remained the only way to geoencode within Lightroom until Adobe
introduced the Map Module last year. (My Geoencoding Support plugin is all
the more useful now that Lightroom supports location editing, because it
extends the usefulness of location information far beyond what Lightroom
provides.)

Anyway, I was happy that I could do a
proximity search on my photos, but the unfortunate reality was that
Lightroom's catalog interface for plugins was simply too slow, creating
a high barrier to use: I'd use it sparingly, only
when it was worth the several-minute wait for a
result.

Still, even today it's better than what Lightroom itself now supplies,
at least on my machine. If I set Lightroom's Map
Module to an area I'm interested in, then switch to Library and select
“All Photographs”, then go back to Map to see which ones show up,
Lightroom completely locks up for eight minutes. Locks up. Eight minutes. Painful.

(I hear that Lightroom is faster in this respect on Windows; someone who
tested my catalog said the lockup was only two minutes there.)

I don't understand why plugin access to the Lightroom catalog is so
slow, but to gain some insight I tried accessing the Lightroom-catalog
SQLite database directly. The results? The same search that locked up
Lightroom for eight minutes took 0.6 seconds.

Even though the very first Lightroom-related article on my blog was a
post in 2006 about accessing the Lightroom
database directly, I've purposefully stayed away from doing so within
my plugins as a matter of principle, keeping instead to the official plugin infrastructure.

But come on, an 800-fold speedup is just too much to pass up, especially
for a feature that blooms in usefulness when you can use it on the spur of
the moment with little friction. So for the first time in my
plugin-development life, I did an end around Lightroom's interface, adding
a “Fast Full-Catalog Proximity Search” plugin-extra feature to my Proximity
Search and Geoencoding Support plugins last week. This is the fast search
that I mentioned on my
previous post.

The search is nominally invoked from the “File > Plugin Extras >
Geoencoding Support” menu, but on my system I mapped it to a keyboard
shortcut, so while looking at an image that's geoencoded, a quick tap
brings up this dialog:

Upon activation, the plugin goes outside of Lightroom to grab the data,
then import just those results back in, creating a collection with them. It took just a few seconds to isolate the 548 photos from that general area over the years.

One bummer about the workaround that achieves this: it doesn't work on
Windows, nor on Lr4 or earlier, so in those situations the “Fast
Full-Catalog Proximity Search” plugin-extra item reverts to the slower,
official, much-less-compelling method. )-:

(If you can figure out a way to give sqlite3.exe readonly access a locked database, please let me know.)

Still, if you're using Lr5 on a Mac and find this useful, please let
Adobe know; perhaps they'll add this kind of thing directly into Lightroom...
where it will presumably work on Windows as well.