Jeffrey E.F. Friedl's Blog, page 53

Random Shots from a Kyoto Countryside Tour

I've tried getting this post done every day since “Little Pink Flowers”
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
days ago, but I keep getting caught up with Lightroom plugin work. I guess the balance between plugins and blog varies over time, with “blog” on
the short end these days.

Anyway, the “Little Pink Flowers” post was from an outing a couple of weeks ago
when I showed a visitor a bit around some of the fringe countryside areas of Kyoto. Our first stop was the Nishimura Stonecarver's garden,
an amazing place that has its own category on my blog...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 140 —
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Rich Light

at Nishimura Stone Lanterns (西村石灯籠)

Kyoto Japan

Then we made a brief stop at the
Tanukitanisan Fudouin Temple (狸谷山不動院) where I snapped a photo of a carving
on a sub-temple for “everyday life”...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 560 —
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Clothes · Food · Housing · Love

what this subtemple is dedicated to

( I don't see the connection between the carving and the dedication; maybe there isn't one. )

Then we popped up to Ohara and the Sanzen'in Temple (三千院). At one point inside a little boy came around the corner
and saw me (and likely that I looked obviously different from people he normally sees) and just stood there looking at me,
taking me in. I snapped a shot.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/2500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Evaluating

After several seconds he apparently decided that I was neither a threat
nor a source of treats, and proceeded to go on his way.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 —
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Taking It All In

Later in the garden I noticed these stone faces rising from the moss...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1100 —
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Serene Slumber
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I'd never noticed them before, but in looking around now I found many.
I'll have to go back when the light is better to try photographing them
all.

This next picture was taken quickly when I noticed a group of three
young-at-heart ladies in their 70s or 80s were forming a human chain to
allow one on the end to reach over a pond to touch a stream of water coming
from a bamboo pipe....

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 —
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Helping Hands

I'm not sure what the deal is with the water and having to reach out
over the pond, but it's a thing at the temple.

Anyway, in picking photos to include on this blog post I realized that I
neglected to get an “establishing shot” that shows the wider context of the
pond, but I knew I'd taken such a shot during a previous visit. Lightroom
provides numerous ways to find photos, in this case all would be slow.

Several days of plugin development later, I came up with an extremely
fast way to search my 130,000-photo catalog for nearby photos, and voila,
here are a couple from 2010:

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/4, ISO 2000 —
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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 500 —
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As a bonus, I found some that I'd posted in 2011 but forgotten about.

On the way out of the temple you pass under a low-hanging branch that seems to have interesting leaves... after taking this shot
the other day...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 —
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I realized that I'd done the same thing a few years ago, slightly later in the season...

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 5000 —
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Imperfect
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I'm not sure that the leaf pictures are particularly compelling, but the
ability to instantaneously see photos from other times, taken in the same
immediate area, makes me a bit giddy. I guess I'm just geeky that way.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
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Bright Wall
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We then took a drive on little-used roads through the deep mountains north of Kyoto, stopping by a little
village...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
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Fireproof Storage Building

with a window that can be shut tight in case the village is on fire

( because respect/fear of fire is deeply rooted in the Japanese psyche )

Elsewhere in the village we came across an old couple harvesting rice, by hand, with just a sickle and hard work...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1600 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Wielding Her Sickle




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
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Making a Bundle




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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To The Racks




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Hanging to Dry




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Much Yet to Go

Most of the rice has been flattened, likely by wind gusts during
the typhoon the other day.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Reaching for the Next Bundle

I've written about the rice harvest various times in the past, including
here,
here, and
here.

Lightroom Plugin Update #2,800

Over the years I've published about 50 plugins for Lightroom, and of the
40ish that are still actively maintained, as of today I've put out a combined total of
2,800 updates.

I provide an
RSS feed for updates and so I normally write here only about the
release of new plugins, but today I pushed out a new release for my Folder
Watch plugin that made me reflect on just how much the plugins grow
over time.

Folder Watch originally grew out of a request from a Lightroom
friend for better automatic importing, such as one might want when
shooting tethered (especially since Lightroom didn't support any kind of
tethering at the time, in the spring of 2009). The first version could scan
a folder for new images, import them, and optionally have some simple
metadata like the title set. That was it.

Now, four and a half years later, with advances in Lightroom and what it
allows a plugin to do, Folder Watch offers fully-automated end-to-end
processing — import, develop, export — if you like.

Here's what the configuration looks like at the moment:

The last item on the list — the ability to have an automatic import trigger a publish operation — is
one of today's addition. Combined with, for example, an export-to-Facebook
plugin, you can create fully-automatic camera-to-Facebook processing.

It'd be nice if the plugin supported all the options that Lightroom's
normal import supports, but Lightroom offers no such hooks for this. That's
often the most limiting factor in all my plugin development... what hooks
Lightroom does and doesn't offer. (My stress and time are next on the list
of limiting factors.)

Another addition today is the ability to write dynamic values to the
title and caption fields, via the template
tokes my plugins support. This includes the ability to use the special
{LUA=...} token to execute
arbitrary code.

Folder Watch is certainly not my most popular plugin, but I spent
several days working on the various enhancements anyway, because it's fun
and I enjoy it. I hope someone finds it useful.

Pretty Little Pink Flowers

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Dainty Little Pair

at the Sanzen-in Temple (三千院), Kyoto Japan
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The Voigtländer
125mm f/2.5 macro lens certainly does love itself some tiny flowers, and in this
regard I can only encourage it. I found these dainty pink things yesterday
in a garden at the
Sanzen-in Temple (三千院) in Ohara, a mountain suburb of Kyoto.

The flowers looked quite different depending on what angle you viewed them, and on what stage they were in life.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 —
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Early




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 —
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Rear Support Structure
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 —
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Disco Ball
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400 —
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Inviting

to the right kind of insect (and/or cameraman)




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 125 —
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Hearts

in pinks both soft and hot
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 450 —
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Detail
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 900 —
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Petals
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 —
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Context

A Bit More Rain in Kyoto Than Normal

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/1000 sec, f/7.1, ISO 500 —
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running high

Courtesy Typhoon #18

Kamo River from the Ooike Bridge

鴨川、大池大橋から（京都市）

“Typhoon #18” for 2013 rolled by this morning, bringing lots of rain and the once-every year-or-so high water
in the Kamo River. This post is essentially a repeat of the high-water posts from 2010
and
last year, except this time there was significant flooding elsewhere in Kyoto.

If I'd had my iPhone with me while sleeping, I would have been awoken at
5am by the emergency alerts from Kyoto Prefecture and Kyoto City, warning
of heavy rain. I'd never seen one of these before.

When growing up in Ohio, the National Weather Service would issues
different level alerts for tornados and storms: first a low-level “watch”,
then if the danger became immediate, a “warning”. Warnings were rare.

Japan had the same two levels of warnings until a third,
higher-than-“immediate danger” level was added this summer:「特別警報」(“Special Warning”). This would be
reserved for calamities — rain, wind, snow, tsunami, volcanic ash, etc. — that might
happen once in a generation.

The first ever such alert was issued this morning, for all of Kyoto Prefecture, as seen at right.

What particularly caught my eye (when I noticed this on my phone five
hours later) was the almost conversational sentence: “It's possible you've
never experienced heavy rain like this in your life”.

Having grown up in Ohio, I like a good storm; I'm bummed I missed it. Now I know what
all the sirens I vaguely heard through my sleep were.

Here's what the rain radar looked like at the time of the alert. The small black square to
the lower-right of center is where I live.

午前５時１５分のレーダー。

中心の右下の黒点は私の家（京都市左京区岡崎）

Frankly, the radar looked much worse (much more red) a couple of weeks ago when the last typhoon came near,
but for whatever reason the high water and flooding never materialized
then.

Anyway, it takes the water a couple of hours after the heaviest rain to
accumulate from the mountains to the river near me, but I didn't pop out to
take a look until five hours later, so the water had already receded
considerably.....

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95mm — 1/1000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
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Debris

You can see all the debris that had accumulated against the stone fence toward the right, showing
how high the water had been.

The bridge in the background is the Sanjo Bridge. To illustrate what the river looks like normally, this next photo, from
“Terrace Dining Over Kyoto's Kamo River”,
shows the same scene a couple of years ago from the opposite direction,
from that bridge looking toward where I am now.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/400 sec, f/11, ISO 720 —
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Normal Situation

普通の状況（11年の夏の撮影）

To further illustrate, here's a shot from even further down, looking back at both bridges,
from “Skipping Rocks with Kenny” back in 2011....

Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 280 —
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Relatively Low Water

三条大橋、浅い水位（11年の冬の撮影)

Back to today...

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 78mm — 0.3 sec, f/25, ISO 100 —
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Sanjo Bridge

三条大橋（今日の撮影）

Having recently posted
“The Effect of Shutter Speed on the Appearance of Flowing Water”, I tried a few shots at different speeds to create a sense of flow, but in this case the “angriness” of the water seems more
pertinent than “smooth flow”, so it turns out that a relatively short 1/13th second shot seems most appropriate:

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 240mm — 1/13 sec, f/13, ISO 100 —
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♪♫ ♪ Under the Boardwalk... ♪ ♪ ♫

As a result of the typhoon, the bullet train line was shut down, as were
most of the expressways in this part of the country. Today was the last of
a three-day weekend, so everyone who was going to be traveling on the
highways got diverted into the city and follow their car navigation systems
looking for a way west out of the city, and there are only two: Route 1 and Sanjo Street,
and the latter, at least, was a parking lot:

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 290mm — 1/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1400 —
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Sanjo Street

ample parking

三条通りは駐車場に成りました

When I decided to take a pop out to the river with the camera this
morning, I knew things were a bigger deal than I'd first thought when I
came out of the garage and saw the traffic on my street. Normally it's
pretty quiet, but due to its particular circumstances, it quickly becomes a parking lot itself when the expressways are
shut down. Today was the 2nd time I'd seen this.

Luckily I travel by scooter, so traffic was not an issue.

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50mm — 1/25 sec, f/22, ISO 100 —
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Looking South from the Sanjo-Street Bridge

三条大橋から南へ




Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50mm — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 100 —
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Casualty

割れた橋の柵

The stone fence here did not fare as well as the one seen in “Debris” above, buckling under the weight of
the flow. The inscription on the fence says “1994”.

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 50mm — 1/200 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 —
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Not Quite Worth

the advertised “1,000 words”

I don't know that this is much better, but here's a short video I shot at the same time. Warning: sound of rushing water is loud.

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170mm — 1/400 sec, f/9, ISO 320 —
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Slim Pickings

or gorgeous feast. I'd guess the former, but I don't know.




Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 180 —
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Stump




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Smile




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Worthless

The cameras in the center of the shot above, above “Book Off” on the north-west corner of Sanjo Kawabata, are for the Kyoto
Prefectural water-management system. You can (normally) see a recent shot of the river on their site, such as these:

a couple of days ago
二日前


this afternoon
今日の午後

Unfortunately, the “this afternoon” shot, from when the water had
receded quite a bit, was the only image I could get since 9pm last night.
When there's lots of rain, the Kyoto Prefectural water-management web site
becomes utterly inaccessible. I don't know what my tax yen is going
toward.... it's like having insurance except when you're in an accident.

Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95mm — 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
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Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 95mm — 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
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Nikon D4 + Sigma “Bigma” 50-500mm OS @ 170mm — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 —
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More Traffic

Even the little river by my place, whose level is normally well controlled because it's an offshoot from
a canal, was running a bit high and was a completely-opaque brown:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm — 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 100 —
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Shirakawa River

白川、京都市左京区岡崎

But none of this was “flooding”, but other parts of Kyoto certainly saw flooding for the first time in many years.
Here are a couple of videos showing the famous Togetsukyo bridge (渡月橋) in Arashiyama this morning.

The water was lapping over the bridge. For reference, here's a shot from
“A Few More Shots of That Amazing Rainbow”
showing what the incredibly wide river basin looks like normally...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/400 sec, f/8, ISO 100 —
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嵐山の渡月橋、去年の12月

Thanks To Apple, Those Hard Times are Behind Us Now

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“
It used to be the way you take better pictures is you learn to be a better photographer
”
—Phil Schiller

Senior VP Worldwide Marketing, Apple Inc.

at 46:31 into the video for the iPhone 5C/5S announcements

New Lightroom Plugin: Smart-Preview Support

I've just published a new plugin for Adobe Lightroom,

“Smart-Preview
Support”, which allows you to be alerted when a Smart Preview is about to be used for export.
Exporting with Smart Previews can lead to very low quality output, so this
plugin can help save you from doing that unintentionally.

Details and download are on the plugin's home page.

Revisiting the Ryouanji Temple’s Cherry-Blossom Garden

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 160 —
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In-Season Blossoms

on an out-of-season blog post

(“out of season” at least for me; maybe “in season” Down Under?)
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In my post last week about a trip to a Kyoto temple last autumn, I wrote about some out-of-season cherry blossoms that bloom in November. Continuing with
my recent theme of visiting my photo archives, I'm going back this time not to last fall, but just to the more recent spring, to
a trip to the Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺) in northwest Kyoto.

I've posted a few times from that trip among the awesome blossoms, including:

“Weeping Cherry at Kyoto’s Ryouanji Temple”

“Cherry Blossoms at Kyoto’s Ryouanji Temple, Part 1”

“Subtle · Pastel · Tranquil”

“The Effects of Aperture on a Subtle, Tranquil Cluster of Cherry Blossoms”

but really had just only scratched the surface of what I wanted to share because not long after the visit to Ryouanji, I got sidetracked by the even-more-amazing Haradanien Gardens, ending up posting
seven articles (so far) starting with “A Wigglegram from Kyoto’s Stunning Haradanien Forest Garden of Blossoms”.

Haradanien is truly fantastic in the spring, but the subject of today's
post, the Ryouanji Temple, is also very nice (any time of year), and is
much more easily accessed, so back at Ryouanji last spring we are.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 —
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Follow Me

into the Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺)

Tour guides often carry flags to make themselves visible to their
charges from a distance, but sometimes it's something “cute” like the bear
above, or a Hello
Kitty toy.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Varieties

various varieties of Cherry are all clustered together




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 320 —
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Engulfing




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/9, ISO 720 —
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Blossom Roof




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/3200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Sort of Freaky

when you notice that some blossoms are perfectly in focus

( perhaps the effect is best when clicking through to the large version )




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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About as Crowded as it Got

much less crowded than Haradanien




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/640 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Fluffy




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 —
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Creamy




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 110 —
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Close-up Shot

my own attempt at the same blossom leads this post




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Photograph

not a painting; just a bit overexposed
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Towering




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Odd

this composition just struck me as a bit funny




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 —
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Gossamer Curtain
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 —
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Gardeners

on a bed of moss covered with a sheet of blossom petals




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/500 sec, f/2.5, ISO 400 —
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Gardner with Broom
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/3200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Somehow Captivating

the full-screen version somehow captures my attention, but I can't explain why
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Perhaps One Of Those

“you had to be there” shots.
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Colorful Coordination

While Paul Barr (in the background) and I were enjoying the big tree seen two shots above, this
colorful Russian(?) tourist with a pleasing sense of style came by.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Photo Op!

This little clearing in front of a bed of green bushes in front of a variety of blossoms made for a great photo opportunity,
though the harsh light made any photo a challenge.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100 —
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Common Scene




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Before




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 cropped — 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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After

I waited patiently for a clear shot, and eventually got it, but the result is really lackluster...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/500 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
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Yawn

I much prefer the shots with people in them,

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/1600 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Such as This...




Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/1250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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... Or This

To be continued...

Another Festival of Läkerol Licorice Goodness

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

Colorful Tastiness

Läkerol Licorice

Photo-buddy Damien Douxchamps came back from a trip to Finland, and sent me a huge
care package of Läkerol, the not-available-in-Japan candy he introduced me to last year (seen on my blog in
“Cornucopia of Tasty Läkerol Licorice”
and then later in
“Priceless: Candy and Pottery in a Surprisingly Tasteful Display”).

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/160 sec, f/5, ISO 4500 —
image data

Santa Came Early

The care package included 122(!) boxes of a dozen different Läkerol flavors (many new to me), plus a few extra odds and ends.

Some of the boxes were exceptionally colorful, and some were exceptionally colorless...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/20 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

Colorful

though I don't yet know what actual flavor “Africa Gold” might be describing






Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/25 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

Colorful and Colorless

in real life, the name of the black-box candy is almost undetectable




Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/4 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

Name Revealed (Sort Of)

through some aggressive post processing

I'm also not sure what tastes these names (“Black Diamond” and “Sparkling”) might represent. At least “Elderflower”
is probably pretty clear to someone who has an idea what an elderflower tastes like, but I'm not among them.

Discovering the tastes, and mixing and matching them, is half the fun.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/15 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

Bemuse

yet beguiling

Another taste I'm not currently familiar with is kumquat, nor what that
taste might have to do with elephants (in what might be northern India?).
Maybe elephants eat kumquat? Maybe elephants taste like kumquat? Having
eaten neither, at present the connection is left up to the imagination.

Among the non-Läkerol items in Damien's care package was a bottle of
licorice liquor from Finland, with an almost unreadable label.

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 5 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data

“The Original 013”

whatever that means

It took some creative lighting and aggressive post-processing to make out the full label:

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 3 sec, f/5.6, ISO 500 —
image data


KOSKENKORVA

SALMIAKKI

THE ORIGINAL 013

The third line is clearly English, but I don't understand the rest.
Perhaps it's Finnish?

As far as I know, this stuff is not marketed
in any English-speaking country, but there's English all over. Maybe it's
the same as it is in Japan, where English is “cool”. But then, Japan has a
history of deep ties to America (not the least of which is having been
occupied and ruled by America for seven years after WWII), so the English
here is a bit more baffling.

The bottle neck labeling says “Suomi 〜 Finland” (Suomi is Finnish for “Finland”). The back label is almost all English:
“Deep in its dark, liquorice-infused heart, Koskenkorva Salmiakki is an unforgettable drinking experience waiting to be released. Drink as shots, but don't be misled.” I have no idea what that means, either. It goes on “Experience the spirit of Finland and taste Finnish folklore.” This is marketingspeak on overdrive.

It also notes: “Please, shake well.”  So very polite.

It says “Liqueur” and “Contains Liquorice” in English and two other languages.

Anyway, despite labeling that leaves me scratching my head, the stuff is
tasty when used in extreme moderation. Adding a few drops
(literally) to a big glass of Coke gives it a surprisingly strong, durable,
pleasing licorice taste. I can't possibly imagine taking a spoonful of this
stuff, much less a shot as it suggests.

Damion had once given me an almost-empty bottle he happen to have
brought with him to Kyoto, with less than 1mm of liquid left at the
bottom, but it lasted me almost a year. This full bottle may well last 30. It's a gift that keeps on giving.

A Visit to the Jikkouin Temple in Rural Kyoto

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Water Basin and Garden

at the Jikkouin Temple (実光院), Kyoto Japan
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Following up from yesterday's
“Tea and Sweets in Front of a Temple Garden”, where I'm trying to make a dent in
my photo backlog from last autumn, today we take a look at the setting for yesterday's post, the Jikkouin Temple (実光院).

The same water basin, but from a different angle with the garden-viewing room in the background, represents this visit on last year's
“A Long But Photogenic November in Kyoto” post.

I'd visited with friends Damien and Paul while on a trip to Ohara, a somewhat remote mountain-village area of Kyoto. We'd just come from the most-excellent Housen-in Temple (宝泉院) first introduced in
this post (with colorful followups to its interior and garden
here,
here, and
here). Considering the visual overload of that first stop, I guess I can understand having needed
a 10-month breather to get to this second stop of the day.

The weather was dynamic, alternating between a
light rain and brilliant sunshine. Here's a
section of the garden that you look at while having the
aforementioned tea and sweets, as a light rain
starts...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/5 sec, f/7.1, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Drizzly
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But five minutes later the sun is out in full force...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Garden-Viewing Tea Room

where the photos in yesterday's post took place
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And before we move on from the tea and sweets, one more related shot, this time giving a stark black & white treatment a try...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/10, ISO 640 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Tidying Up
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I don't know whether it's any good, but it's different from my normal approach, so there we are.

And speaking of something different, elsewhere in the garden-viewing
room is a xylophone made from what appears to be rough-hewn stones....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 4500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Plinking a Tune

I'm sure it was quite a feat to get the tones just right.

Moving out now to the temple's back garden, it was blindingly bright with the now-blazing sun reflecting off every
surface left glistening by the rain. Just the same as in the other day's
“The Effect of a Polarization Filter on Wet Rocks”.. a polarizer filter
made a huge difference as jiggling your mouse over this photos illustrates:

div#dQiFPBYYdYYdZcA img { width:690px; height:456px; 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

Both shots are total crap, but again, the difference is astounding.

Here's another pair of marginal-but-illustrative shots, of raindrops glistening (or not) in a moss closeup:

div#dQiFPBYYdYYdZcB img { width:455px; height:690px; 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

Now on to some nicer pictures. This garden included its own stone water basin, with a mossy/lichen patina similar to the bark of the neighboring tree...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/320 sec, f/2.5, ISO 360 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Stone Basin Beside Tree
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It was lined with moss and filled with freshly-fallen leaves..

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/160 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Realistic(ish)
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The shot above is with the polarizer, where the bright direct reflection
of the sun has been attenuated greatly.

In this next shot without the polarizer, the brightness of the
reflection dominates everything else, so the auto-exposure of the camera
sends everything else into a moody darkness (somewhat recovered from later
in Lightroom, due to

the exposure latitude that shooing in raw affords)...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Moody
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I made an attempt to get the standard shot of a single leaf somehow highlighted in the scene, but the attempt doesn't really satisfy.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/2000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Meh
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I guess it serves me right for going along with Damien's plan to subvert nature; he placed the leaf there for me, so that I could say that I hadn't.

This temple also has jyuugatuzakura (十月桜, “October Cherry
Blossoms”), providing a soft contract to the rich autumn colors...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1000 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Cherry Blossoms in November

though the name means “October Cherry”
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 —
map & image data — nearby photos
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 250 —
map & image data — nearby photos
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Another stone basin was tucked away in a corner...

Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 640 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Overgrown
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 1800 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Pleasing Angles
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Nikon D4 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 800 —
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Stumped
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/250 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Exit

from a sequestered little area of the garden
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/6.3, ISO 640 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Exit

from the temple grounds
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It looks a bit like the exit has been closed off with stone, but of course that's the stone wall opposite the exit.
Stepping just outside the exit and looking to the right, you see this scene, with buildings of
the Sanzen-in Temple (三千院) at frame left....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Path of Many Temples

Near the Sanzen-in Temple (三千院)
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To be continued...

Another “Tea and Sweets in Front of a Temple Garden” Shot (or 10)

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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 560 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Your Tea is Served

well, my tea is served

at the Jikkouin Temple (実光院), Kyoto Japan
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Every time I revisit my Lightroom library from last autumn's many photo outings, I find so many things waiting to be posted. Now if only I could find the time to post. Last week's “Views at the Honen'in
Temple” was one attempt to catch up, and today's little post is
another.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Ready to Enjoy
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The whole “tea and sweets in front of the garden” experience is naturally
inviting to the camera[sort of], but particularly since taking this shot last
November, I've been giving it more attention. Other recent examples
include this and this.

Getting a nice shot is tougher than you might imagine, mostly because of
other people: unless you've got the place to yourself, others might be in
your way or in your light (or in your view in the garden), and more importantly, you
don't want to be a disturbing influence to others.

I also still don't have a good sense of what aperture to use
(that is, how much background blur to create). To cover my basses at least to some extent, I took the above scene at three different apertures... sweep the mouse
side to side over the photo below to see them:

div#dkiuPBQydQydfcA img { width:439px; height:690px; 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。
f/1.4  ·  f/4.5  ·  f/10
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

As you can see, I went with the middle one to give at least some sense of the garden without distracting with too much detail.

The garden itself is nice, but better in person than in a photograph. Just to give an idea, here's a quick snap:

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/200 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

So-so Snapshot

of the nice garden at the Jikkouin Temple (実光院)

Compare this to
the garden at the Daihouin Temple (大法院),
or at the Enkouji Temple (圓光寺), among others,
and you'll see what I mean. Still, there are many areas in the temple gardens that are exquisite;
we'll see more from this temple in a later post.

Back to the tea-and-sweets shot above (the vertical desktop-background
one), now that I look at it in the context of this article, I think it's
cropped a bit too tightly. I do have another sequence of shots from a bit further back;
I'm not sure why I didn't choose one of them:

div#dkiuPBQydQydfcD img { width:437px; height:699px; 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。
f/10  ·  f/5  ·  f/1.8  ·  f/1.4
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

In this sequence, I didn't use Lightroom's amazing lens-correction
profiles to remove the natural vignetting of the lens when it's wide open,
so it's readily apparent here. I think it “works” well in this composition,
at least better than it would have in the tighter sequence above, which is
why I removed it there.

If I were to spend some time with this sequence, I'd
adjust the crop to center the tea and sweets a
bit better, but that ship has sailed; I
started writing this post three days ago and it just does not want
to get finished, so I'm cutting corners.

I'll close this post with a shot of Paul Barr next to me, attempting his
own version of a “tea and sweets” shot, while someone further down the line
is receiving their refreshments.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 — 1/125 sec, f/1.4, ISO 280 —
map & image data — nearby photos


[footnote]

Near the top I wrote:

The whole “tea and sweets in front of the garden” experience is naturally
inviting to the camera.

I should point out that the experience is intended to be
naturally inviting to a calm, serene mind, and that whipping out a camera
and clicking away is pretty much missing the whole point.

I realize this, but have found that I personally get much more serenity
this way. I guess to me, using the camera — and trying to express through it
— is foremost a soothing, healing experience (despite often being a source
of great frustration).

I'm sure I'm not the only one for whom this is true, but everyone
feeling this way must remember not to be an impediment to other's
more-traditional sense of enjoyment (to not “disturb their wa”, so
to speak). To my shame I think I often failed in this respect when I was
younger, perhaps getting too caught up in the selfish pursuit of my own
enjoyment. I'm hopefully better now.

One must also remember that temples and shrines are religious sites of
spiritual importance to most visitors, so that should also guide one's sense of courtesy.

Occasionally I'll purposefully partake in one of these experiences without the camera,
to give myself another chance at the deeper, intended experience, but so far it's always
been frustrating, seeing great shots in my mind and not getting a chance to make them real. I suppose the resulting photos are more real to me than the actual experience, which now that I put it that way,
sounds pretty pathetic.

Anyway, whatever, more pretty pics coming soon!