More From That Big New-Year’s-Day Snow in Kyoto

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/4 sec, f/10, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Snowy Heian Shrine

Kyoto Japan

平安神宮、京都市

As I mentioned Yesterday, New Year's Day brought Kyoto's biggest snow in 60ish
years. I went out for a bit in the evening to snap some pics and
play with Anthony.

It was really coming down...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Compare that shot to the lead shot on this post.

The snow just stuck to whatever it first touched, and accumulated in improbable amounts on the most insubstantial
of surfaces....

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos

The moment I walked outside I knew that the expressway (whose nearest entrance is more than 6km away) was closed,
because when it closes, traffic ends up bogged down on my street...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/30 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Expressway Refugees








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — 0.6 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Not Much Traffic Here








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — 0.6 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

But Lots of Snow Play








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31mm — 0.6 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Bus Stop









Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 0.5 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 —
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Seating Available

Kyoto Prefectural Library, Okazaki








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm — 1/8 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 —
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Clearing the Slide

as a matter of public service, of course








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 45mm — 1/6 sec, f/7.1, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Festival

Earlier in the day, when there wasn't a flake of snow, I took lots of
pictures with the intent to write about the new-year's crowds. This whole
are was packed with folks making their first shrine visit of the new year. At the time, the road was closed to vehicles and was lined with food vendors. Now the vendors have battened down the hatches until tomorrow.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 0.8 sec, f/13, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Entrance Gate

Heian Shrine








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 40mm — 1/15 sec, f/5, ISO 2500 —
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Lame Impersonation

of this shot when he was four








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/4 sec, f/6.3, ISO 2500 —
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Splats in Waiting

on a side building

The slumping snow on the roof made me think of

“When You Tempt Fate, Sometimes You Lose”








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm — 1/20 sec, f/5, ISO 2500 —
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Main Building

Heian Shrine

Then it was time for more snow play with Anthony...

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/6 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Moving Target

By the time I put the camera aside to play, my hands were so frozen that I couldn't feel
them other than by proxy through the pain. At the shrine it had gotten to where I couldn't
tell whether I had pressed the shutter button or anything... I had lost any sense of touch in
my right hand, so I was taking shots with my left. I hadn't been that cold since I was a kid.

When I started to play with Anthony, my right hand hurt so much I just couldn't do it, so
I shoved it under my armpit for five minutes to warm it, with that exquisitely painful
pain one gets when an over-cold finger or toe is warming. Wow, it really really hurt.

But oddly, after that I was fine for the rest of the night. We threw snowballs and such for well over an hour and they didn't feel so much as
chilly again. Odd.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 35mm — 0.5 sec, f/5, ISO 6400 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 28mm — 4 sec, f/18, ISO 1600 —
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Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 36mm — 10 sec, f/11, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Canal

looking a bit like cherry blossoms, the snow here reminds me of this








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 45mm — 1/13 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Impromptu Elevator Selfie

with both camera and self slightly snow encrusted

I'd mentioned at the end of yesterday's post that
the forecast was for more snow overnight and that I might try to get up to photograph in the morning.
Neither happened. I was so tired (from the snowball play, I suppose) that I slept until 10:30am! It turns out no new snow fell anyway.

This evening (it's 11:30pm as I write this) the snow is coming down hard again, and it looks to be more
than yesterday. Probably I'll head out tonight even for a bit after posting this, lest I have to wait
another 58 years for a similar chance...

Update: it turns out I had to wait only one day for a bigger snow.