Scoping Out Portraiture Locations with Eric and Gigi at the Kiyomizu Temple

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Moody Kiyomizu

Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto Japan

清水寺
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San Francisco friends Eric and Gigi are in town again. We last saw them
earlier in the year buying
a Kimono and playing
in the snow. Yesterday they made a visit to the Kiyomizu Temple, and I
popped over to join them.

It was a Monday, but the place was crazy crowded like during a
high-season weekend. The economy must really be doing better.

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Approach

one of the streets leading to the temple








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Entrance Gate

Eric and Gigi like to shoot portraiture, and the challenge in a setting
8like this is to find places and angles that omit the crowd, yet still lend
a feeling of the location. As we instinctively moved away from the main
gate, I saw two ladies in kimono taking a picture, and immediately felt the
location held promise...

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I felt that the top of the steps where the photographer was standing was the place for the subject,
with a rich green background devoid of people if you got the camera low enough to the ground.

Soon Eric and Gigi were photographing one of the ladies...

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Gigi With The Camera

(Unfortunately I didn't get the camera low enough to the ground for this shot to omit the people down below.)

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Showing the Result








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My Own Results

cute little girl toddles

Moving on to other parts of the temple grounds, we found a little bridge
next to the hustle and bustle of the crowds that seemed to be amenable to a
shot...

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The trouble was finding an angle to omit stuff from the backgrounds like
people, toilets, orange traffic cones, trash cans, etc. I think there was
exactly one such angle, and I found it in the shot above.

Moving inside the temple to its famous observation deck...

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One Way to a Better Background

selfie sticks were in great abundance, but not a great annoyance

Once those two ladies moved on, Gigi posed there for a bit. It was crowded with people, but every once in a while there would be a few seconds
in the clear...

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Laughing at the Absurdity

of whatever I'd just said

Across the way is another pagoda, which has apparently received a coat of paint sometime recently...

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Mountain Pagoda

清水寺の泰産寺
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This photo of the same pagoda taken in 2008 shows quite a different look.

Here's a picture of Gigi and Eric with the temple sticking out of their
head (but, you'll notice, no one else in the background)...

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The short moment that no one was near them seemed fleeting enough that I
didn't want to chance the time to reposition myself to put the pagoda off
to the side.

What the railing they're standing at normally looked like...

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Typical Scene








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Back-Area Paths

entrance to a sub-shrine, and path to a mountain-hike exit

Toward the rear of the temple grounds is a sub shrine that garnered a lot of visitors,
with many folks stopping to take photos in front of the stairs seen at left in the picture above.

My eyes, however, immediately gravitated to the essentially-ignored path
to the right (it leads to a
hiking trail exit). The stonework on the path might make a nice
background, I thought.

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Standing In

so I can check out the angles

After actually giving it a try, I abandoned the idea of using the ground
as the background, but instead took advantage of the stone and moss just to
the side...

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We eventually moved on to where one can get the quintessential view of the temple
(like this,
also seen
here and
here). In doing so, we were hapily greeted
by this unknown couple...

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(Their friend, taking a photo of them with an iPad, was next to me.)

It was threatening rain all day, but none materialized while we were out.

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A girl asked Eric to snap a photo of her with her phone — not an
uncommon request to a passer by — but she got more than she bargained
for. Eric was in portraiture mode, she got the whole “tilt your head this
way...” posing direction. She was surprised, but enjoyed it.

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Impromptu Fashion Shoot









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Down Below

Near the popular
place where you get water with a cup on the end of a lone pole, I noticed another
spot that might make a good oasis-among-the-crowds spot. There's a looooong staircase
that ends there... here's a photo of it from 2008:

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Long Staircase at the Kiyomizu Temple

this photo is from 2008

In this photo from 2008, the railing on the right is metal. But during the visit yesterday, the railing on the right had been replaced by one made
of stone, to match the railing on the left. Combined with the rocky/mossy
background, I thought the location had promise...

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After leaving the temple, we made the short stroll over to Camellia Tea Ceremony to take a peek. I'm not sure how Eric and Gigi came to know about it, but the owner has
been an acquaintance since long before she opened this tea-ceremony
business, so I wanted to say “hi”. Unfortunately she wasn't there at the
time, but her staff was kind enough to show us around.

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Slippery When Wet

I remembered another nice oasis-among-the-crowds spot in this area from
this blog post two years
ago, and though the light was fading as a brooding evening started to
take hold, they gave it a try with a few shots...

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As I waited, a couple of ladies taking a rest nearby smiled for my lens...

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Finally on the way back to my scooter, this young kid caught my eye, and I his (hers?) as his (her?)
dad carried him (her?) like a sack of potatoes....

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Cute Potatoes