The Imperial Palace Garden in Kyoto – a place of magic and such rich colour. It was special to have some quiet minutes there this morning before all the truck loads of tourist busses would eventually arrive. Pure tranquillity.
This is a panorama stitched together in Lightroom of three individual HDR images which also were created as HDR’s in LR in first place. All shot at ISO 100 and f/7.1.
The 10.000 toriis leading up to Mount Inari at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Each gate has been donated by worshippers, companies or organisations over the many years, giving thanks for their prosperity and in hope of good fortune in the future.
What a breathtaking sporting venue Hanshin Racecourse near Osaka, japan is – it fits up to 139.000 fans and spots a unique architecture, particularly in the paddock area, which is covered by a multi-layered roof.
People, people and more people – that’s what I took away from my days in Tokyo – and nothing else represents this as fittingly well as the Shibuya Scramble crossing, apparently the busiest intersection in the world!
Tokyo at night from from the Metropolitan Government Building just hours ago – a free place to get up to the 45th floor, 220 meters above sea level and get a panoramic view across the whole city.
Gives some scale to what the “most populous metropolitan area in the world” looks like. It’s – obviously – absolutely gigantic. Wherever you look: it’s lights, houses, office blocks, skyscrapers, cars….
From a photography perspective this is quite a tricky spot to shoot from. That’s mainly because the light from inside the panoramic deck reflects badly in the glass windows and therefore makes it near impossibly to get a clear shot without some glare in the frame.
The “no tripod” rule doesn’t help either. I used my gorilla pod for this, which meant I got away with it for quite some time. This shot is a 10s exposure at 100 ISO, 26mm with my favoured Sigma 17.-50mm lens.
Clearly this is not the best view of Tokyo you can get – that one is out to the other side – but it was the best I could get at this point in time.
While I’m complaining about the fact that the observation deck is not necessarily photographer friendly, one has to keep in mind that it is absolutely free of charge to get up there and enjoy the view of the city. So hats off to Tokyo for offering this unique view without charging for it.
The Great Buddha of Kamakura this afternoon catching a final glimmer of the golden sunlight as seconds later it was gone for the day, the sun sinking behind the mountains – at nearly 14 meters high the Daibutsu is an astonishing piece of craftsmanship.
Shoot It Now 