After a four hour trek around the shrines of Fushimi Inari, we were ready for a quiet afternoon. But instead we took a train ride out to Arashiyama, an area on the west side of Kyoto. A tropical storm a couple of weeks previously had devastated the area and left many homeless; but the tourist information centre advised that the main sites were open. Sadly, this did not include Tenruji temple, a UNESCO world heritage site which appeared to be in the middle of a major renovation and was surrounded by scaffolding.
The gardens around the temple were beautiful; but not as impressive as they will be in November when I go back to shoot the autumn leaves.
Close to the temple is the bamboo grove which, as the name suggests is a walkway surrounded by bamboo.
I am sure it is lovely when there is a fresh wind blowing through the rustling bamboos and you are at one with the world; but late on a hot, sticky and slightly overcast afternoon with legs that don’t want to move any more; it left us rather cold and we were grateful to sink into the seats of the train; and even more grateful to discover that the train was heading in the right direction; back to Kyoto station, our hotel and a long shower.
Comments 🔗
2013-10-09| Andrew saysIf you are truly interested in Japanese shrines, I think the one to see would be the shrine at Ise - you can see some info at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ise_Grand_Shrine As someone who went to Japan because of an interest in architecture there it seems to embody the purest form ( to me anyway ) of Japanese architecture and spirit…and the fact that it is rebuilt every 20 years with the best materials and craftsmen is kinda how I’d like my camera to be…! not sure if others can post pics in comments but I’ll see what happens….worth a trip if you have time on your next visit.. [IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/2lm8euf.jpg[/IMG]
Not sure about fall colours there as went in summer…
2013-10-09| Andrew saysOk - that didn’t work - maybe : http://i40.tinypic.com/2lm8euf.jpg
2013-10-09| Andrew saysA bit of a crappy file from photoshop .jpg 10 quality - the .tiff ( 70 +MB ) has a fair bit more detail- but still a nice place to spend some time…
2013-10-10| Spike saysSounds like an amazing place. I wonder if she who must be obeyed would let me go and live in Japan for three months…..
2013-10-10| dude saysThis reminds me of this star which brings light and heat to some places of this planet. From October until May, Europe is a terrible place to live - as a photographer. I like your photos! The next-to-last one is amazing! What lens did you use? Was your camera at eye-level or higher? Aaaand: Did you brighten up the shaddows of the raw-file or did you use some HDR trick?
2013-10-10| Spike saysWe’ve have big floods in Thailand, almost as shit as Europe for the last week. That shot was taken with the Panasonic 7-14mm (at 7mm) which annoyingly flares in purple on the E-M5 (something to do with a different UV filter on the Olympus sensor compared to a Panasonic, so much for M43 compatibility), so I had to convert it to black and white. I reduced the highlights and lightened the shadows in Lightroom and then banged it through Silver Efex Pro 2. Turned out much better than I expected. Camera was at eye level as far as I can remember; the way the E-M5 screen folds makes overhead or low shot difficult in portrait mode.
2013-10-10| dude saysThanks for the info. I didn’t know that compatibility issues were that serious! The 7-14 seems to be really nice. Is the overall resolution of this picture still good or did it suffer a lot from distortion-correction/rectifying? I really need to keep myself convinced that I don’t need an ultra-wideangle lens. 14mm is cool. I can always stitch photos… …
2013-10-10| Spike saysIt’s wonderful provided you are not shooting into a light source. I have some great shots with it; but on this trip I just had to shoot when and where I could and got caught by sun flare too many times.
Distortion is remarkably low, even at 7mm. The photo included above is straight out of the camera with no corrections (other than already mentioned).
2013-10-10| Spike saysHere’s a little review I did of wide angle options: 2012_08_wide-boys and if you put 7-14mm in the search box of this site you can find plenty of examples. It’s a great lens, apart from this purple flare nonsense on the E-M5 (and presumably other Olympus bodies)
2013-10-10| dude saysI just ordered a new lens… and it’s somewhat your fault. The price of the Rokinon 7.5mm was lower than ever (235€; only 2 left in stock). I admit it: I wanted this piece of glas for a loooong time.
2013-10-11| Spike saysI will happily take the blame. It won’t be the first time.
2013-10-11| Andrew saysAccording to Gordon Laing at Cameralabs the EM1 still has the same issue (purple blobs in high contrast ie. lights areas ) - seems like some kind of sensor thing - and it also happens on the GX7 as well though not quite as bad : http://cameralabs.com/reviews/Olympus_OMD_EM1/#7-14mm_flare
2013-10-13| Bob James saysThe Rokinon is incredibly fun to use. It’s such a great value. I got mine for less than US $250. You can see the lens in action here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bob_in_thailand/sets/72157634756341003/
2013-10-13| Spike saysIt’s because of a different UV filter in the Olympus. But see today’s post; it still rocks under the right conditions, distortion free at 7mm.
2013-10-13| Spike saysFun? Fun? You’re not meant to be having fun. You are meant to be dragging round a bag full of DSLR kit pretending to be a professional. This is what happens when you use M43.
2013-10-13| Spike saysAnd what is this “baseball” thing of which you speak? Some sort of pastime in the colonies?