Merry Christmas

It's my 2nd year in a row to spend the Christmas season away from home. Although I miss my family and the warmth of the my home country, it is not as depressing as I thought it was gonna be. Japan is really a very nice place to live in. The Japanese may not share the same Christmas spirit we have back at home so it is always nice that I have good friends to celebrate Christmas with. So, all is still good.

This was shot at Kyoto Station last October. They already had a Christmas tree that early. A lot of couples dating in this area and torridly kissing in public. =)

Backstreets of Gion

Had a disappointing weekend. Went all over Tokyo just to find the Galaxy S Android phone but to no avail. Every store we go is out of stock. They say it will be available hopefully by January next year. When I decided to get an iPhone4 instead, I was not eligible for the 24 month installment plan because the validity of my working visa has less than 2 years on it. What I hate more about it is that if I came 3 days earlier, I would still have 2 years on my visa. (Yes I was only late for 3 days). I didn't realize the network provider (Softbank) was this strict. I could get an iPhone4 if only I buy the phone completely in just one magical swipe of the plastic card. But I can't afford the hefty 57k yen price tag. So, my attempt to become an Apple Fanboy ended in dismay and disappointment.

On to my image for the day. If you carry your tripod like a nerd (as Trey Ratclif would say), low light shooting is definitely not problem. I love low light shooting because it is even easier to remove the tourists in the shot. Shutter speed would be around 30 seconds for this to work. So, just make sure to set you ISO really low and an a really high aperture value. Anyone who just passed will not even register in the sensor.

Arashiyama River Banks

After our short mystical trip to the Bamboo Forest, we headed out for the Oi River of Arashiyama. It was not as colorful yet as expected but still I had to take the shot for documentation purposes.

It was so cloudy, I really had a hard time fixing this photo. Adding a little brightness washes up the photo easily. And adding contrast brings most of the detail back to backs. I did local adjustments both in Lightroom and Photoshop to make the photo a little acceptable.

If interested, I have my general workflow on how to create HDR images. Do check it out
arcreyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/hdr-workflow.html

Which Path Do We Take?

The incredible gates of Fushimi Inari! No doubt in my mind that this is the most magical/mystical place in Kyoto. I waited almost half an hour just to get a clean shot. Fail! I got tired of waiting because I had more places to visit that day. Too bad I didn't get the shots I want but I intended this to be an ocular visit only. So next time I come back, I'll make sure I'll get it.

For this shot I used textures one again because the plain shot was really boring in my opinion. Whenever I feel that the shot didn't capture the essence of the place even after post-processing, I tried to add something extra, like a texture, or convert it to black and white, or creative filter or when worse comes to worst I even discard the image. This image was close to being discarded.... but I LOVE KYOTO... so here it is now! LOL!

If you're interested, I have my HDR workflow below. Please do check it out
HDR Workflow

Pagoda of Kiyomizu-dera

It was so cloudy that day that it was hard to get some details from the sky. I resort to creativity when the picture doesn't come out right even after all my editing work. Textures is my usual go to technique to turn a dull picture into something a little less dull (LOL).

A big thanks to skeletalmess for this texture. I'm thinking if I should create a simple guide on how to use textures to add a little bit of creativity to your images.

I have shared my HDR workflow just in case you are interested to know how I create this images
arcreyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/hdr-workflow.html

Kyoto's Golden Pavilion

The Kinakaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) is one of three must visit places in Kyoto (other two is the Fushimi Inari and Kiyomizu-dera). Locating a good vantage point of the Golden Pavilion is really easy because the temple itself and its garden is so beautiful, it's almost impossible to find a bad angle.



The view from the back-side is also magnificent. 

And reflections are perfect.



The only thing I hate about this place is that tripods are not allowed. I had to bump up my ISO to increase my shutter speeds for hand-held bracketing.

The Sun and Pavilion

Trying not to get cliche when taking the Kinkakuji. I tried to setup a shot where the sun and the temple are together making it double golden (LOL). But, it was too cloudy and the sun was not at full strength so just looks like a white ball from the back.

I shot is a 7 exposure shot (-3 to +3) hand held. For a Nikon, this would have been relatively easier. For a Canon user, I had to hit the shutter button 3 times just to get the dynamic range. (-3 -1 +1, -2 0 +2, -1 +1 +3). I just dropped the repeating exposures during post-processing.

It sucks to be a Canon user when doing HDR! It is unfortunate that I previously worked for a canon related company and tried to stay loyal. Should have gone to Nikon when I discovered HDR

Zen Garden of Tenryuji Temple

When you can't use a tripod what do you usually do? I most of the time analyze the scene of a single exposure can capture the entire dynamic range without sacrificing my low ISO settings. If is is not possible, I crank up the ISO to a level where the highest exposure's shutter speed is well above 1/40. This is to avoid any camera shake during the shot. Photomatix Pro does a good job aligning the images.

Below is the shot of the Zen Garden of Tenryuji Temple. I was a horrible cloudy day to for us. So, when I saw the clouds clearing up a little, I went back to this area to shoot again. Autumn colors are always amazing.

Gliding Across the Steets of Gion

It is not everyday you see a woman like this unless you work in a Geisha house. As mentioned in my previous blog, we were like paparazzis, waiting for a Geisha to pass by. When that moment came I didn't notice she was already in front of us so I had no time to check my camera settings and prepare for the shot. Kinda like Luke Skywalker, I just used the Force and shot without thinking. And surprisingly, the result was absolutely magnificent.

Cemetery Gates of Fushimi Inari

Since I saw the national geographic shot of the Torii gates of Fushimi Inari, I know right then and there that I had to go to that place. And finally, after about a year or so, I finally made one of my dreams come true. I have always been fascinated with Torii gates cascaded together. Architecturally, they look magnificent but I don't think it is the real reason why I'm so drawn to them. It is one of the those magical places where even if you take a 100 pictures, you will never capture the mystical feeling of the place.

Geisha Hunting at Gion

I realized it is hard to be a Paparazzi. You have to have no shame and your equipment should be at lest decent enough to properly capture those short and rare moments even at horrible conditions. In Gion, we were like Paparazzis waiting for Geishas to transfer from one house to another. It was hard because I had my camera attached to my tripod and I had no time to change my wide angle lens. I was able to see at least 6 Geishas within the area but only manged to capture 1 shot properly (will be posting it soon).

When I got tired of waiting, I settled for the old school feel of the streets of Gion. It felt like I was in a scene from Memoirs of a Geisha except for the taxis that passed by. I would have stayed longer in Gion but there were more temple illuminations to visit. Next time, I will dedicate one whole night for this area.

Kiyomizu Temple

Kiyomizu Temple is one of three places I need to visit during my short trip to Kyoto (Fushimi Inari and Kinkakuji are the other two). I've seen some night illumination, sunset, and blue hour shots of the temple and they were all jaw dropping. So my expectations were a little bit high when I came here. It was too cloudy that even my -2 exposure was not ble to capture some detail of the sky.

Textures to the rescue. ^_^

The Bamboo Forest

Finally, I made it to Kyoto just before my 1 year mark in Japan. I've been living in Yokohama since December 2009 and the farthest I was able to visit was only Nikko. There were only 3 places in mind that I'd love to visit and completely forgot about this place. Good thing I didn't arrange my own itinerary. I would have probably missed this place.

Also I am about to create my own tutorial on HDR. A lot of people are now getting hooked at it. Although Trey Ratcliff's tutorial is available, it is a little bit complicated for beginners. So, I'd like to create my own simple work-flow on how to make the images look more HDR realistic. Hopefully I can finish the tutorial over the weekend.