Today's daily photo was taken while exploring the wilds outside of Kyoto a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful place! The walk took me into this giant bamboo forest. After strolling through it for a short eternity, I set up for a shot. This is a standard 5-exposure HDR; it was shot with a 14-24mm lens. For those of you new to the site, you can find out more about my process in the HDR Tutorial.
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: alone bambu Color colorful country garden gardens golden grass green Hdr Landscape outdoor path peace photography pretty quiet rural serene SOETOP50-JapanMustSee SOETOP50-SpotsForDaydreamers Sunlight top100 Travel trees twitter walk wild high dynamic range stuckincustoms trey ratcliff blog japan asia 祇園 Kyoto district Kyōto Honshu Osaka-kobe-kyoto okk 梅宮神社 Honshū kansai 京都府 Kyōto-fu 嵐山 Storm Mountain Arashiyama monument historic site 記念物 kinenbutsu cultural sagano bamboo forest nature natural scenic scenery September 2009 Nikon d3x
Win A Free Book! Twitter Contest is Live!
We have a new Twitter contest to win some free copies of "A World in HDR", hosted by the team at @Peachpit. It goes for three days and will be a ton of fun. Anyone can enter, and you can enter as many times as you like! For full details, see the Twitter Contest Page!
Peachpit (the publisher) is giving away three copies to some of the best photos found on Twitter. Submit as many and as often as you like. Note that my photos are not eligible -- let's use this as a way to find other great new photos and artists out there! Again, all the details and info on The Judge can be seen on the Twitter Contest Page!
Daily Photo - Finding Dinner in the Alleys of Kyoto
After exploring an area (and era!) of ancient temples in Kyoto, I was absolutely starving. I tend to get in a "shooting mode" where I do not undertake basic human necessities like eating, sleeping, and making regular bathroom breaks. In fact, Nikon makes this great set of diapers you should try. They're Japanese so there are little buttons that dispose of everything and leave you fresh as a daisy.
Anyway, after shooting, I headed down into the old part of Kyoto to find a traditional Japanese dinner. I sat there for a long time, enjoying myself thoroughly..
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: Kyoto japan travel asia alley top100 hdr photography urban restaurant lantern night stuckincustoms trey ratcliff stuck customs blog high dynamic range digital imaging travelblog Nikon d3x color honshu prefecture Osaka-kobe-kyoto 京都 Kyōto Yamashiro basin tamba metropolitan life dining Honshū 京都府 Kyōto-fu Keihanshin 京阪神(けいはんしん September 2009 signs lights reflection brilliant kanji
Like any big city, Tokyo has many huge neighborhoods, each with their own personality. One of the quirkiest is an area called "Harajuku". I don't know if I can accurately describe it, but I'll try!
It's a place where the most outrageous of the outrageous congregate. You've probably seen those Japanese people that like to dress up like anime characters and the like. Well that's kind of the starting point. It goes onward from there, with everything from girls covered in pink frills to goth men wearing gas masks. In fact, in that little video I made, you can see a pair of legs/shoes in differing colors that I shot in Harajuku. This guy below was with a group of extreme rockers that were parading around the streets. They all seemed to love having their photo taken... which was cool. I could have gone to that place every day to take photos... I've got some other crazy ones in the hopper too for the future!
from the blog www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: japan tokyo portrait harajuku harajuki japanese rocker punk cool HDR High Dynamic range photography stuck customs stuckincustoms trey ratcliff Nikon d3x october 2009 color outdoor people posed travel asia urban Halloween every day culture outrageous anime cosplay goth makeup dye hair tongue attitude bokeh future hip wild style yamanote line shibuya ward fashion yoyogi park visual kei glam
Did you all know I have a free Newsletter? You'll love it... all kinds of great photos and free tips!
(from my HDR Tutorial at www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial )
I'm just finishing up almost two weeks in Japan, and it has been an amazing trip! Usually I try not to start posting shots until the trip is at its close, and this is the first.
While there, I spent time all over the country. I got a rail pass and just jumped on the bullet train to take me from one remote spot to another. I ended up with a few days in Tokyo to do my best to capture the city. I'll be posting photos from the trip throughout the next few weeks, months, and years, as usual. I hope this is a new line of photographs that will be interesting to you.
Photographed here is the Kiyomizu-dera temple in Kyoto. The city is known for its traditional Japanese architecture, slower-paced life, natural beauty, graceful geishas, and zen peacefulness. I probably could have stayed in Kyoto capturing scenes the entire trip. I remained here until the sky turned black, and then I headed back down some winding streets to find an old small restaurant where the food was mysterious and every course was served with a gentle bow.
from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: kyoto japan temple hdr treyratcliff High Dynamic range photography stuck customs stuckincustoms trey ratcliff Nikon d3x september 2009 color outdoor mountain landscape travel asia eastern Kiyomizu-dera kiyomizu dera Otowa-san otowa san treetop protects traditional architecture natural zen Buddhist Buddhism sky clouds overlook cliff historic monument ancient Heian restoration Kitahossō Hossō kitahosso hosso kita restored top100 sacred city confluence dusk valley cityscape
The night had been dark for many hours by the time I hiked to this point. It was raining and somehow the wetness seemed to make everything even more black. There were old and new crypts, spider webs, lonely rotting wood, creaking trees in the heavy rain, and more strange sounds from the woods. Talk about eerie! Japanese cemeteries are not places that people visit very often. It's bad luck. Naturally, I don't believe in any of that, so it was my good luck it was empty for photography!
Of all the spots around Kyoto, this is probably my favorite. There is an area of 1,000 Red Gates that flow up and around a picturesque little mountain. This cemetery is about halfway up the trek and it shoots off to the right. It is both great and annoying to shoot in the rain. I had to carry an umbrella, tripod, bag of camera goodies, and the like, and everything gets all jumbled up when it comes time to set up for a shot. I need an assistant! :)
How did I do this one? There were three exposures +1, 0, -1. Normally I do 5 from +2 to -2, but in this case, it was so dark that the shutter speeds were outrageous enough. I kept the ISO at 200. The 14-24 lens was at 15mm (on a D3X). It was aperture priority at f/5.6. The three shutter speeds were 2/4/8 seconds.
Here is one special thing I did on the last exposure. It was DARK out there. And I mean DARK. I had my SB-800 in my bag. On the last exposure, I ran over behind the gate to the right like Carl Lewis, and jammed the "Test" button about 5 times in every direction to light up that area. I almost slipped and died... I have no idea what a police investigator might assume if they found me in the morning.
from the blog at www.stuckincustoms.com
Tags: hdr cemetery cemetary midnight japanese japan kyoto gates 10000 1000 red High Dynamic range photography stuck customs stuckincustoms trey ratcliff Nikon d3x september 2009 color outdoor night travel asia Honshū adventure rain wet old ancient crypts traditional eerie mountain sacred burial solemn dead stairs path haunting scenic architecture graves ominous lanterns lonely ancestor ancestors lamps haunted death crypt mournful black rotting sider webs cobwebs strange