Posted on July 2nd, 2014 under Oregon. Tags: night photography, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S NIKKOR G ED N, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Music under the Milky Way

清浄心院

Some people make a day trip to Koyasan. Big mistake. Sure the temple lodgings aren’t cheap, but the temple lodging experience (shukubo or 宿坊) is fabulous and Koyasan transforms into a different kind of magical place when the sun goes down.

Posted on June 9th, 2014 under Japan. Tags: japan pictures, koyasan 高野山, night photography, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Shojoshinin on Koyasan

jpg version

I was going through and deleting some photos from last summer when I came upon the photo above. I almost hit delete, but I was curious what the photo was even of so I decided to take a peek at the RAW file before deleting.

This was the same photo in RAW format:

RAW version of same photo

At first I thought I had opened the wrong photo, but then I checked the file name and sure enough they were the same.

I took this while walking through the Okunoin Cemetery just after sunset. I didn’t have a tripod so I just set my camera on rocks or headstones to take long exposures. Obviously, this one @ 30 seconds wasn’t long enough for a jpg photo, but in RAW it almost looks properly exposed.

Posted on June 5th, 2014 under Japan. Tags: cemetery, koyasan 高野山, night photography, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, okunoin japanese cemetery 奥の院, photography, photoshop, RAW vs Jpg jpeg, torii. Comments: 1

HEP Five ferris wheel along with Ippudo (ramen) and Matsuya (gyudon) – Osaka, Japan

What better way to draw attention to your shopping center than to put a giant ferris wheel on top? Ferris wheels weren’t my destination on this evening. Nor were Ippudo or Matsuya (for once). Instead, I was heading to BAR MiDiAN. If you can’t find something of interest in this part of Osaka, well, let’s just say, you may not have any interests.

Posted on May 16th, 2014 under Japan. Tags: night photography, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S NIKKOR G ED N, Nikon D600, osaka, ramen. Comments Off on Umeda, Osaka after dark

Exiting Tennoji Station (Osaka, Japan)

Today’s photo was the scene as I departed 天王寺駅 on the night before I was to fly to Korea last summer. I had an early morning flight so I figured Tennoji was a good place to stay in order to get to the Osaka Airport (KIX) quickly the next morning.

With so many choices of things to do (3-story 24/7 McDonald’s, pachinko, love hotels, and on and on) I opted for none of these. Instead I found a Yoshinoya and enjoyed a 280 yen bowl of gyudon.

Posted on May 4th, 2014 under Japan. Tags: night photography, Nikon 24mm f/2.8 AF-D nikkor lens, Nikon D600, osaka, Tennoji 天王寺. Comments Off on What to do?