I took today’s photo from the outside perch of the restaurant on the top floor of Joypolis. This is the Tokyo Bay with the Rainbow Bridge connecting my location at the time (Odaiba お台場) with the main part of Tokyo. Tokyo Tower is to the right.

This is one of those scenes that my LX3 does a much better job with than my TZ7. I tried this shot with both cameras and varying exposure lengths. The TZ7 couldn’t capture it as well with an exposure of 1 second or less. I needed that LX3’s 5-second exposure and better sensor.

This picture would probably look a whole lot better if my blog had a black background. Click on the image for a bigger and better view.

Posted on February 25th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: night photography, odaiba, rainbow bridge, Tokyo, tokyo tower. Comments: 5

We took our Nikko trip while the kids were on a school trip for three nights skiing in Nagano Ken. I went to pick them up on Friday night at TIS, and this was the view. You can see their buses just pulling in on the left.

Posted on February 12th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: night photography, tokyo tower. Comments Off on Tokyo Tower at night

Near Waseda University, Anahachimangu (穴八幡宮) can be found. The place was being refurbished when we arrived in August, but they finished in time for New Years. Loads of lucky charms could be, and were, purchased during January. You should also bring back your talisman from the prior year and pay the shrine (again, this time) to destroy it for you. How is that for clever marketing?

Posted on February 8th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: buddhist, lanterns, night photography, shinto, torii. Comments Off on Shrine steps at night

Today’s first picture is an example of how to not do night photography. I only had my TZ7 with me at the time. Although the TZ7 can accidentally take pictures at night with the correct exposure, it doesn’t usually. I couldn’t get it to take any with an exposure length of more than 1 second or less than 15 seconds, and you can’t manually set it for exactly 4 or 5 seconds, which is what this view needed. The above is the 15-second version, which turns the train into a nearly complete ghost. I’ll get a better picture of the Toden Arakawa Line (都電荒川線) at night with my LX3 (which does allow for any exposure of my chosing) one of these evenings.

The Arakawa Line is the closest train system to our apartment. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go where we usually need to go and is slow compared to the Tokyo Metro and other train systems we can choose from. But it is a fun train to ride when you aren’t in a hurry and have no place in particular to go. You can ride it all day, getting off and on as many times as you wish, for just 400 yen. Kids (under 12) pay half price to ride.

This old, streetcar, tram type line feels a bit like riding the San Francisco Cable Car. The controls all seem to be mechanical. There are no computer displays or buttons to push. Instead, levers are pulled and switches are flipped. This is the last of its kind in Tokyo, even though the city was covered with them in the first half of the 20th Century.

There are several interesting neighborhoods near the Minowa end of the line.

Here is a video I took of a little stretch. Unfortunately, no streetcar passed us going the other way while this was being taken. Other than having to wear a tie, I think this would be a very fun job to have–at least for a year or two.

Posted on January 28th, 2010 under Japan. Tags: night photography, Tokyo, trains, tz7 zs3, video. Comments: 1

Night time came to our first full day in Thailand. After a refreshing (a bit too cold if you ask me) swim at the hotel we headed out for dinner…

…though not at McDonald’s. Notice that Ronald is doing the wai, a Thai form of greeting, thanking, etc. by putting your hands together near your neck and bowing a bit.

We ate at Sphinx, located at the end of Soi 4 off Silom Road. The food looked really good, and the free wonton appetizers were great, but this was my most disappointing meal in Thailand (and the most expensive).

We took a tuk tuk back to our hotel for only 20 baht (under $1). This was our first, and last, tuk tuk experience in Thailand, not that the experience was horrible. Tuk tuks in our next location (Phuket) were ridiculously priced so we never used them.

Posted on January 8th, 2010 under Thailand. Tags: bangkok, food, night photography. Comments: 2