1 September 2009 Solitary Lightpost
(This was one of those “Um, what the hell are you taking a picture of, Zak?” shots. My response is always “Oh, nothing,” but this time I got a nice shot and a blog post out of it.)
Archive for the ‘Random Beauty’ Category
27 August 2008 Bolt of the day
OK, we’ve had enough pictures of cute kids around here for a while. I know you all really come here for closeups of rusty bolts.
Not exactly beautiful, but it had a high haeccity quotient that I enjoy. And, since I endured the looks of all the Japanese people waiting for the same train wondering what the hell the big gaijin was taking a picture of, I feel justified in posting it here.
30 March 2008 Deep Dark Urban Environment
In my Deep Dark Woods post of a few days ago I posted some nature shots of the wooded area near my house.
Here are a few urban shots, all taken in Kyoto.
26 November 2007 Playing in the Fog
Looking over my photos from the trip, I see a few of the hundreds that I took which are decent.
Here are some from my stay in Sausalito. Unfortunately but perhaps predictably the place was blanketed in fog for a large part of the time we were there.
Genbo (in red) loved running down this hill.
This little cottage looked incredible in the fog. Being Sausalito, the owner probably bought it for $50,000 20 years ago but could sell it for several million now.
Rusting swingset
(Failure to click to enlarge will result in an angel being denied his wings.)
14 October 2007 Some Nighttime Pictures
…From tonight. Put the kids to bed, then went one station down the Yamashina, where there’s a Starbucks open until 11 PM. I wanted to get some more work done this weekend, and knew that if I stayed home it wouldn’t happen. So I put it about 90 minutes in an annoyingly loud (I know, I know, I asked for it) cafe before wandering around a little to see what I could shoot in the dark.
Now I’m back home looking at my photos and counter-acting the effects of the espresso with some nice scotch.
First two are nice for their perspective and the last for its total lack thereof.
25 September 2007 Walking Around at Night
It was a nice cool fall night tonight after a hot day, so after the kids fell asleep I grabbed my camera, my best low-light lens (the ZF 100/2 for all you camera geeks in the audience) and went for a walk. Sure, the joggers look at you funny for taking pictures of concrete walls in the dark, but my father always told me one must suffer for greatness. Well, I’m sure someone’s father once said that. I once had a Taiwanese friend whose father told him that if he’d invested all the money he’d spent on 5 dollar hookers in Taiwan real estate instead, they’d be a rich family. I ask you, what kind of a man says that to a son?
…Anyway. Here are a few snaps tonight. Taken by hand, in the dark, without vibration reduction, because tripods are for big wusses. I just like the way that elements that appear so normal during the day can take on a different character under unnatural lighting and silhouetted against the black of night.
The purple tinge to this next one is called chromatic aberration, and is basically unavoidable when using large apertures to capture bright objects. Most people try to avoid it, but I think it usually, when it’s visible enough to notice, looks interesting.
I came across these three skaters, who automatically thought I was cool because I came from California, the land of skating. When I told them I skated in California as a kid, I became doubly cool.
(Click to enlarge to activate your 12 strands of Astral DNA.)
18 September 2007 Goodbye to the Clouds of Summer
I’ve never really been a summer person. Sure, I liked having summers off when I was a kid, but spring and fall, particularly fall, have always been my seasons. My version of perfect weather is that which calls for a sweater but not a jacket.
Summer does have one thing going for it, however (besides skirts): clouds. The great big cumulus clouds that rear their heads in summer are my favorite, and almost make up for the constant sweating (especially here in Japan, where it is, as Japanese people will tell you after examining their English dictionaries, “sultry.”)
The days here are still hot, but the nights are cool. Fall is coming. So, a few pictures of some of the last summer clouds I’ve taken recently.
Out my front door. The lightning rod belongs to the building next door.
Off my balcony
Not exactly how this cloud actually looked, but Genbo liked this version best.
