Your Canon Photos No. 3: 21st to 27th May 2023

Do you sell your greetings cards online Dunlin?

HessleHiker, peaceful? yes and no. Tourist crowds were dense, almost everywhere we went in Japan. It was June and seemed to be a prime time for Japanese school groups and families to tour. My husband and I were on our own, not part of a tour group, aside from a day tour from Kyoto to Nara. Kyoto had more international tourists than we saw in Nikko, for example. It was always somewhat to extremely difficult to take serene photos in Japan of the wonderful scenery and historic places (our main interest). At the Kinkaku-ji, the grounds are so extensive, the crowds were more spread out, allowing me some unobstructed photos around the lake of the "Golden Temple"

For example, most photographers would recognize the wonderful Zen Buddhist Ryoanji temple rock garden in Kyoto from many, many photos taken of it. But here is the reality of viewing; obviously no one is allowed of course to walk in the rock garden. Husband and I actually enjoyed the extensive grounds, almost deserted in the late afternoon on a cloudy final day in Kyoto more than the actual rock garden. I'll put up some final photos from the grounds as soon as I get them processed today. My Japan 2017 album is on flickr. I hope we can return to Japan, using Kyoto as a base to travel in the vicinity. My husband lived in Japan in his youth, although we do not speak Japanese which is a hinderance to really getting out in the countryside. But the trip is SO far from the east coast of the US.

IMG_1390 Canon 5DII Ryoanji rock garden Kyoto Japan 2017 by Sandy Fleischmann, on Flickr

added: one of the final photos in Kyoto, on the grounds of the Ryoanji temple, late afternoon, final day in Kyoto

IMG_1411 Canon 5DII Ryoanji Kyoto Japan 2017 by Sandy Fleischmann, on Flickr

all Japan 2017 photos in "Japan 2017" album on flickr

No, just to friends/family. It's pretty informal.

This is just an experiment.

I was reading about shooting panoramas. A lot of people that I read, suggested shooting in vertical or portrait mode, but I thought to myself, what if I don't want that much sky?

I got to wondering, what about shooting in a 1:1 aspect ratio, and have a panorama made up of squares?

This is a six-shot panorama, done in 1:1 aspect ratio at a 50mm focal length (handheld). I know I should have used manual exposure and kept the settings the same throughout, but I was in AV mode, so the exposure varies slightly. I was more interested in the size of finished product than its exposure.

Steve Thomas

Sandy,

The Golden Temple does look impressive. It's especially nice with the reflection.

Sandy,

That's neat to see the rock garden. We have rock gardens at our "Japanese Gardens" in Portland, Oregon. I didn't realize that must be a special way they make gardens in Japan...at least it seems so, after you showed us that picture.

Steve,

That's neat to see your panorama. Taking pictures like that or HDR photos is something I'd like to do some time. But I'm so busy just taking regular photos, that I don't do it.

Steve

What software did you use to stitch them together?

HessleHiker,

I use a real basic program called Autostitch.
I've tried others like Gimp, but found them to be too complicated for the few times I do panoramas.

Steve Thomas

Looks good Steve.

Steve, if you're on Windows or Linux, I recommend you try XPano. It's a relatively new, and it's very simple and quite quick.
dprevived.com/t/xpano-new-easy-and-effective-panorama-stitcher/880/
discuss.pixls.us/t/came-across-new-foss-panorama-stitcher-on-reddit-xpano/36275

Almost surreal, like an hd maquette, beautiful stuff.

The Canon SX50HS was also weak there but I'm sure something like a Sony Cyber-shot RX10 IV does a very good job getting everything in focus fast as its reknowned for its image quality and AF tracking capabilities. The downside is gonna be the pricing as this is as top of the line as bridge camera's go, even used they go for a premium.

That Sony seems to be the king of bridges for wildlife usage. The only complaint I've heard about it is it's relatively short zoom.

Late entry for this week.
City high school championships here in Calgary on Saturday. Here are three shots of the meet.

Neat! The first is my favourite.
BWT, I don't think we have any strict time restrictions, I'm sure you could've posted in the current thread.

Steve,

Those are super. It's great to see these high school championship meets.