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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Neat photos. I like the first and third best, because you managed to press the trigger at precisely the right time!
The intention is that the thread to post in is always the latest. You dont have to post in the thread for last week because your photos were taken last week.
Doing so runs the risk that not all will see your work!