It was all yellow...

It was all yellow... │ NEX-C3 & SEL 16mm  F2.8 │ 16mm, ISO 200, f/5, 1/250

Just before the leaves leave the trees, we are treated with some of the most vibrant yellows I've seen in nature. Yes, I did walk through the leaves, kicking them as if I were 10 years old. I hope you enjoy the snaps.

Bamboo

竹 │ NEX-7 & Voightländer Nokton Classic 35mm F1.4 │ 35mm, 1/60, ISO 1600, f/1.4, Lightroom 4.2

Bamboo, or "ta-ke", is native to Japan, and can be found everywhere from gardens and temples, to bowls of ramen (it's quite delicious!). It grows both in the wild and is part of landscape gardens and inner-city planning, to the extent that I don't know if any bamboo in and around Tokyo is actually wild. The same goes for all the trees here, really. Tokyo is breathtakingly huge, and its designation as the largest metropolitan area in the world (source) means that human influence oozes out from every nook and cranny. Having said that, every now and then, we do find areas which, quite obviously, have been left as they are (such as a building with a tree going through it - yes, I need a photo).

Japanese Maple

The Chinese character for tree, 木, basically looks like a tree. It's quite an easy one to learn. Turn it upside down, imagine it falling, and it resembles something akin to one of the leaves in the photo above. The leaves of the Japanese Maple are probably most beautiful at this time of year, when they give their final shout before they succumb to the falling temperatures.

Beginning of Autumn

Beginning of Autumn │ NEX-7 & Sony E 18-55 │ 25mm, 1/60, ISO 250, f/6.3, Lightroom 4.2

Most photographic blogs and websites I follow are lamenting the end of Autumn with each shortening day. Here in Tokyo, we're only just getting started! Prior to this week, there was only a hint of yellow rust creeping down the trees, but we're just about entering full-swing now. It's probably the best time to view Tokyo, Autumn. The weather is cool and crisp (not the 40°C summer with 90% humidity), and the trees start to turn into such amazing colours. In a few weeks though, Tokyo will be a bleak (though sunny) concrete jungle - more to come on that topic! ^^.

As I mentioned earlier, we're in the process of looking for a new place. This means a huge cost of key money, deposit, agency fee (1 month + 0.5%)... not exactly ideal just before Christmas! This weekend we're going to be looking at a few places in the centre of Tokyo, hoping to find somewhere nice, which doesn't cost the earth.

Anyways, about the photo. It's a crop (thank the NEX-7's 24M pixels) of a shot taken with the kit lens. Yes, the kit lens. People hate the kit lens. Forums are full of people complaining about how poor it is compared to X, Y and Z lens (Z being Zeiss), but the fact of the matter is, I like it. I like it a lot. It's small, has optical stabilisation (great for low light), is a zoom lens (versatile), and matches the camera well (all black metal). With the body, it is an absolute bargain, so I decided to get it anyway. As for the photo, I saw this woman having coffee under the tree in the background, next to the clock tower (10:10 approximately; a nice aesthetic coincidence), and all the colours in front of me just leapt out.

Here's the original shot from which the top photo is cropped.