We have many frogs in our garden
Read More蛙の生活 - Froglife
in Blog
wildlife
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
in photo-journal, Blog
We returned last night from an impromptu trip to the Japanese Alps. There's no snow in Tokyo, but there was no shortage of snow here. I hope you enjoy the photos - there are more than normal! (as usual, click on a photo to fill the window)
As you will have spotted from the first photograph, we were fortunate enough to see wild snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) around the natural hot springs steaming out of the volcanic mountainside.
Is it safe in there?!?
It's so hot!
Escaping the ice and snow, we boarded a series of trains, including the almighty bullet train, back to Tokyo.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
A walk down the Tama River
in photo-journal, Blog
I'm not sure why, but I always love to see paths, walls, and other man-made features "disrupted" by nature. The irony is that it is the man-made structures which are disrupting nature, not the other way around. I've noticed this kind of thing many times in Japan, but there's not always consistency. I don't know why this amazing tree (which looks more like a set of fingers emerging from the crust of the earth) was spared, but I am glad all the same.
These days, it's rare that I take more than the RX1 out on a walk. When you own a pocketable full-frame camera with a super-sharp, fast, versatile 35mm lens, it's hard to use anything else. It's very easy to get all swept up in the new shiny shiny, but my trusty year-old NEX-7 is still pleasing to use and has fantastic output. Don't get me wrong, new cameras and technology are a passion of mine -- but I'm not going to let the NEX-7 gather dust in the meantime. Anyway, I decided to bring a camera bag and use the NEX-7 for close ups and telephoto shots. Upon return to the house, after looking through the photos, Charlotte was praising the great colours of the RX1, when I pointed out that the photo was actually from the NEX-7...
These days I use my cameras in full manual mode. That is to say, I manually set aperture, shutter speed, focus, and ISO. I find the procedure of image capture very satisfying that way. However, operating in such a manner certainly highlights the relative simplicity of taking a photo of a tree, compared to the taking the above photo of a butterfly, a butterfly in flight, or a pond-skater.
These photos were all taken near the Tama River, which is for the most part, less than an hour by train from central Tokyo. I recommend a visit here if you'd like to escape the skyscrapers for at least a few hours.
Golden rayed lily of Japan
in Blog
This isn't the first time I've taken pictures of lilies, and it won't be the last. Usually, if I post photos of lilies, they'll be ones I've bought for Charlotte. Every now and then, we see wild lilies growing here in Japan, but we've never seen anything like this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the " Golden rayed lily of Japan"
From Wikipedia:
The flower colour is typically white with gold radial markings and orange spots, but variations in flower colour and markings are known. For example the variety platyphyllum, which bears a gold stripe along the tepals but lacks spots. The strongly scented flowers are the largest of any lily species and the largest plants, which can reach 2.5 metres (8 ft), can carry up to twenty of these.
The plant itself was well over 2m long, from ground to tip. Weighed down by its sheer size, and successfully attempting to leave the shadow of the canopy above, the plant pointed perpendicular to the ground, creating an amazing eye-level bouquet.
The hillside was covered in these plants. The smell was incredible. There was quite a strong wind [see video below], no doubt blowing lots of lovely pollen around. Closing our eyes in the warm breeze, we listened to the forest cicadas scream their summer song.
