Japan Pictures

  1. Rainy Day At The Kintai-Kyo Bridge

    It was a Rainy Day at the Kintai-Kyo Bridge in Japan. In this original photo you could actually scale in and see the individual rain drops. I thought that was pretty cool. But the original was also very grey and flat from the rain and grey skies. I liked the feel of the photo and really wanted to create a vibe that just wasn't there. 

    If you've noticed I've been using textures a little bit more. I've found they really help in bringing to life old photos that where never 'good enough' as simple landscapes or fine art photos. With texture you get to use the photo as a base layer and really turn it into a unique work of art. Well, textures and a ton of color work. :)

    This photo was actually two different textures combined. First time I've done that in a photo before. Be sure to check out Sirius-sdz on Deviant Art. Great resource for textures. And check out the Retro Collection Lightroom Presets to help give you quick and unique looks to start with. I use them on almost every photo. 

    Today's Photo - Rainy Day At The Kintai Kyo Bridge

    Rainy Day At The Kintai-Kyo Bridge. It was a rainy day at the Kintai-Kyo Bridge. Cool location and I really wanted to create a vibe other than rainy grey day. So I used various textures to give color and detail.

  2. Top of the Yutoku Inari Shrine

    Those photo was a tricky one to process. Took me a couple attempts. At first I went to crazy with the colors. I wanted really dark heavy contrasted colors. But then it lost a lot of it's rich saturation. So I took one of the more vibrant processed images of a totally different look, layered it on top and adjusted the opacity. It's a cool trick I've learned with HDR when you push it to far. I'll process the photos with two extremes then blend them in Photoshop to meet in the middle.

    For the texture look, I used some free textures by Sirius-sdz on DeviantART. I love that sight. I believe I set the blending mode to Hard Light and adjusted the opacity until it looked right. 

    For the final coloring I did it all in Lightroom 4 using my Retro Collection to get a base look, then tweaked from there. That's usually how I get that sort of old look that I love with my HDR photos. 

    Here is my DeviantART profile: http://alikgriffin.deviantart.com/

    Today's HDR Photo -Top Of The Yutoku Inari Shrine

    Top Of The Yutoku Inari Shrine Once you travel up the structure of the Yuoku Inari Shrine you come to this spot. I was lucky and the shrine was nearly empty the day I was there. It allowed me to get all sorts of fun photography of this awesome place in Southern Japan.Read more about the Yutoku Inari Shrine at AlikGriffin.com

  3. Low Tide at Miyajima Japan

    I like shooting HDR. You can pull so much more color and shadows out of a scene. A lot of my photos I shoot HDR but I try to avoid that 'HDR Look' since that's not really my thing. I do encourage people to shoot HDR though so they can get deep and rich colors out of the scene.

    This HDR photo is from Miyajima Japan. I've taken several photos at this location on two different trips to Japan. And this place is awesome. The weather this time around wasn't that great though. While taking this shot it was very windy and pretty cold. I had to make sure my stuff didn't blow into the water. Or the wind didn't actually push me over into the water. It was that windy. 

    Today's HDR Photo - Low Tide at Miyajima Japan

    Low Tide at Miyajima Japan. Miyajima Japan is one of the greatest beauties in all of Japan in my opinion. It's an island of culture and tradition that makes you realize how awesome people can be.

  4. Praying Mantis

    Bronchitis Sucks! I've been sick for the last week, too sick to even touch up photos. The worst is over now and I'm back on my feet at least. Bronchitis always takes awhile to recover from since it messes up your ability to get oxygen into your body. I remember last time I had it even a month after I had no stamina in the gym.

    I should be posting more photos again now. I'm shooting this weekend and Yosemite the next weekend. Should be fun.

    Today's Photo - Praying Mantis

    While hiking through the Takachiho Gorge in Southern Japan we came across one of these guys. A Praying Mantis. It's been awhile since I've seen one of these. I live in L.A. now and not much wildlife makes its way into the concrete jungle. I use to see then a lot when I lived in San Juan Capistrano as a kid as well as San Diego.

    Praying Mantis While walking through the Takachiho Gorge in Southern Japan we came across this guy walking along a hand rail. It's kind of cool being in Japan and finding one of these. I've always seen them around Southern California as a kid, but it's been awhile since I've seen one.

  5. Miyajima Market

    This photo is of a traditional Japanese Market on the small island of Miyajima. It's where I also got these shots:

    Japan Temple in the Trees, Double Rainbow All the Way, Itsakushima Shrine, Japan Edo Era Architecture, Miyajima Temple Japan

    Needless to say, it's a very photogenic place. This photo is of the small traditional Japanese Market that's close to where the boat is that drops you off. It's an awesome little spot to get some nice photos that have that Traditional Japanese feel.

    Now I'm calling this an HDR photo even though it's a single shot Raw. But I tonemapped it which pulls up the shadows and brings down the highlights. Since this is what people are referring to as HDR. When HDR really should only be applied to images that truly have a massive range of dynamic light. Most do not and the term HDR gets pinned on images that are tonemapped. 

    Today's HDR Photo

    Miyajima MarketMiyajima is a smile island off the coast of Hiroshima. The island is almost entirely a spiritual place where you see a mix of Buddhist and Shinto Temples and Shrines. But the island also has a small market place filled with cool authentic traditional Japanese shops.See more at http://alikgriffin.com

  6. Torii of the Yutoku Inari Shrine

    The Yutoku Inari Shrine is built up on the side of a mountain with a trail leading to the top. On the way up you'll pass through many of these Torii as they are called in Japan. It's quite the hike and getting to the top gives you such an amazing view. It was really an awesome experience, but kind of a long hike. Well not too long. Maybe a little over a few hundred yards up a mountain. 

    Licensing & Prints

    Something I don't really promote on my site but do get people asking me about is if they can buy or license my photos. I'd thought I would mention it finally since I do get a lot of request. How it works is all my photos are under a Creative Commons License. You can read about how you can use these photos in certain cases for free. All the details are found in my Licensing section.

    And even more recently I've gotten a few requests on people looking to purchase prints for their house office or where ever suites their fetish. Almost all the photos found on this site are available for sale as prints on my smugmug account. The prints range from less expensive glossy which will you have to mount or frame yourself, to the more expensive stretched canvas or metal prints which come ready to hang. If you're wondering, the pricing on those goes up quickly because of the labor involved. Often times you can just click the photos to be sent directly to that photo on my smugmug account, or even to the direct buy page. For example, you can click the photo below to see all the options. 

    Today's HDR Photo

    Yutoku Inari ShrineIf you ever Visit the Yutoku Inari Shrine in Japan you can hike up the mountain it's built up. You pass through many of these structures on the way to the top where you'll find an incredible view. See more about my photography at http://alikgriffin.com

  7. Sunset at Miyajima

    After spending all day at Miyajima we headed back to the boat to get back to the mainland before it got too dark. Surprisingly after doing a little shopping at the little tourist street there was still a sunset. It was a dark one so I had to do a rather longer exposure than usual. It always amazes me what kind of colors and light the camera can still pick up when set to a long exposure.

    Today's HDR Photo

    Sunset at Miyajima Japan One of my final shots of the day. I snapped the last of my photos by the shrine and on the way back to the car I saw this. There was still enough light to get something nice.

  8. Kanmonkyo Bridge Japan

    The Kanmonkyo bridge connects Kyushu Island to the main island of Japan. Like the Golden Gate bridge this bridge is also a toll road. Actually almost all the main highways in Japan are tolls so going on road trips can get expensive. 

    Nothing too fancy about the processing of this photo. I used my usual HDR techniques to process it. I did a little bit more clean up work in Photoshop this time and it seems to make a difference. I find the noise reduction tools in Photoshop work a little better than the one in Lightroom. On my really messy images I'll use Topaz Denoise, but for this photo, Lightroom noise reduction before tonemapping and Photoshop noise reduction after seems to do the trick. With of course the Highpass filter. 

    Today's HDR Photo

    Kanmonkyo Bridge, JapanThe bridge connecting the main island of Japan to the southern Island.

  9. My Lovely Wife In Her Kimono

    Well, it's not actually her Kimono. These things can run into the tens of thousands of dollars (for the good ones). The occasion was for her brothers wedding, so all the girls decided to get Kimonos and do it more traditional.

    The wedding was a lot of fun even though I usually have no idea what anyone is saying. My Japanese is getting better but it's nearly impossible to learn when I work as much as I do. Even doing these blog posts can be challenging. But I do have some exciting news. I now have completed two Lightroom Preset collections that I'll be selling very soon on this site. One is my 'Everyday Collection' that I use for my landscapes and HDR photography, the other is my 'Retro Collection' which gives more of that fun iPhone Photography look that's flooding Facebook and twitter. For this photo I actually used one of the Retro Collection presets that was then modified. I find presets really help me get my looks and color correction started. It's nice being able to quickly go through and get some color inspiration rather than building all the looks by hand each time. I should have them available this week and hopefully some tutorials next week like I keep promising.

    Today's Photo

    Yumiko in her Kimono This photo is of my Wife in a Kimono while we were at her brothers wedding in Japan.

  10. Temple in the Trees

    This photo was taken at Miyajima Japan of one of the many temples on the island. The island today has a combination of many Buddhist and Shinto shrines and temples. For this photo I processed it using a technique that blends photography with various textures to give the photo a more painterly feel. 

    Today's HDR Photo

    Temple in the Trees at MiyajimaThis is a shot taken at Miyajima Japan of one of the many temples built around and in the mountain.See this photo at AlikGriffin.com

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