It took me a while to process all the photos from Nara Japan. I shot more landscape stuff despite it being the middle of the day. Everything here is also shot on the Sony A7r.
Usually sunsets or sunrises are when most photographers like to shoot landscapes, but it’s not always necessary. Just a lot more of a challenge to post processes when trying to get the colors and saturation correct compared to sunset when the sky can change the scene to the most wild colors.
Nara Japan And The Todai-Ji Temple
Nara is a little outside of Kyoto. It’s sort of this ancient Buddhist sanctuary where deer roam freely fearless of people. It’s an amazing place to shoot some iconic photography of Japan.
Nara also houses the Todai-ji temple which is the world’s largest wooden building. The Buddhist Hall Diabutsu also holds the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha Vairocana. It really is quite the site.
Photo of Todai-ji the great Buddha Hall during the sakura bloom.
Deer Walking Freely Among The Sakura
I grabbed this shot as a deer was feeding under a Sakura on my way to the Todai-ji temple.
I gave it more of an HDR feel since the colors of the scene weren’t great, to begin with. I’ve noticed tone mapping images in Photomatix or by hand tend to help the colors pop a little more. In this photo, I used Photoshop’s ‘Shadows/Highlights’ tool. As well as Color Efex Pro’s ‘Low Key’ filter.
The To-Ji Temple Of Kyoto
This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. It’d be hard to capture it in a photograph but I’ll certainly be posting more shots soon.
At night they light up the cherry blossoms set around the largest wooden tower in Japan, and as far as I know, is the largest five-story Pagoda in the world.
My apartment was about a three-minute walk from here.
Tomorrow’s Photos will have a lot more Kyoto photography. The girls I was with rented Kimonos.
It’s been a lot of work to get through all these shots but the few free days I have this week should let me get caught up. Then it’s off to Okinawa.
