Nara Japan And The Toji Temple

It took me a while to process all the photos from Nara, Japan. Despite it being the middle of the day, I shot more landscape stuff. Everything here was also shot on the Sony A7r.

Usually, sunsets or sunrises are when most photographers like to shoot landscapes, but it’s not always necessary. It is 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 wildest colors.

Nara Japan And The Todai-Ji Temple

Nara is a little outside of Kyoto. It’s an ancient Buddhist sanctuary where deer roam freely, fearless of people. It’s an amazing place to shoot iconic Japanese photography.

Nara also houses the Todai-ji temple, the world’s largest wooden building. The Buddhist Hall Diabutsu also holds the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha Vairocana. It 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 fed 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. Tone-mapping images in Photomatix or by hand tends to help the colors pop more. I used Photoshop’s ‘Shadows/Highlights’ tool in this photo, 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 post more shots soon.

At night, they light up the cherry blossoms set around the largest wooden tower in Japan, which is also, as far as I know, 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.

Getting through all these shots has been a lot of work, but my few free days this week should let me get caught up. Then it’s off to Okinawa.