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Floating Torri of Ouo Shrine. This is a great spot hidden away in Japan located in the Araike Sea. 348 9
Long exposure at Sakurai Futamigaura. Not very often are there waves here, but when there are it becomes a popular surf spot. The waves also help create some mood around the rocks, something that's always missing when I come here. 494 23
A smokey sunet over Imazu Bay. 171 5
Fukushima Island. Not the Fukushima you're thinking of but one of the many islands in Nagasaki. This one is known for having amazing views of rice field terraces. 174 7
A pair of fireflies spiral in a final dance. These beetles only live about a week or two in this stage of life before laying their eggs and dying. Then the cycle repeats, Egg, Larva, Pupa (cacoon), Adult. Some firefly eggs are bioluminescent, and some species have a two year long cycle. 180 4
The tide slowly rises at the Floating Torii Gate of Ouo Shrine. This is an awesome little spot in Saga Japan and fairly unknown. By fairly unknown I mean there was maybe 4 other photographers there, rather than the usual 300 like at some of the other Japan hot spots. 486 16
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Floating Torri of Ouo Shrine. This is a great spot hidden away in Japan located in the Araike Sea. @ Saga Prefecture https://t.co/pNpe40dh5B
8 days ago
Long exposure at Sakurai Futamigaura. Not very often are there waves here, but when there are it becomes a popular… https://t.co/stQw5mmtKY
28 days ago
A smokey sunet over Imazu Bay. @ Fukuoka Prefecture https://t.co/stG0y0TZmH
31 days ago
Fukushima Island. Not the Fukushima you're thinking of but one of the many islands in Nagasaki. This one is known f… https://t.co/FineXmKvQk
34 days ago
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Canon 16-35mm

125 posts

Going Handheld – Antelope Canyon

Lower Antelope Canyon

This was my second time going through the Antelope Canyon in Northern Arizona and it’s a great place to stop buy for a few hours if you’re ever driving through.

This time I did things a little different. I had with my a Sony A7r instead of my Canon 5Dmkii and decided to just go in with the good ol fashion tour. I figured with the low light capabilities of the Sony A7r I could just wing it and go tripod free. I was right, the noise I was getting at ISO 1000 was totally fine. And bringing a tripod down there is such a hassle. I even got a couple keepers.

Check them all out

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Save Your Skies With Luminosity Masks

Hawaiin sunset at Waimea Bay.

How to use luminosity masks in Photoshop to bring down those washed out highlights in your sunsets

Often times when shooting sunsets you'll find the area just around the sun gets blown out by the intense light. It's important to bring down those highlights to help avoid lost colors and pixels in your images which will also help give you a much deeper rendering of both color in the highlights. 

It sounds complicated and it looks complicated, but I'll show you the easiest and quickest way to correct those washed out highlights.

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Miyajidake Shrine – Fukuoka Japan

The Miyajidake Shrine of Fukuoka is what I feel to be another one of Japan's hidden Gem that shouldn't be overlooked when traveling to the south. A very cool location for photography and culture.

Some more of my street photography from southern Japan. I didn't shoot a whole lot down in the southern part of the island but I did feel like this location was worthy of a post. 

The Miyajidake Shrine is one of those places I consider to be an almost hidden gem. Southern Japan is like that, there are so many amazing places but because they aren't part of the tourist pack track through Kyoto and Tokyo, they're almost completely overlooked. Another that comes to mind is the Yutoku Inari Shrine which you can see here from a few years ago when I was there.

 

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New Release – Last Light

As the moon was giving its last light before setting behind the mountains, I was able to fire off one last shot of a silhouetted Joshua Tree before the night when completely dark.SpecsCamera Sony A7rISO: 800Aperture: F2.8Shutter: 30/1

This was the final frame from my night at Joshua Tree National Park. It was taken moment before the moon set behind the mountains, casting the landscape into total darkness.

I spent a lot of the night experimenting in various techniques while using the moon as my key source of light. I thought it would be interesting to use the moon as a backlight to silhouette a Joshua Tree while using a thirty second exposure to enhance the nights stars. Last thing I did was use an auxiliary light to highlight the edge of the joshua tree to give is some color and texture.

 

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Canon Camera Museum: 10-18 & 16-35mm Lens Technical Report

Canon 16-35mm f4

 

Canon has released the full technical report of the Canon 16-35mm f4 as well as the 10-18mm lens. 

See the Tech report here: Canon Museum

My main interest here is the Canon 16-35mm f4 lens. I feel any real landscape photographer should be going for full frame or medium format, and that is the focus of my blog.

I have absolutely loved my 16-35mm f2.8L II lens that I've owned for a few years now. I've gotten several outstanding images with it and you can see my full review here.

Drawbacks Of The Old 16-35mm f2.8L II

My old lens definitely had weaknesses. Mainly, edges were not sharp, and quality fell off on the tele side of things. Basically the image at 35mm not good. So I would try to limit myself from ever zooming in. Although 90% of the time you'll find if you own an ultrawide zoom for landscape photography, that you'll be shooting at the wide end of the scale mostly.

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The Golden Rice Terraces

Sun setting at the rice field terrace of Saga Japan.

After my fourth time visiting Japan, I finally got the landscape photo I always wanted that I feel encompasses everything that I love about Japan in a single shot. The golden sunset over the Island filled seas with the rice field terraces in the foreground. 

Everything was perfect for this shot which rarely happens for me. Weather was great, just the right amount of haze in the air causing the sun to case a bright golden glow on the scene, the rice fields were flooded and the location was amazing. Plus my camera didn't give me any problems like it usually does. I think the shutter is sticking or it's having some sort of power issues. But hey, it's a Sony what do you expect. 🙂

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How I Got The Shot – Above Tokyo

The breakdown of how I get some of these shots and my different photography techniques are often my most popular posts. So with this night building shot ok Tokyo, I've decided to do a detailed write-up sharing a few basic techniques because shots like this are a little more complicated than your normal landscape.

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The Rock Fields Of Fukuoka Japan

Up at the top of one of the mountains in Fukuoka where the trees stop are these rock fields. It's one of the more strange places I've seen around Japan and it really doesn't feel like you're in Japan when you're up here. It's dead quiet except a few birds here and there and almost feels like you're in Iceland or somewhere more exotic. 

You'll see these rocks on the way to the secret cave which runs probably directly beneath these fields.  A very cool place to visit and another place relatively untouched by Photographers that's just as cool as so many places in the US that are shot to death. One of these days I should do a workshop tour through Japan to take photographers from the US on an epic adventure.

The Photo – The Rock Garden

Shot with the Sony A7r & Canon 16-35.

I've been going a little extreme with Photoshop these last few days. I've been trying out the new Nik software collection.

For this photo I used, Lightroom to start the look, then in Photoshop I used the Nik software and ran it through Viveza 2 to warm it up and Color Efex Pro where I used some Lens Vignetting, Glamour Glow and Pro Contrast. Then back in Photoshop I did a bunch more tweaks with some masks, and lighting with the Underline Layer trick. 

Field of Rocks in Fukuoka Japan

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Japan Secret Spot: A Hidden Cave In The Mountains Of Fukuoka

My wife's cousin discovered this cool cave he took us to deep in the mountains of Fukuoka. 

I'm not usually cave photography guy because they are always so built up to be safe for tourist. There were even a few caves in Okanawa I knew about that I really wanted to see, but they were all lit up by Christmas style lights to the point of cheese that I had to pass.

The Fukuoka Cave

To me this was cooler than Antelope Canyon, and maybe even cooler than the Narrows in Zion. I really want to spend more time here. 

My wife and I and a few friends hiked about half way in to where the lights stop. It was beyond dark, and very creepy, and you have to wade through very cold water. 

This will definitely be a spot I return to. It was late in the day when we got so I only grabbed  a few shots.

My New Software Upgrades

I've been working on a new workflow lately for my prints. It involves a lot more Photoshop than I have typically been using.

It goes something like this:

Color in Lightroom to get it close to what I want, then import to Photoshop.

In Photoshop I do things that are beyond Lightroom's power, for example a little noise reduction and more advanced color correction. I can also use luminosity masks and other techniques to just control the highlights, midtones and shadows.

Then if it still needs some more color tweaks or effects, I'll send it to Nik's Color Efex Pro or Viveza 2.

Viveza 2 is a new addition to my workflow and so far I really like it. I noticed the new version of Color Efex Pro works a lot better as well. I'll be sure to update my review seen here when I get a few more samples.

The Photo The Secret Cave

Single shot, with the Sony A7r.

ISO 100, F9 at 6"

Canon 16-35mm II

Cave Photography of Fukuoka

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