Temple of the Golden Pavilion – Kyoto Japan

Also check out more phtography from my 37 Days in Japan. My most recent Japan tour.

The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion

Often called the "Golden Temple" by the Japanese and tourist, the proper name for this site is the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Or Kinkaku-ji in Japanese.

This is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is a classic age Japanese garden design. An interesting story to this pavilion, in 1950 a young crazy 22 your-old novice monk burned it down, then attempted suicide. He survived and was then sentenced to prison. The present structure dates from 1955 when it was rebuilt.

Kyoto Japan is one of those must visit cities of the world. The architecture is so amazing and well kept. And everything is clean and peaceful. The funny thing about this photo is it looks so peaceful and serene, but there are actually 200 or more Japanese school children behind and all around me. 

I shot this photo of the Temple of the Golden Pavilion last year with my 5Dmkii and the 24-70mm f2.8L lens. I also used a polarizer. I had to be careful shooting a body of water like this with a polarizer on. I had to twist it to cut down a lot of the ambient suns reflections on the leaves and building, but also make sure not to canceling out the reflection on the water. I really should have just taken it off, but it was very hectic around me and it's nice having them on when in the city. 

Aperture was set to f/22 with a 1/60 shutter.

Post processing was done in Lightroom, Photomatix, and Color Efex. 

If you want to learn more about this structure you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkaku-ji

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