Life continues outside of the living quarters, for some, if not all of us.
Read MoreWEEK 27
in weekly, photo-journal
park
Autumn descends on Tokyo
in photo-journal, Blog
Finally, we had an entire weekend of near-perfect weather. Each morning this week we left for work with sunglasses on, praying that the weather would hold for the weekend. We were in luck. We visited Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in the centre of Tokyo, cameras at the ready.
There were people picknicking and having lunch, but most people were walking around with either cameras or smartphones at the ready. We also took a lot of photos, but made an effort to appreciate the beautiful range of colours with our eyes and not vicariously through our LCD screens.
The maples are a huge attraction, turning from bright green to a vibrant red, via a visceral yellow.
But there were not just maples to behold...
I'm heading to Okinawa this morning, for some repair work this week. There's a chance I'll be able to catch the final stages of fall upon my return to Tokyo - but if not, I'll still be happy with this year's fall photos.
Like a meadow | NEX-7 & SEL24F18Z | 24mm, 1/160, f/4.5, ISO100, RAW
Koishikawa Botanical Gardens
in Blog, photo-journal
The Koishikawa Botanical Gardens(小石川植物園) are botanical gardens operated by the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science (coincidentally, where I work).
They are located in Bunkyo ward in central Tokyo, and are open daily except Mondays. Entrance is ¥330 (£2.15), and one should note that the admission fee is paid in the small convenience store across the road, in exchange for a lovely coupon.
The gardens date to 1684, when the 5th Tokugawa shogun, Tsunayoshi, established the Koishikawa Medicinal Herb Garden. In 1877, after the Meiji Restoration, they became a part of the university and the birthplace of Japanese botanical research.
The gardens' collections contain some 4,000 plant species, including 1,400 hardy woody species, 1,500 hardy herbaceous species, and 1,100 tropical and subtropical species. The main attraction at this time of year is the numerous species of rhododendron - or tsutsuji in Japanese.
... and it wasn't just us tourists interested in them!
Rikugien at Night │ NEX-7 & SEL18200LE │ 18mm, 1/4, ISO 6400, f/3.5, Lightroom 4
Rikugien at Night
in Blog, photo-journal
I've been to Rikugien Gardens before, but never at night. Sunset is before 6pm now, so we won't be leaving the work in sunlight for another 6 months, most likely. Sunrise in Tokyo is still relatively early, compared to winter in the UK, however.
In the weeks running up to Christmas/New Year, the park has been lit up rather beautifully, and was full of couples taking a romantic walk... and photographers with tripods and backpacks full of gear. As I'd just come from work, I was trying to be both of the above, but the low-light realm is one of the holy grails of photography. No-one is a master, and no lens is ever "fast" enough (lets in enough light to allow a fast shutter speed and reduce motion blur). That's where the optical image stabilisation of the SEL18200LE came into play, allowing me to take this handheld shot at 1/4". Though one quarter of a second sounds like a very short time, it's effectively eons in photography. Without image stabilisation, I could not have taken the above image, simple as that. Though I have faster lenses, shutter speeds were still hampered, and so this was one of the better photos from the group that evening, though more may follow.