Dramatic Lighting

This time of year is like a second rainy season. The skies are often very dramatic, with water-laden clouds lining the horizon. If you're lucky, you may even see a rainbow or two. Soon, the skies will be clear in preparation for the amazing blue which characterises winter in Japan. I'm looking forward to that, but in the meantime, I will try to work with what I've got. 

I typically perform very subtle (if any) edits to my photos, as the direct camera output pleases me greatly. However, I had a little fun with the picture below, and slightly tweaked the tint in the sky for a bit more drama.

View fullsize

Dramatic Skies | RX1 | 1/200s f/11.0 ISO100 35mm | Lightroom tweaks (clarity & tint)

41°C in the shade

View fullsize

Tokyo reached 41°C today. 41°C in the shade, is arguably not something any sane person wants to tolerate for too long. The heat was so intense that cracks began to appear in the sky. A huge thunderstorm, like nothing I've seen before, passed directly overhead.

The apartment building next to us was struck, apartments opposite faced a similar fate (pictured above). Somewhere, Keio train line (our local) was struck, denying our escape. Trains are rarely late in Japan, but the entire line was suspended for safety checks following the strike.

We didn't complain.

Summer Storms

Summer is definitely here. For the last two days, the temperature in central Tokyo peaked somewhere over 35°C. North of Tokyo, in the mountains of Gunma-ken, 900 people were hospitalised and 2 died from heatstroke. It's rather hot, to say the least. It's also very humid (between 50% ~ 95% RH).

The strong sun easily burns, and it's not uncommon to see ladies with parasols. The heat causes the moist air to rise high, creating these magnificent cumulonimbus clouds. When I took this photo, we could already hear the thunder in the distance. Two hours later, the thunder was above us, and we endured another huge thunderstorm.