Autumn Leaves Special @ Rokugien (六義園)

28 Nov 2009 - One week b4 JLPT, but I decided to take a one day break from studies and go shopping for Snowboarding goods. And since I would be in town, I thought why not I take the chance to photograph some autumn leaves as well? So, I searched the internet and found that there is lightup at Rokugien.

I visited Rokugien exactly 2 years ago with my newly bought Panasonic Fz18 back then. These are the photos taken 2 years back.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ksongk/sets/72157603277806020/
I was there to test my 1st proper digital camera in my life and I knew nothing about photography at that time.

Now with my new DSLR, let's see how much I improved...

Autumn Leaves at night


Love the lighting on the ground. (and I purposely waited for someone to walk pass)



Rokugien is a traditional Japanese Garden decorated with
Japanese Pavillion,

Japanese Bridge, and

Japanese statue under Maple tree.



Sea of blue lights. Taken with star-cross filter.

Without the filter. (I regretted not buying star-cross filter for my 10-22mm)


When the blue lights are off


Above the blue sea


Some cameraman was shooting at my direction with flash, so I fired back.
Taken without tripod, but I love the blurry effect.


Walk the path, and I finally reached the lake...


The lake


Reflections



Close ups


The way the lightup works


Good dating spot

Thanks for viewing..
More photos at my flickr

Autumn Leaves Special @ HatoNoSu Valley (鳩の巣渓谷)

7 Nov 2009- It's time for shooting spree again. This year, I shall start my Autumn Leaves special with Hatonosu Valley.


Nice weather huh. Here this tiny little train station of Hatonosu



Crossed this bridge and reached the bottom of the valley.


Water rapids


Autumn leaves vs water. Nice contrast


As usual, weekends are the days to wake up late, so I reached there at around 2.00pm. Days are really short in autumn-winter, and soon at 3pm, the sun was so low that it cast a very nice warm orange light on the valley.

Warm sunlight on the rocks

Against the sun. Love the lights

I continued walking along the hiking trail and soon I reached the Shiromaru Dam(白丸ダム)..


Bird's eye view

View of the valley from the dam


Dating spot near the dam

Autumn is good for double dating


Colors of Autumn



Autumn Leaves.
It's still early I think, most of leaves are still green. Next week should be better.
Where shall I go next week? Hakone?


It was damn hot that day, and my jacket was too thick. After a whole afternoon of strenuous hiking, I was sweating all over. I found this nice little cozy coffee house while I was heading back towards the station. From the window, you get to see autumn leaves and if you are lucky enough, pretty birds might fly to window and sing for you!

Kawagoe in the evening

25 Oct 2009 - My colleague told me about Windows7 Whopper (pic at the end of this post) and my first reaction was "Wow damn, I am going to try it this weekend". And then I began to search the internet for Burger Kings near my place. Found one at Kawagoe and there I went...


I was so damn tired after Ome Matsuri that I slept sooo much and woke up at 1pm. And after some preparations and travelling, I reached Kawagoe around 4pm.

お菓子屋横丁

I checked the map and found this place interesting. It's just an alley that is filled with sweets and confectioneries.

Kawagoe is known for its old Edo buildings.

This shop sells old school 80s sweets. Where the hell they get the supply from?

Candy art


Soon the sky turned dark, and streets were wow! with the lights

Landmark of Kawagoe (processed with pseudo-HDR using Lightroom)

Old school post office

Old school art gallery

Old school restaurant (already closed)

Old school err... souvenir shop?


Senbei!

1000yen shop

Lanterns

Kawagoe's local specialty, yam cake


Ghost house?

I just love the look of Kawagoe at night. The illuminations and the old Edo feel were just splendid.


And this was the main aim of going to Kawagoe, Windows7 Whopper.. Same height as small coke!


After 2 bites..