Dawn Patrol for Photographers
It's been a while since Nicki's last "Wimpy" post, so I thought I'd check in before retiring for the evening. It didn't take Nicki long to build up the motivation to explore outside of the Yokosuka metropolitan area without having me around. Just a day or two after that last post, she headed up to the zoo in Yokohama with one of her girlfriends who has been around here about as long as we have. Several days later, Nicki and Josh hopped the train again to head up to Minato Mirai 21 (aka: MM21, where Landmark Tower is located) to explore up there again. This time, she found the Toys R Us that she planned to see the previous week. Now, Nicki has earned the green light to go just about anywhere on Honshu that trains can take her. She's definitely excited!!!
On Saturday, April 22, we decided to head up to Tokyo to see the Asakusa area, where there's a temple and shrine and quite a lot of neat streets filled with vendors that sell everything Japanese. The temple at Asakusa is one of the most famous in all of Tokyo and it's also got one of the largest paper lanterns I've ever seen. We hung around long enough for me to get some decent snapshots and then moved along to Ueno Park, one of Tokyo's largest parks.
Ueno Park also contains a bunch of museums, a zoo, a large pond/lake and several playgrounds. Since Josh had spent much of his time in the stroller to that point, we let him run wild in the park and he had a ball. Needless to say, he missed his nap, so we decided to head back over to the Ueno Station and have a relaxing lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe there. Afterwards, we headed back down towards Yokosuka, tired as expected...
The following morning, I went on dawn patrol, photography style. Dawn patrol is a term coined by surfers who get up pre-dawn so that they can get to the nearest break before anyone else and before the wind kicks up too much. My goal was to get up early to get some good pictures before anyone else. So I got up at dark-thirty (5:00 am) with the plan of catching some early sunlight in Kamakura. It had been a while since I visited the Great Buddha there, so I figured I would head to Hase Station and spend the morning there. I missed the first train out of Maborikaigan, so I sat around the station until about 5:30am until the second train arrived. At Shioiri (one stop past Yokosuka Chuo), I got off and walked the 1/4 kilometer or so over to the JR Yokosuka station to catch the train to Kamakura, where I immediately transferred over to the Enoden Line... by far my favorite train line in all of Japan so far.
I stepped off the train at Hase Station right around 6:15am, then headed towards Hase-dera Temple, which I had never seen before. Unfortunately, the temple didn't open until 8:00 am, so I moved along to see if the entrance to the Great Buddha was open. It wasn't... until 7:00 am. Then it started to rain on me. Hard. Cold. Wet. Fortunately, I took shelter under the large gate at the front of the temple that houses the Great Buddha, and waited there until 7:00 am rolled around. 
As expected, I was the first (and only) person in line when the clock struck 7 am. I walked into the compound and took several really nice shots of the Great Buddha with literally nobody around. By my third shot, I turned around and saw another gaijin (foreigner) approaching... darnit! Well, at least I got a few great uninterrupted shots. Ironically, the other gaijin seemed disappointed that I was there, too. I guess he was upset that I got there before him, but I was kind enough to stay out of his way so that he would have an unobstructed view, too.
After hanging out with the Great Buddha for about 45 minutes, I headed back down to Hase-dera, where I ran into the same gaijin. This time, though, there were quite a few other people waiting to get into the temple, too. Gates opened at 8:00 am precisely and I headed in to get pictures. Words can't describe the gardens in Hase-dera. Must be the time of the year, because everything in that place was in bloom. I caught enough early light to get a few good pictures. By 9:00 am, I had circled the place twice and headed back home.
Some of the weekend's pictures are posted in the Gallery, dated 05/02/2006 to match with the date of this post. Enjoy!
On Saturday, April 22, we decided to head up to Tokyo to see the Asakusa area, where there's a temple and shrine and quite a lot of neat streets filled with vendors that sell everything Japanese. The temple at Asakusa is one of the most famous in all of Tokyo and it's also got one of the largest paper lanterns I've ever seen. We hung around long enough for me to get some decent snapshots and then moved along to Ueno Park, one of Tokyo's largest parks.
Ueno Park also contains a bunch of museums, a zoo, a large pond/lake and several playgrounds. Since Josh had spent much of his time in the stroller to that point, we let him run wild in the park and he had a ball. Needless to say, he missed his nap, so we decided to head back over to the Ueno Station and have a relaxing lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe there. Afterwards, we headed back down towards Yokosuka, tired as expected...The following morning, I went on dawn patrol, photography style. Dawn patrol is a term coined by surfers who get up pre-dawn so that they can get to the nearest break before anyone else and before the wind kicks up too much. My goal was to get up early to get some good pictures before anyone else. So I got up at dark-thirty (5:00 am) with the plan of catching some early sunlight in Kamakura. It had been a while since I visited the Great Buddha there, so I figured I would head to Hase Station and spend the morning there. I missed the first train out of Maborikaigan, so I sat around the station until about 5:30am until the second train arrived. At Shioiri (one stop past Yokosuka Chuo), I got off and walked the 1/4 kilometer or so over to the JR Yokosuka station to catch the train to Kamakura, where I immediately transferred over to the Enoden Line... by far my favorite train line in all of Japan so far.
I stepped off the train at Hase Station right around 6:15am, then headed towards Hase-dera Temple, which I had never seen before. Unfortunately, the temple didn't open until 8:00 am, so I moved along to see if the entrance to the Great Buddha was open. It wasn't... until 7:00 am. Then it started to rain on me. Hard. Cold. Wet. Fortunately, I took shelter under the large gate at the front of the temple that houses the Great Buddha, and waited there until 7:00 am rolled around. 
As expected, I was the first (and only) person in line when the clock struck 7 am. I walked into the compound and took several really nice shots of the Great Buddha with literally nobody around. By my third shot, I turned around and saw another gaijin (foreigner) approaching... darnit! Well, at least I got a few great uninterrupted shots. Ironically, the other gaijin seemed disappointed that I was there, too. I guess he was upset that I got there before him, but I was kind enough to stay out of his way so that he would have an unobstructed view, too.
After hanging out with the Great Buddha for about 45 minutes, I headed back down to Hase-dera, where I ran into the same gaijin. This time, though, there were quite a few other people waiting to get into the temple, too. Gates opened at 8:00 am precisely and I headed in to get pictures. Words can't describe the gardens in Hase-dera. Must be the time of the year, because everything in that place was in bloom. I caught enough early light to get a few good pictures. By 9:00 am, I had circled the place twice and headed back home.Some of the weekend's pictures are posted in the Gallery, dated 05/02/2006 to match with the date of this post. Enjoy!
posted by Unknown | 8:21 PM
5 Comments:
The picture of the cat is fantasic!
Your photos are terrific. You have done a wonderful job of capturing the quiet elegance of the Daibutsu at Kamakura. I loved Hase-dera and, of course, the cat. Thanks for the great post and pictures.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE that picture of Josh. So cool!
Those pictures are amazing! You are truly a talented photographer with a keen eye!
I'm an aspiring/beginner photographer myself, but need to upgrate my camera- any suggestions?
Thanks for sharing your great work!
Thanks everyone.
Aime, for an aspiring photographer (this includes me), it really depends mostly on the price range that you're looking to pay for your camera upgrade. Here's some questions to ask yourself:
1. How much to spend?
2. Film or digital? (Film is likely cheaper up front, but digital will save in the long run and is more versatile for the aspiring photographer)
3. Point-and-shoot or more advanced camera where you can control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO?
If you are in the point and shoot market, I'm partial to the Sony Cybershots. My mom's got a great one that shoots 5+ megapixels and takes nice .jpg shots. It also does videos (mpeg files, I think).
If you're looking for something more advanced and expensive, then I highly recommend what I shoot with, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT. It shoots 8 megapixels, you can use interchangeable lenses (wide angles, zooms, or mid-ranges), and you can easily control the important features, like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.
The Digital Rebel XT will run you about $1100 new, but you can pick up a used one for around $700 or so. By the way, in Japan it's called the "KISS" camera... don't know why. The Canon EOS digital family also includes a 20D, 30D, and 5D series... those are the big brothers and sisters of the Digital Rebel. But they are bigger, heavier, and more expensive... and for the beginner photographer, you probably wouldn't notice much difference in your shots between any of those, except maybe the 5D, but it's 3 times the price.
Hope that helps. If you would like more info, give a call or shoot an email... I'd be happy to let you know all that I know (which isn't too much, but probably enough to get you started). :)
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