Japan – Page 13 – Stuck in Customs
17
Mar 2019 : Sunday
filed under  Camera Gear, Japan, mavic 2 zoom, Passport, Quadcopters, Tokyo, Travel

Over Tokyo

Book Re-Recommendation

Be sure to check out my Kit.com and see the section on books! I wanted to recommend, once again, “How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan. Of all the people I recommend it to, 100% of people come back to me with very interesting thoughts!

Experimenting with a new Photoshop feature…

The 2019 Version of Photoshop has a few new features. I like to play with all this stuff just to keep my brain a bit “plastic” and always trying new things. Most of the features in Photoshop are not that useful to me, but these new content-aware options are pretty slick! Check ’em out!

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Daily Photo – Over Tokyo

Here’s one of my new favorite kind of drone photos: a photo of a city where you can’t see the skyline. I like this because you can’t quite work out what city it is. I notice when people look at my portfolio, they are always quite ready to guess (or know) what city it is. Actually, I’d probably be the same way… but now I find it interesting to purposefully confuse people.

Over Tokyo

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-01-26 19:27:46
  • CameraFC2204
  • Camera MakeDJI
  • Exposure Time1/8
  • Aperture2.8
  • ISO400
  • Focal Length4.4 mm
  • FlashNo Flash
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias+0.3

Comments
16
Mar 2019 : Saturday
filed under  Camera Gear, Google Pixel 3, Japan, Tokyo, Travel

Pixel 3 Phone for the Win!

Night Sight

If you have the Pixel Phone, be sure to try out the new “Night Sight” option that is under More. The photos it takes are just incredible. I think what is happening is it takes a little movie with like 100 frames and then combines them all into a noiseless, bright, colorful wonder!

Daily Photo – Pixel 3 Phone for the Win!

I mean, come on… how great is this low-light (taken around midnight) shot in Tokyo. I actually had my big Sony A7r with me, but I didn’t have the best portrait lens on. This guy looked so radical and I didn’t want to miss his photo. He was very confused about why I held my phone instead of the huge camera in his other hand… that is, until he saw the final result!

Pixel 3 Phone for the Win!

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-11 20:35:38
  • CameraPixel 3 XL
  • Camera MakeGoogle
  • Exposure Time1/25
  • Aperture1.8
  • ISO127
  • Focal Length4.4 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramProgram AE
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
13
Mar 2019 : Wednesday
filed under  Camera Gear, Ginzan Onsen, Japan, Sony A7R 2, Travel, Tutorials

Bridge Crossing in Ginzan Onsen

New How-To Video!

Want to see how today’s photo was made? Watch the video below! Here are some links I mention to get Aurora HDR 2019 and to join our Facebook group!

Daily Photo – Bridge Crossing in Ginzan Onsen

My original plan was to stay here for two nights, but I ended up just staying one night. It was actually a very small little town and you could easily see the whole thing in just half a day. I am glad I stayed the night though because everyone really clears out around sunset to get the bus back to the main town.

Bridge Crossing in Ginzan Onsen

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-18 21:48:00
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1.6
  • Aperture8
  • ISO250
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
8
Mar 2019 : Friday
filed under  Camera Gear, Japan, Shirakawago, Sony A7R 2, Travel

Farmhouse in Shirakawa-go

Amazing photo of a Stingaree

In the last 13 years of this blog, you know how unusual it is for me to share other people’s photos. It’s not a matter of solipsism; it’s mostly because I spend so much time taking photos of my own… on my own adventures… seeing amazing things… etc. BUT, I do visit reddit when I get bored, and I saw this INCREDIBLE PHOTO. Very few photos make me stop. This one did.

Daily Photo – Farmhouse in Shirakawa-go

Here’s one of the beautiful farmhouse I lived in while in the north of Japan. I don’t actually really CARE what people say about my photo when I post them online, but I do NOTICE. Even though this is not my own personal favorite photo, this is the one that got the most likes/comments online. I find it to be sociologically interesting when I have such a disconnect with the audience. Sometimes I like to think that I know what people will like, but photos like this remind me that I have no idea what happens in the minds of other people.

Farmhouse in Shirakawa-go

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-14 21:26:17
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/6
  • Aperture7.1
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias+2

Comments
7
Mar 2019 : Thursday
filed under  Camera Gear, Japan, Sony A7R 2, Takayama, Travel

Girl on Bridge in Takayama

Art Talk in Arrowtown!

Come check out the event to see the details!

Hey everyone! Join me in Arrowtown! I’ll share new and old photos on the big screen, tell stories, make inappropriate jokes, do a Q&A, and more! Come join us and have some wine and see new and old friends. I do this once a year as part of my Queenstown photo workshop, so there will be about a dozen people from that event joining us as well.

After the talk, we’re all headed down to the Blue Door, so come along to that as well!

Space is super-limited. To secure a spot (it’s a free event) email the team and we will get you sorted.

Daily Photo – Girl on Bridge in Takayama

I saw this little girl crossing the bridge into the old town and asked her parents if I could take her photo. I thought she was really cute, especially with the red coat that matched the bridge. And you’ll never guess (I didn’t) where she is from. Taiwan! Yeah, even though I’ve been to Asia about 20 times, I still get confused when picking out what countries people are from. Of course, it doesn’t matter, but it’s still a fun DNA game I like to play. With the 75%+ pure DNA, I’m really good at telling the difference between Korean / Japanese / Thai / Vietnamese / Indonesian, but since there has been a lot of mixing in the past few generations, it’s hard to tell. The easiest ones to spot (at least for me) are the Koreans and the Japanese because most of their pair-bonding comes from within their own (often jingoistic) countries.

Girl on Bridge in Takayama

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-13 15:08:52
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/3200
  • Aperture2.8
  • ISO100
  • Focal Length22.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
6
Mar 2019 : Wednesday
filed under  Aizuwakamatsu, Camera Gear, Japan, Sony A7R 2, Travel

The TD Tadami Line in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture

Sketchy iPhone Contest

Look at the #1 winner for this contest in this Yahoo story.

I think that the winner in the iPhone contest may not be legit. I could be wrong. Yeah, maybe they took it with an iPhone, but they would have Photoshop to get straight lines. I guess Photoshop is okay in the contest… not the end of the world, but not really representative of the default iPhone camera. I’ve been to this place in Hong Kong and you have to aim the phone UP to get that shot, so the lines should lean in. I guess they could have fixed the lines in Snapseed or PS. They amped up the colors too, but, hey, you guys know I don’t have a prob with that… unless they are trying to say the iPhone takes accurate photos of colors, in which case this would not be a good representation because the saturation was amped up externally.

Also, I don’t think the iPhone can go that wide. Unless it has a special lens attachment or it’s a pano… Here’s a photo that one of my Twitter followers took with her iPhone:


And another angle…



Bonus Photos

You’ll see today’s post is about the TD Tadami line in Japan. Here are a few extra photos I took while on the train. I actually take like hundreds and hundreds of photos on these trips, but I’m never sure where to put little miscellaneous ones like these. I thought about starting an Instagram called Trey’s Rejected Photos.


Copyright Trey Ratcliff www.StuckInCustoms.com

Copyright Trey Ratcliff www.StuckInCustoms.com

Daily Photo – The TD Tadami Line in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture

I was so excited to take this train through the mountains of Japan near Aizuwakamatsu! An interesting result is that, even though I took a ton of photos out the windows of the train during the journey, my favorite photo is this one, once I got off the train! I love these Japanese train guys. They take their job so seriously. They have amazing outfits. They are SO nice and patient. And these train guys know EVERYTHING about trains and schedules, so you can go up to any of them, any time, and ask questions and they will figure everything out for you.

The TD Tadami Line in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-17 18:34:18
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1/1250
  • Aperture8
  • ISO800
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
5
Mar 2019 : Tuesday
filed under  Camera Gear, Japan, Shirakawago, Sony A7R 2, Travel

Old Farmhouses in Shirakawago

Another Cool Video

After that cell division video yesterday, I went down a Jan van IJken (the creator) rabbit hole. I found this cool video called “The Art of Flying” that I share with you now! 🙂

I asked my friend Matt Ridley about this effect that is called a murmuration. He said it is usually affected by predators that are trying to attack just a single bird, but the entire flock reacts to protect itself.

Daily Photo – Old Farmhouses in Shirakawago

Here’s a rather embarrassing story.

So, a few of these old farmhouses in Shirakawago, Japan, have been converted to ryokans. A ryokan is an old-style “hotel” that was used by traveling samurais with the sliding rice-paper walls, you sleep on the floor on a futon, you have group dinners and breakfasts, etc. I stayed in one that quite bare-bones with tiny rooms. You could literally hear your neighbor turning over in their bed as the sheets rubbed across their body. I was trying so hard to be quiet.

Anyway, about 1 AM I felt a gurgle below my tummy. I tried to go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning, but that didn’t work out well. It was that feeling you just have to deal with now: explosive diarrhea. I don’t know what the heck I ate, but things were going crazy south of the border. So I had to get out of bed, which was noisy enough on its own, but nothing next to what came next to disrupt the silence.

The next morning at breakfast, the other four guests at the ryokan were glancing this way and that, trying to figure out who had the midnight issues… I think they knew it was me.

Old Farmhouses in Shirakawago

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-14 22:01:11
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time1.3
  • Aperture4.5
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length51.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
4
Mar 2019 : Monday
filed under  Camera Gear, Japan, Sony A7R 2, Takayama, Travel

The Old Town of Takayama

Cell Replication

Check out this video below. It starts with a single cell that then replicates until it becomes a salamander. Fascinating! I can’t actually tell if this is a real video or CGI. Probably CGI. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter because it’s cool.

Daily Photo – The Old Town of Takayama

On the way up to Shirakawa-go, I stopped for two nights in Takayama. The first night I stayed in a ryokan that was a bit on the outskirts. It was a great time, but I was actually a little tired from all the travel so I just stayed in. The next day I found a normal hotel by the bus station in Takayama so I could spend more time exploring the old town. There are a few of these sorts of places in modern Japan where they have kept one section of the city exactly like it was hundreds of years ago.

The Old Town of Takayama

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-13 21:50:35
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time8
  • Aperture8
  • ISO200
  • Focal Length25.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
3
Mar 2019 : Sunday
filed under  Aurora HDR, Camera Gear, Ginzan Onsen, Passport, Sony A7R 2, Tutorials

Ginzan Onsen

Passport Sunday Freebie!

Today I’m sharing a free Passport video with everyone. If you’re a Passport Member, then you get access to over 100 of these videos and a new one every Sunday! Some of my favorite ones are the six videos I released from Antarctica where you get to see all sorts of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery!

How To Video from Ginzan Onsen

Here’s a video I recently made that shows how I edited a photo from a location very close to where I took today’s daily photo. Of course, I used Aurora HDR 2019 to do all the editing.

Daily Photo – Ginzan Onsen

I came to this place with one of my worst plans, but it totally worked out!

Planning for this Japan trip was very difficult because I was going to many remote towns that a) do not take online booking b) where I stay in small hotels where no one speaks English. This makes getting reservations directly almost impossible!

I tried to get reservations via the bilingual concierge at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo, and even though he was very resourceful, he said it was 100% booked. But I decided to go anyway and knock on every door of every ryokan until I found a room. I knew it would be hard because nobody speaks English in these places. Anyway, after I knocked on the door of ryokan #4 I finally found a room! Even better, they had private baths fed by all the steaming water from the nearby hot springs. It was incredible to be soaking in steaming hot mineral water while watching snow fall all around me.

Ginzan Onsen

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-18 22:03:16
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time0.6
  • Aperture6.3
  • ISO400
  • Focal Length24.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias

Comments
2
Mar 2019 : Saturday
filed under  Camera Gear, Shirakawago, Sony A7R 2

A Week of Japan, Starting with Shirakawa-go!

Welcome to a week of Japan!

I just spent TWO weeks in Japan, but I thought it would be fun to share my favorite 7 photos over the next 7 days. Regular readers of the blog know that I jump randomly around the world with my daily posts to keep it fresh, but I thought I would mix it up a little! I had such an amazing time there, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Daily Photo – A Week of Japan, Starting with Shirakawa-go!

Could this be a more perfect little fairy tale snowy village? I’ve been to Japan about eight times, but I’ve never ventured way out into the mountains in the winter. Now it’s one of my new favorite things! Before the trip, I identified five different new towns to visit. It wasn’t very easy to get to these places. It basically required me to master the rail and bus system of Japan. That’s not the easiest thing in the world, especially because as you get out of the main cities, no one speaks English and none of the signs are in English. I made more than a few mistakes, but now I’ve completely mastered the system! This is exciting because it means I can go absolutely anywhere in Japan with no help! Now that I’ve mastered it, I’m hankerin’ to go back!

A Week of Japan, Starting with Shirakawa-go!

Photo Information

  • Date Taken2019-02-15 21:51:37
  • CameraILCE-7RM2
  • Camera MakeSony
  • Exposure Time2.5
  • Aperture4.5
  • ISO125
  • Focal Length104.0 mm
  • FlashOff, Did not fire
  • Exposure ProgramManual
  • Exposure Bias+2

Comments