Posts

Ueno Zoo!

Image
I hope you enjoy these photos taken at the Ueno Zoo. What a great day of photography! The weather was gorgeous and the birds and animals were a pleasure to photograph. For many nature photographers, the ultimate challenge and experience is bird flight photography. It is definitely a numbers game as it takes me a lot of shots to get one or two that are really good. Mission accomplished as I think there are some good ones! While most of the animals are in contained areas, the birds in flight are wild birds. Many of those pictures were taken of the Japanese Cormorant. There is a huge pond in the zoo where the Cormorants are building nests. As they flew back and forth, I did my best to capture those birds in flight. So cool! This was my first significant opportunity to use my new 200-800 lens. Wow! For some of the shots, I used that lens with the 2x extender. That took the lens power to 1600! Both of the shots of the two Cormorants together were taken with that combination. As much as I lo
Post a Comment
Read more

Ueno Park!

Image
  What an incredible day of photography in Ueno Park! Oh, my gosh! Thank you Setsuko! That place is truly amazing! What is also amazing is that there is more to see! The park has some fabulous museums in addition to the museum that houses the beautiful paintings I captured. There is also the Ueno Zoo! Next time!  Just as amazing is the fact that these were all taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. What is the world coming to???? As I think I mentioned before, I never cease to be amazed by the array of gorgeous sites in Japan. From the gardens, to the shrines, to the animals, to the buildings, to the colors, to the angles, to the statues, to the grave stones and to the shapes, this is truly a country made for photographers! We were fortunate as the weather could not have been much better. I guess we are living right! All the best! Bob
Post a Comment
Read more

The Trip Revisited!

Image
I hope you enjoy my version of "Both Sides Now." The last verse starts with "Daughter, daughter, don't you know." That verse was added by Pete Seeger to the Joni Mitchell original. What superstars! The photos are all more shots from our recent trip to Green Hill Yatsugatake. And what a trip it was! The area where we stayed is gorgeous as it has nice trails that meander around the beautiful property. Stuart and I did an amazing hike that climbed up for a mile or so with expansive views of the surrounding countryside. As mentioned earlier, we went to Heidi's Village, a unique set of buildings with a very attractive and extensive rose garden that has paths that make for easy exploring. A wonderful Swiss style village with attractive shops and the most amazing music box museum titled "Hall of Halls." I have got to go back to that music box museum and relive that experience! Music boxes have a special place in my heart as my mom have me a number of musi
Post a Comment
Read more

What a Trip!

Image
I hope you enjoy my rendition of a song made famous by Glenn Yarbrough, Baby The Rain Must Fall. This was one of my mom's favorites! Fond memories! The first photo was taken just a few miles from our house. This is one of my favorite spots along the Tama River. I love the curves! The other pictures were all taken during a wonderful trip we took recently with my friend Stuart and his wife to Green Hill Yatsugatake, about 85 miles west and north of us. Wow, what a treat! And, I even squeezed in a photo of my beautiful wife! We spent the first night in this really cool cabin and then the second night in the motel affiliated with the resort. It is an amazing place with four tennis courts, an indoor pool, a full sized soccer field, lots of nice trails, a gym with badminton and table tennis, strength training, and a wonderful restaurant. This must be the best kept secret in Japan as the price, including breakfast and dinner, is $70 per night per person or less! Part of the reason that th
Post a Comment
Read more