I’ve posted some of these before, but I finally processed and assembled all my digital photos taken during my oshougatsu (New Year’s period) trip to Kanazawa and Matsumoto. The above image is of Matsumoto-Jo, Japan’s oldest survinging castle, and quite a thing to behold. What was particularly amazing about my visit was that I was the only one in the castle during my visit, not including a couple of attendants walking about. It was a strange feeling, walking around and climbing the steep stairs of a 500-year old structure, with no one about, no other tourists being led by some bullhorned tour leader to bother me. I couldn’t help but feel an interloper.
Here are my images from my 6-day trip to very snowy Kanazawa and bitingly cold Matsumoto.
Kurt –
What do you mean when you say “processed … my digital photos…”
What/How are you processing them ?
gem-
sorry, my use of process can be misleading. what I meant was sort of a play on the typical analog “process” (eg. getting one’s photos developed, or developing them oneself in a darkroom). Of course, I did nothing of the sort, but did put them through some sort of “digital darkroom” process, meaning I brought each file (as I do all my digital shots) into Photoshop, cropped as I saw fit, and tweaked various settings (levels, color balance, sharpening), then brought those files into Fireworks to create the jpegs that you see. I wish it weren’t so, but it’s just not possible to go from the camera to the web page without some work (er, processing) being done.
Kurt, what digital camera do you use?
Cedric-
I use an Olympus 3030Z (3.3 megapixels), which I bought two years ago, here in Japan. It’s certainly served me well these last two years, though I probably don’t put the camera through all the various things it can do (in part because the menus are all in Japanese!).
Thank you for the answer. I’ve been checking your site quite often for about the last 2 months and I’m always very impressed by your pictures, so sharp, bright and colorful, which is a result I never seem to obtain with any digital camera, that explains my curiosity. Anyway, keep posting the great pics 🙂
Cool. That’s the castle I want to see, because it’s all wicked black, and has the same name as my wife.
Lovely photos, Kurt! Matsumoto is a beautiful castle, and you’ve captured it and its surrounds at its very best. I have been to both this castle and Himeji-jo, the ‘White Heron Castle’, and I would have to say that I prefer Matsumoto-jo, because it has retained a certain timelessness due to the fact that it hasn’t been as fully restored as Himeji. Since Himeji-jo is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, it is kept in pristine condition, whereas Matsumoto-jo is not at all well-lit, a little rundown, full of imperfections, and doesn’t have so many tour groups. Still, they make a very interesting contrast to each other.