It’s Not All Temples And Rainbows

The farmers in the area are all burning their fields at the moment and this changes the quality of the light. The inversion layer doesn’t help. As a result, I’ve struggled with the color balance of my images. The atmosphere is a little smoky is all. But there are any number of greenhouses scattered throughout the landscape that have caught my attention. They are interesting to photograph, with no tourists to contend with as an added benefit. The real Japan you might say.

Welcome to the Funhouse

I love me a good greenhouse. Always have. There used to be a nursery in our area where a photographically inclined person could wander around at length taking pictures with no hassles. The owner really didn't care as long as you bought a couple of plants before you drove off. Being married to a gardener, that was what the folks in suits would call a win-win. The old place is long gone and the new generation of nurseries are typically surrounded by chain link fences. While I generally make a conscious effort to line up my shots, in the heat of the moment, part of the fence can sometimes creep into the composition. Kind of like how your finger can wander into a cell phone shot, if ya dig. These days, it is pretty easy to photoshop those kinds of distractions out of the shot and end up with something useable in spite of your, er, sloppiness.

Tasting notes: Leica Q.

The colors of photosynthesis

The Rolleiflex SL66 is certainly not the first camera I would chose to take with me on a long hike, but it's totally fine for short forays from the car as was the case on this particular shoot. I'd been wanting to photograph this scene for quite some time and jumped at the chance to get out of the house for an hour or so one evening and do some photography. The magenta hue of these greenhouses comes from the blue and red LEDs -- the colors of photosynthesis. Here, I used the 80mm f/2.8 lens set to a medium aperture which gave exposures of a few seconds (I bracketed).