(though I'm taking a break from blogging for a while)
Japanese roads often have different rules between bicycles and cars, such as a bicycle being allowed to go against traffic on many one-way roads, or a bicycle being prohibited from certain road sections. However, the related traffic signage can be confusing even for Japanese natives. Making it even more confusing is that certain kinds of situations have different signage in different parts of the…
I attended a cycling event this weekend that was really fun, even though I didn't ride in it. The Suzuka Circuit, best known for hosting F1 and motorcycle grands prix, also sometimes hosts bike racing. The entire event is officially called "The Suzuka 8-Hour Enduro", though currently races are only three, four, and six hours. It's really more of an "event" than a "race", where you can challenge…
This photo is from a blog post seven years ago, "Exposing for Single-Shot HDR (Sort Of)", using photos from a special visit to a newly-built about-to-open wedding venue in Kyoto. (Photos from that visit also appeared on "Heian Shrine Gate From a New Perspective".) As lovely as the new venue was, it seems that they weren't able to make it as a wedding venue; they stopped doing business a few years…
I recently heard about a very hard climb -- over 3km/2mi at an average of almost 16% -- not too far away. Many cyclists could not climb for 50m at 15%, much less do it for 3,000m. It's just ridiculously steep. This climb sounded to rival one the most difficult climbs in Japan, Kuragari West, which clocks in at 2.3km/1.7mi @ 17.3%. Of course, I had to go check it out. It was quite the adventure.…
So, the idea for the day was simple: join Antti's farewell ride until they hit gravel, then go off on my own to find a spot to set up a hammock and relax with a book for a while. It didn't work out that way. Antti is returning to Finland after many years in Kyoto. He's left his mark on the Strava leaderboards, and on his friends' hearts. His farewell ride was to be a gravel affair; I have no…
I got a surprise today while walking in the underground arcade north out of Kyoto Station, when I noticed on the wall some photographs that I took eight years ago. I did the photography for Alice's article as a fun project, as described in two blog posts at the time, "Japanese Candles" and "Japanese Candles, Followup". The article is still on the Japan Times web site, here, and originally looked…
I haven't been posting on my blog this year, but I've still been working, and have just released a feature for Lightroom that's interesting enough to warrant a mention here: the Compare Photo Edits feature of my Bag-o-Goodies plugin. As the name implies, it reports on the differences in how two photos have been edited. This includes not only develop changes, but also editable-metadata changes. It…
I'm coming out of blogging hibernation to write about a bicycle ride I did yesterday. I'm pretty happy with myself for it, so in keeping with using my blog as a diary, I'm putting the story here. There aren't many photos, both because I had only my cellphone and wasn't stopping a lot, and because the stupid iOS app I was using (Halide) decided to not actually save all but one of the photos that I…
I made a few outings to photograph the fall colors in and around Kyoto this year. On the way to our first main destination, we made an impromptu stop at this little-known, out-of-the-way Kotokuji Temple. It turns out that the maple have only just started to turn, but it's still a quiet, lovely place to visit. I'd discovered this temple a couple of years ago while on a bike ride to explore the…
I've just released Jeffrey's Collection Mechanic Lightroom Plugin.