I actually visited a number of places today, but my real purpose was to go pick up my Suzumiya Haruhi Extravaganza ver. from Comic Toranoana. Well.. my table doesn’t have enough room for me to unpack her yet, and I’m too lazy to write about the other places I went to.
However, on my way home I took a number of a night pictures that I thought turned out pretty nice. I also paid 700 yen to visit the Midland Square observatory, but nearly every single pic I took up there turned out terrible 😥 (I’m crying inside from that right now….). Well, I hope the rest of you enjoy these pics. Chris, one of my previous readers, used to give me lots of pointers, but he seems to have disappeared as of late. I could really use his help around now.
Eva attacks nagoya! Courtesy of Guorbatschow
Nagoya Central Park
More Central Park
Nagoya Radio Tower
Sunshine Sake - home to the SKE48
Some random bridge, but the lighting caught my eye
JR Central Headquarters
Comic Toranoana
And finally!
Garden in the middle of the JR station
Thanks for taking a look! I hope you all liked the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Edit: One of my pics from the observatory turned out OK, but not great. Here it is!
Nagoya Nightscape from Midland Square Tower. The green castle on the right is Nagoya Castle.
A Foreigner's Tale in Japan 
i love the eva attack pic
nice job with the photos!
Wicked photos! I especially like the bridge one with the coloured lighting.
woah! there’s a GARDEN IN THE STATION?????????????????
the central park also loooks really beautiful
Can I hire you for my visual novel as background photographer??
Hit us with what you got when you get a chance…This Haruhi Extravaganza is really getting me hyped about what you really got. ^_^ Other than that, got an update on my blog…
Devake: Ha, I knew you’d like it :P. I didn’t make it though.
Bluemage: Thanks! Night time photography seems to be so much more fun than daytime photography. Bright overexposed pretty lights makes up for my crappy skills.
Yuki Phnx: Yea, there is a garden in the middle of Nagoya JR station. It’s in the area between the terminals.
Robostrike: I think you brought that up with me before, but you never told me what you wanted :P. I’m taking tons of photos anyway. what I put up on the blog is the best few of all the taken photos.
Sweet, that’s good. Will let you know when I need your pictures ^_^ For the time being, just take more ^_^
Nice night photography! That’s one thing I haven’t done with my camera yet. The Nagoya Radio tower is especially good!
oooo are you using a tripod or just messing with iso/aperture/shutter speed stuff still? whatever you’re doing is working, there’s a marked improvement!
@fixt: Thanks! I love the radio tower shot too. You should really attempt night photography, it’s a lot more fun than ordinary photography imo :).
@meronpan: I just figured out the right way to use iso/aperture/shutter speed :P. Also, improved my technique with holding the camera and figuring out how to make makeshift things to steady my hands. I’m still too cheap to purchase a tripod :P.
What would you like help with? You seem to be doing quite well 🙂
Sorry I dropped out for a while. I was actually in Japan for the last two weeks (caught sakura in full bloom along the Philosopher’s Walk in Kyoto. They were only 2/3 open when I was in Ueno Park)
What were your issues with shooting from the Observatory? Were reflections from the room messing up your shot? If so, the easiest solution is to:
-frame your image and adjust settings
-half-press your shutter release for auto-focus (if auto-focus isn’t focusing at infinity, take matters into your own hands and switch to manual)
-press the end of your lens up against the window (yes, directly against.) This keeps all the light reflecting off of stuff in the room and then off of the window from reflecting into your lens
-shoot
If you want to avoid the ‘press against window’ thing, or you can’t reach it, you need to dim the room lights as much as possible. Sometimes though, especially in urban areas like, well, most of Japan, the light coming into the room from outside is enough to reflect off and give you problems. I had this problem when trying to take a panorama of the river mouth at Ootsu (near Kyoto. The closest place to Kyoto we could find a room)
Heya Chris! Definitely missed your commenting. I hope you enjoyed your trip in Japan! I haven’t had much luck catching the sakura properly myself.
The main issue I had with shooting from an observatory was internal reflection from the lit up inside and a lack of a tripod. I also somehow have a lot of trouble with manual focus on scenery, because the viewfinder doesn’t seem big enough for me to 100% sure I’m in focus. I’m likely going to give it another shot, once I barf up the money for a tripod though.