Desktops

Lets Ride

In the late fall of 2014 YoungDoo and I spent a week exploring the streets of Kyoto, Japan, a long time holdout on my bucket list. A week was just barely enough time to scratch the surface, I could have easily stayed a full month fully absorbing the atmosphere and exploring different side streets and temples around the city. My favorite part of discovering new cities like this is digging to find cultural details about day to day life and to get a feel for the history of a space. Kyoto is stuck between a modern Japan and a historic one; block to block the landscape and feeling shifted as sights and sounds migrated along with our curiosity.

I had read before traveling there that Kyoto was a bike centric city and that bike travel was one of the recommended ways of getting around. I was stubborn to accept using them ourselves for some silly reason. I remember YoungDoo Pushed me to take out the bikes made available to us by the guest house we were staying at but I resisted all the way up until the last day we were there because I enjoy trains and subways so much. The inner city is fairly compact and flat so getting around by bike is quite easy. Couple that with a lack of easy parking in many areas it’s an obvious way to get around.

From time to time I came across lonely, single bikes leaning against walls on paths and in front of buildings just begging to be photographed. This scene caught my eye because I noticed the bike owners clever umbrella storage and I liked the square tiles there behind the bike. Everything just seemed to be waiting there in place for me to frame and click.

So what took so long to start sharing these photos? Well, I couldn’t say, really. I guess at one point I figured I would release a big Japan themed wallpaper pack but never got around to having enough time to devote to the process of prepping it so instead I have gone though my library and pulled out a few dozen of my favorite digital shots while there and I will start sharing them here in wallpaper form along with any bits of information or stories that they bring to mind as I share them. Also, I’m thinking a few will be used for member exclusives. I will let members know when they get added to the member library. Enjoy!

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Desktops
Red

Red

So, since we last spoke, my Fuji X-Pro bit the dust pretty hard and still has not made it back to the land of the living. In the mean time I pulled out my trusty 5D but alas, it has had a broken reflex mirror for a year or so now. Thankfully when it fell off it did not fall out of the camera or break so I dug out a little super glue gel and went to work. 24 hours later after letting it fully dry and set the camera works as good as new so I popped on an Olympus 50mm f/1.4 (via a cheap adaptor) and started using it as my day to day carry.

Funny thing happened in that, I found myself inspired by the change of pace. The original 5D has such a beautiful sensor, it’s like changing film. While I miss flexibility in ISO and dynamic range the photos I get from the 5D are moody, colorful, contrasty, they really have a life of their own, in fact, as some of you already know, the camera defined my style 10+ years ago when I started to shoot with it. For the whole love story I wrote up something about its continued use in 2013 and it’s still all true.

As for todays wallpaper, next to our house we have a beautifully large camellia tree spitting out lovely red flowers lately and it was hard to pass up taking a few shallow photos to share the lovely red with everyone. Spring can’t make up its mind here, warm then cold then warm, but NC does that often I suppose but its confusing all these trees trying to stretch out after their winter nap.

I think that coming up I will start posting images from our trip to Kyoto a couple of years back. I considered making a big Japan pack but I think it will be more satisfying to stretch them out and search my memory for stories. Until then, enjoy the red.

Red 2

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