Tesselated Balloon

One of the Balloons from the 2006 World Championships.
So okay, it was from last Saturday. My camera battery power is getting low, so I haven't been taking pictures.
Anyway, in two days I will be able to pick up my new camera.

Infrarock

I haven't taken any photos for a couple of days, so I edited the colour version of the infrared shot I submitted for the Landscape in Portrait Mode challenge. I made a duplicate layer so I could make the sky a solid blue, otherwise it would have looked banded.

Balloons: modified

One of the events for the World Balloon Championships was held in my worktown this afternoon. he sky was blue but when I was playing around with Curves it turned like this, so I kept it.

I guess the reason for it being in my town is because it's so flat. I saw them this morning, too, as I was driving in. They were in the neighbouring town, which is hilly.

ARTistic?

Just a bit of fun for ART Roflmao over at dpchallenge.
Seedless persimmons, nice!

Forky star-burst seeds

I think this may be in the dandelion family, though it's a fairly tall plant (certainly compared to dandelions!). I have no idea what plant it is, really. Nice, eh.

OOB Cow

I meant to post this last night after I finished editing it for the Out Of Border look. It's one of cows from Cowparade in Tokyo during the summer.

Bee's Eye

I bought a really cheap multi-facet filter yesterday, all of ¥100. Actually, it's a toy. Not sure of the technical name for the equivalent filter because I'm too lazy to go look in the catalogue right now. I just shot off three shots, not even particularly worrying about focus. Just a sample with a hoopy hand-drawn frame.

Balloon

One of the Australian balloons that will be competing in the world championships next week. They were practising and came down in some rice fields near the school I go to on Tuesday afternoons.

Susuki

Susuki, or pampas grass, growing in a fine clump by the side of the road.
Looking into the sun.
Wonderful stuff to photograph when the seeds are fluffing out like this, but this part of the side of the road was a steep slope leading to a ditch.

In Preparition: Self-Portrait

I was getting ready to take my picture for the Headwear Challenge on www.dpchallenge.com and took a few test shots to see how the distance, focusing etc was. I had to do it in the morning because the sun was shining in through the window (after yesterday's wet weather). There's a bit of movement blur there, but I like this shot.

Mouse Bread

Well! I haven't uploaded a photo for a couple of weeks, then log-in to find the new version of Blogger - which is still in Beta - so I'm using it now. It seems all right so far - I can see the photo in the text box as I type, rather than a whole lot of code.
Anyway, this is a azuki bean-filled mouse-shaped bread from the Noah bakery. Very nice!
Now that I've finished the 30 day photo challenges, I should be able to concentrate more on this one. ;>þ

Tsubaki :::: Camellia

I noticed some camellias flowering, so took a couple of shots. It could have been for the 30 day macro challenge, but I had something else.

First Foray into Infrared Photography

I bought an infrared filter the other day (but not a holder for it), and tried it out today because I remembered to take it with me. The first few shots were way too dark, so it needs a longer exposure. So after school I tried it again, but it does suffer from not being in holder. Of course, the light was getting worse and I wanted to go home, but at least I know I can do it with my camera.

Bland New Day

Just some posters for a free magazine in this prefecture.

Curtain shadows

I'm concentrating on two 20-day challenges, but here's the curtain in the staffroom this afternoon...

Orange

Day Two of my 30 day macro challenge. I'm quite pleased with it. 1/20th of a second handheld in fluorescent lights. Also posted at dpc. ;>þ

Check out the Clogs

It looks like I forgot to post this yesterday.
I went down to the shrine to take photos of the kids being taken there for the 7-5-3 celebration (children of those ages). So, the girl wearing these pokkuri is seven years old. She was quite adept at walking in them, so must have had some training. Her sister wears more modern attire, and that makes a striking contrast. ;>þ

The Judge; The Evidence

A couple more. The cafe has ice atmospheric lighting which is pretty hard for close-up photography. The King sitting on my upturned tea cup (while the tea was stewing in the "pot")



And the evidence, the Jam Tarts the Knave of Hearts allegedly stole (but it was a pack of lies, er, cards, er, something dreamt).



"Sucoon" is cafe-speak for "Scone".

What's on the Menew?

Mock Turtle, that's what. It's a figurine of the Mock Turtle from the "Alice's Tea Party" set made by Kyuudo (note the tears). It was from the first series, which came out before I arrived in Japan for this stint. I have all the figures from the second and third series, though.


There was also a series made by Furuta, but it wasn't as good. They came individually in boxes with a couple of little cookies (Kyuudo) or a sweet (Furuta), but you didn't know which one you were getting.

A cafe we go to sometimes has an eclectic collection of things, including these figurines. The menus are handmade with funny English spellings where there's English...

Higanbana

I thought I'd get in a picture of higanbana - spider lily - before it all fades.