“The hardest place to find beauty is in your own backyard.”
–somebody smart

I believe this is one of the fundamental truths not only with photography but in life. Actually, when you think about it, it is saying the same thing as that quote about grass being greener… I know this is a travel photo travel blog, but sometimes we need to be reminded that what we are looking for can sometimes be right in front of us. Anyway, this post is to remind you, to go and search and “travel” the area where you live.

For example, during cherry blossom season, I traveled all over the Kansai region in hopes of getting some great photos, but as it turns out, some of my favorite photos from the 2007 cherry blossom season were taken about 10 minutes from where I live, in my own backyard.

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One of the most popular questions I get from tourists and photographers alike is, “Where can I see geisha?” There are two very big misconceptions about geisha, the first being that geisha are prostitutes and second is that geisha can be seen commonly all over Japan. Both of these are false. Actually, it is very rare that you will see a geisha in Japan. That being said I am going to give you the easiest way to find them; HOWEVER, even if you take my advice, there is still a chance you might be unsuccessful! I am not guaranteeing you will see geisha or maiko here, but from my experience, the odds are pretty good!

Details after the jump!
First thing you need to do is go to Kyoto. Almost all of the geisha that are left in Japan are in Kyoto. Second, you need to head to Gion district of Kyoto in the late afternoon or early evening (say 4:30pm to 6pm). The third thing and most important thing you need is patience! Many people will walk around Gion in hopes of catching a glimpse of a Geisha. If you do this and are successful, you are very lucky! I have done about 9 times and have only seen geisha twice. Instead my suggestion is to head to one place (the photo below) and just wait in this area.

I waited here 2 different days, from about 430-6pm and both days I saw multiple geisha and maiko. I talked to another person who was there and told me that this was her 4th time waiting there and 3 of the days she say geisha or maiko. I like these odds a lot better than my previous 2 for 9 that I had wondering around Gion! I was told that this place is actually one of the oldest and most famous geisha schools and back in the day, all the high up politicians, samurai and even shogunate used to frequent this place. Not only is it famous, but it is close to the main road so many geisha and maiko walk passed here to go to their jobs or to catch a taxi to get to their jobs. Below is a map showing where this place is. If you have some success stories or other tips please leave a comment! Click the map to open up a interactive one in a new window.

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The first thing you should be aware of is that cold weather will reduce your battery life (sometimes drastically), so not only should you have a spare battery but you may want to carry your battery charger with you at all times when traveling. Nothing is more frustrating than missing a great shot because the batteries are dead! Another type about battery life, if you know you will not be using your camera for an extended period of time (while you are sleeping for example) take your batteries out of your camera because even if your camera is turned off, the contact in the camera will slowly but surely drain your batteries!

While having dead batteries is annoying, a more serious problem is condensation. This could happen when you come inside to a heated room after you have been outside in cold weather. There are a couple of things you can do to help reduce the chances of this happening. Put your camera in a zip lock plastic bag before going inside to help prevent condensation from forming inside your camera (instead, condensation might form on the bag itself). Another way to prevent condensation is to bring the camera into a room that does not have heating first and let it adjust to that temperature so there is not such a drastic change in temperature. If you have a reason to believe that condensation has formed in your camera, take out the battery and memory card and leave the doors to your camera open to let it dry out.

When leaving a hot room to go outside into the cold, there isn’t as much to worry about, but you still need to be careful of condensation or water. If there is condensation in your camera and you go outside to very cold weather, if this condensation freezes it will result in permanent damage and most likely the use of some 4 letter words.

Those are pretty much the main things to consider while doing winter photography, but if anyone else has some tips please leave a comment!

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Previous Winners:

• Greg Logan
• Laura Kumataka
• Myriam Ward (Kamakura)
• Laurenz Bobke (Shinjuku Gyoen)

Recently, I came across Design215′s megapixel comparison and maximum print size chart that talks about how big you can print your photos depending on how many megapixels your camera is. First, I am going to say it is a nice chart and is helpful; however, having said that, unless you are publishing a photography book I have to be honest and tell you that the chart isn’t exactly right. I mean, the chart stresses it is true if you want “true photo quality,” but who can really tell between “true photo quality” and slightly below that (whatever that is)?

For example, the above link says that using a 6MP camera that gives you pixel resolution of 3008 x 2000 and a maximum print size of 10.02 x 6.67 inches, but using a simple function in Photoshop (I used CS2 but pretty much any version is ok), you can easily go beyond that while loosing minimal quality. The trick is increasing the image size by 110% (multiple times). To do this just go to the “Image” menu, select “Image Size” and then configure the window so it looks like this one below:

The changes you will need to make are first checking “Constrain Proportions” and “Resample Image: Bicubic.” Then change the drop down box under “Pixel Dimensions” from “pixels” to “percent.” Finally type in “110%” in the width (and height of course) and then press “OK.” That is it! Depending on the photo you can repeat this 5-7 times before you start to notice any real loss of image quality. I have printed images that started at 10.02 x 6.67 inches and using this trick and got beautiful prints as large as 19.5 x 13 inches. I mean sure, if you do it 7 times and look at it real closely you can tell a little, but a print that is 19.5 x 13 inches (7 times) is not printed to be looked at closely. I printed the same print at 16.1 x 10.7 (5 times) inches and it was almost identical to the original sized print at close range. If you want, you can easily record an action in Photoshop to repeat these steps for you.

Of course, results will vary depending on the quality of the camera (if you have a 2 MP don’t expect to get great prints at any size really), the quality of your printer and the colors in your photograph (if you have a lot of blue in your photograph or a night photograph results will vary because most of the “noise” in digital photography is in the blue channel).

So in conclusion to the question, “How big can I print my digital photographs?” you can print them 110% (5-7 times) the original size!

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My advice to you is… look for somebody with a nice camera (like the one I have in the above photos) and ask them to take your photograph! They might not be a good photographer, but there is a better chance that they are!

This applies not only to the photographs with you in it, but also the ones you are taking. When you take a photo quickly scan all 4 edges of the frame to make sure you have your photo cropped the way you want it. Also it is not a bad idea to scan the rest of the area for distracting items such as telephone poles, wires, trash cans or other elements that can take away from the photo. Take a look at the photos of umbrellas below. They are almost the same photo, the one on top has the side of a building sticking into it.

By simply moving my camera just a small amount I was able to crop out that building’s roof that was sticking into my frame and as a result the image is much more clean. Also, it should be noted that what you see through your view finder is usually not exactly what gets photographed. So first, be careful of how you are cropping the subject in the frame, then after (assuming you are shooting digital) take a quick look at your photo to make sure you haven’t accidently cropped something out.

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Basically imagine if you divide the the photo into 9 sections with 4 lines (2 horizontal and 2 vertical). Like the example below. A good rule of thumb is to put your subject at one of the four intersections 1/3 of the way from either side. Of course you don’t have to aim exactly for 1/3 of the way from the side but you get the idea. Check out another example below from cherry blossom tree in Kyoto.

I actually like both of these photographs for different reasons, but visually speaking the photo of the cherry blossom tree on the bottom is much more interesting and dynamic.

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As you can see, each photo have a different feel to it. Which one you prefer is up to you but one thing that is for certain is that you need a little patience as for both of these shots I had to wait for the decisive moment. The best advice I can give for this is to have your camera ready and just look through the lens until the time is right. The one on the bottom was harder to get because people were always walking by, if I had waited one more second there would have been somebody walking in my frame, so be ready!

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