Japan Photo Guide

Seeing how it is now the middle of winter for us northern hemisphere people, I thought I should give a little advice on photography in the winter…actually to be more specific I wanna talk about camera care during the winter. Taking some precautions to take care of your camera in the winter is very important and a few simple things can keep you from causing serious–and sometimes permanent– damage to your camera.

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!

Wanna see the other photography tips and tricks?

This may seem obvious but I see it many times with travel snap shots…especially when I ask some stranger to take a photo of me at (insert famous place here). Pay attention to what is in your frame and don’t crop off half of somebody’s body, or somebody’s feet. Of course there are sometimes when you may want to do this because there is no other way to make the photograph work, but a lot of times body parts are cropped out of the frame for no other reason other than laziness. Take a look at the photos below. Both times there is plenty of space at the top of the frame so my feet could have easily not been cut off had the photographer paid attention.

My advice to you is… See more photos and read the rest of this entry »

Welcome and thanks for stopping by! BahBeeBooBayBohDOTcom, or Japan Photo Guide, was created in July of 2006 when I, as a phototographer, decided there wasn’t enough information about places to travel to in Japan in English. Of course with the more popular places like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Miyajima there are plenty of photos and information in English but for some of the more remote places sometimes it is hard to find information and photos. It is my goal, by showing you pictures of Japan to provide a guide to Japan for not only photographers but also regular travelers. This site is fairly new and I do update Japan Photo Guide as often as possible but I do so as my hobby, not my job. If you have advice to offer about traveling in Japan or photography in Japan or even just like my photos of japan, please leave a comment or contact me about being a contributer!

*NEW* I have started to add Tips and Tricks about travel photograpy, so be sure to check them out!

Where to start…Well, let’s just say if you are a photographer in Japan and you do not go to Kyoto, you should really consider giving up photography. Seriously, Kyoto and the surrounding areas like Arashiyama and Nara are so spectacular that there is no excuse not to find a way to get to Kyoto. As of Spring of 2006 I have been to Kyoto 5 times, going atleast once ever season of the year. The two best times to go are, cherry blossom season and during the fall.

Kyoto is the old capital of Japan is said to have more than 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines. Also Kyoto’s district Gion, is the only place in Japan where you can regularly see real geisha or maiko (and no they are not prostitutes).

There are many famous places and most of which I will encourage you to go to, but sometimes it is a good idea to go off the beaten path and find your own little treasure in Kyoto.

Here are some of the famous places you should consider going:

• • Nanzenji (My personal favorite)
  • Kinkakuji (Golden Pavillion)
  • Ginkakuji (Silver Pavillion)
  • Ryoan-ji (Most famous rock garden of all of Japan)
  • Kiyomizudera (One of the most famous temples in Japan and a good view of Kyoto)
  • Tetsugaku no michi (Philosopher’s Path)
  • Kokedera (Moss Garden Temple–3000 yen and reservation required to enter!)
  • Ninnanji (A very diverse UNESCO World Heritage Site close to Ryoanji)
  • Fushimi Shrine (Shinto Shrine with thousands of tori gates)

Kyoto is about 2 hours by shinkansen from Tokyo and about 45 minutes by express train from Osaka. For more detailed access information please see Japan-Guide.com.

Here are some Links you may find useful about Kyoto:

• • Kyoto’s Visitor’s Guide–Online version of the monthly publication.
  • Kyoto Event Web Magazine–Provides information about festivals and events.
  • K’s Hostel–The best hostel in Kyoto.
  • Japan-Guide.com–A lot of really good information
  • Kyoto Prefecture Travel Guide–Official site of Kyoto Prefecture with travel information