Strong words, and he got a lot of flak for saying them. He did have his defenders who agreed with him completely (like fellow pro Scott Bourne), but it seems like the majority didn’t like what he had to say very much.

Think this came from a dSLR?

I think part of the reason he got so much criticism for his message was he hit a nerve. It seems like a heck of a lot of photographers (both amateur and professional, although it is much more common in the former) have a lot of their ego in the equipment they use. They judge themselves and others by the cameras they use. When people have so much invested in a technology, they are loathe to see it vanish. Not only that, but they have already mentally placed these mirrorless cameras as being beneath their level, so facing the idea that these may become the main camera technology is hard to deal with.

Of course that’s not everyone, so please don’t take offense. I do, however, think it is a factor in some of the harsh criticism Trey has faced for his comments.

It’s actually possible to get decent photos without a dSLR.

For the record, I agree with Trey 100%. There is really little reason for the flipdown mirror these days. Technology has gotten us to the point where we can do without it. So why keep it? Technology is ever forward marching, and we should follow where it leads rather than clinging to the past. The time of the SLR ended in the 80s, really. Just ask Ken Rockwell, who has been preaching for a number of years that the pinnacle of SLR technology was reached at that time and that it’s been downhill ever since¹. Everything since, according to Rockwell, has just been adding fluff (digital or otherwise) in an attempt to get us to upgrade every few years. When you look at it that way, it’s about time we get a new technology—we’ve only been waiting for it for 30 years!

The 3rd generation of cameras still has a ways to go, hence the five year timeline Trey gave, but it is already remarkably good. Just look at some of the amazing shots my friend Takahiro Yamamoto gets with his micro 4/3s camera. Look at the cult of Leica and the beautiful photos the M9 produces. Look at the Fuji x100, which might be thought of as a poor man’s Leica, but which stands on it’s own and compares favorably against the best dSLRs. Look at all the amazing iPhoneography some people are producing! And this is now—imagine how much these will improve in a handful of years!

If the iPhone can produce images this good now (actually 2 years ago for this one) then imagine what it’ll give us in five years!

This is an exciting time for photography! I can’t wait to see how these 3rd generation cameras go from here.

What do you all think?

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: The End of dSLRs?

To be specific, tsutsuji are a type of azalea called evergreen azalea and they grow larger than the other type. There are a few different colors that I see: fire red, white, a redish-purple, and this. I think this color is my favorite. This one came from a temple, a tiny zen one called eisenzenji.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: Daily Photo: Shiny Pink Tsutsuji [130/365]

But first—This is my entry in the November J-Blogger Matsuri, hosted by the incredible Ashley of Surviving in Japan. For the main matsuri page, go here.

Miso

Miso is a traditional Japanese food, usually used in soup, often eaten for breakfast everyday. Have you heard of it? Let’s take a look at miso, and specifically the type Okazaki is famous for, Hatcho miso (the prefered miso of the Emperor).

(Photo by Jeremy Keith; edited by me)

Tasty stuff.

Miso production traditionally started in autumn, and although it is often eaten daily, it is considered a autumn food by traditional Chinese (and Japanese) medicine. We won’t go too much into this, but basically Chinese medicine considers autumn a time for sharp foods to clense the body with as you prepare it for winter and supposely miso helps do this.

Miso: Miracle Food

Miso has received a lot of press these past several years for all the health benefits it supposely possesses. It is rich in protein, vitmins, and minrals, and is even claimed to protect against the harmful effects of radiation and help fight radiation sickness. This effect is even stronger in Hatcho miso. After the Chernoyl disaster, Japan sent Hatcho miso to Russia to help the victims; Russia thought it helped so much that they ordered more.

Among the claimed health benefits of miso are:

• Cancer Prevention
• Easing Radiation sickness (as stated above)
• Anti-aging
• Aids digestion
• Detoxifying
• hangover relef
• negating the harmful effects of smoking
• control of blood pressure
• And the list goes on and on.…

I won’t cover these claims. You can find believe them or not & find evidence to show either side easily enough. It’s enough to know about them and know Japanese people are likely to mention them to you when talking about miso.

So… what is miso?

Kind of a nasty looking paste.

(Photo by Peter Jan Jaas; edited by me)

It tastes much better than it looks, I assure you.

Miso can be made from a varaiaty of things including wheat, rice, and soybeans. It can be classified in two different ways.

• By color: Red (aka) and White (shiro) miso. Sometimes you may see a third type in this classification, naka (blend, or middle) miso, which is a combination of red and white.
• By ingrediant: wheat (mugi), rice (kome), and soybean (mame) miso.

Kome miso is the most popular kind of miso in Japan today, with approxmantly 85% of the market. mugi miso has about 3%, and mame about 12%.

Hatcho Miso

Hatcho (haht-cho) miso is made from soybeans so it is mame miso. It was a favorite of Ieyasu and Emperer Meiji, and remains the prefered miso for the Emperor today. One of the two hatcho miso factories (the only two remaining) has the contract for supplying the Imperial Palace with its miso. They are very proud of that, by the way, and only mention it even few minutes if you go on a tour.

Hatcho Miso has less salt than other types, fewer carbs, and lasts longer. It is the miso the Japanese bring with them on expeditions to the South Pole.

How is it made

Well, like so:

Ok, there is more to it than that, but the general details would make this article much longer. Basically, what you need to know is the beans are crushed up, the koji fungus is added along with lots of salt, and the whole mix is left to ferment for months to years, depending on the kind of miso and the exact process used. Oh yeah, and huge stones are piled on it all. Huge and heavy.

Each vat contains about 6 tonnes of miso. The stack of stones weighs about 3 tonnes.

I was told by the president of the company that stacking the stones is the single most important job and that people have to apprentence under a master for ten years before being allowed to do it. Evidently the stones have to be balanced exactly right so pressure is on the center of the miso. The same stacking methoid used here is the one used at one time for building the walls of Japanese castles and it’s claimed it can withstand an earthquake of 4 or below.

Why isn’t Hatcho more popular?

Hatcho Miso was at one time the prefered miso in Japan. As mentioned, Ieyasu prefered it, and so had plenty of it sent to Edo when he set up his capital there. Because every Daimyo (regional lord) was required to live in Edo every other year, Hatcho Miso quickly spread throughout Japan.

It remained this way untill the Tokyo earthquake in 1923. Kome miso was brought in to aid survivors, and the same happened later after WW2. I can’t find the exact reason for this… maybe it is cheaper to make. Either way, both of these events nearly killed the Hatcho Miso market.

There are only 2 Hatcho Miso companies left in Okazaki. I’ve visited both. They are both fanatical about only using traditional methods. It is left fermenting for up to 3 years, and so you can imagine they have a lot of these giant vats. Most are from the Taisho Era or eariler.

Hatcho means 8 cho, by the way. A cho is an old unit of measurement, roughly equal to 100 meters. Hatcho miso was so named because it originated 8 cho away from Okazaki Castle. 8 can be pronounced ha, so thus hatcho.

More on Miso

I think that’s probaby more than most want to know about miso, but if you are curious about more, Yamasa has a nice page all about it. And here is an awesome book on the subject: The Book of Miso

Other Matsuri Posts

Now that you are wise in the ways of miso. I recommend running out and buying some. Make it Hatcho Miso and Ieyasu will be happy. And be sure to head back to the main matsuri page here for other entries in the November J-Blog Matsuri. Lots of good ones.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: What Is Miso and How to Make It

First off, a brief explanation of HDR, and I’ll try to keep it as simple as possible.

What is HDR

HDR is basically a way to extend the dynamic range of a photo to match what our eyes actually see. Think of the dynamic range as the distance between the darkest dark and the brightest light. Now our eyes can see most of this range. The secret here is that our eyes are constantly adjusting to see both dark areas and light areas, but we don’t notice this and the perceived result is we can see a huge range of light. A photo doesn’t have this advantage of constant adjustment and so can only show us a small fraction of any given range of light. This is why, for instance, when you expose for the person in the foreground, you probably blow the sky (i.e., make it go pure white): The camera just couldn’t capture enough range of light to show you both the dark areas (the person in the foreground) and the light areas (the sky).

HDR seeks to correct this by extending the dynamic range of a photo. It does this by taking multiple exposures and combining them. So, for example, I take one photo where the person in the foreground is exposed perfectly (but the sky is blown), then I take another with the sky exposed perfectly (but the foreground is very dark). I then take the perfectly exposed sky and the perfectly exposed foreground and combine them into a new photo. (The actual process is a little more complicated, but this is the basic idea)

You might think of HDR as kind of a hack then to get more life-like photos. Now life-like is a very subjective thing, and you can process HDR in a way that makes it look very surreal. There’s nothing wrong with that (in fact, some of my photos on this site probably fit that description, though these days I tend to lean towards more realistic pictures), but you shouldn’t think those surreal images are the total of HDR. Think of HDR as basically a way of getting more light in photos.

Got it?

HDR on the iPhone!

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense for the iPhone to add HDR. It’s much cheaper to add HDR than to produce camera sensors with more dynamic range. I expect more and more cameras of all price ranges will add HDR modes in the future. In fact, I strongly suspect we wil eventually see HDR becoming the default shooting mode, maybe even the only one.

Anyways, let’s get on with some photo comparisons.

For these comparisons, I included the regular non-HDR photo, the HDR photo, and an HDR photo from the Pro HDR app. I used auto mode in Pro HDR, by the way. You can get better results from manual mode, but I figure most people will use auto, so that is what I used for these test shots.

Comparison: non-HDR, (Apple) HDR, Pro HDR

(I’m only going to use smaller versions of the pics to save you bandwidth, but click on any to go to flicker and see a giant version if you want to compare in more detail)

This first one was taken early in the morning so we had a nice blue sky and good light.

The HDR version is giving us more detail in the shadows, but overall it looks more faded. The Pro HDR version gives a more vivid image. A bit too saturated, but you can turn that down (I just used the defaults for this comparison, but a great feature of Pro HDR is you can make several adjustments on the photo before saving). You can see some slight haloing, but it’s not bad.

Next, a worm.

Again, I think the regular is better than the HDR, but they are very close. The Pro HDR has more detail and better color, but… whoops, I moved the camera between shots. Pro HDR pauses a second between shots so it is very hard not to move. It tries to align shots, but sometimes fails. Here, also, the worm was moving itself, so Pro HDR (correctly) chose to align him instead of the ground.

Next, another closeup test: Some coffee:

Here finally we see a case where HDR is better than regular. It brings down the highlights nicely so everything is visible. A bit dark. The Pro HDR one here doesn’t bring the highlights down enough, although that does make for a brighter photo which many might prefer.

I was drinking that coffee in a large atrium area with light streaming in from everywhere. How about a snap of one of those well-lit walls:

The HDR gives more detail, so I’d go with it. Whoops, some ghosting, tho. Be careful when taking HDR — any movement between exposures will create ghosting. The Pro HDR in this case is a bit much, IMO. It gives you great detail in the shadows, but this ends up creating some nasty halos along the doorways. This could be avoided by shooting manual, but again I used auto for this comparison.

Now, how about looking towards a window:

Hmm… it’s a toss up between the two HDR pics I think. The Regular shot doesn’t give us much: Most of the photo is too dark and the windows are blown completely. The HDR shot gives us more detail outside the window and brings up the shadows inside a hair. The Pro HDR version chooses to give us a better exposed room, but the windows are blown.

Let’s go back outside.

The HDR gives more detail, but again looks faded, while the Pro HDR looks nice, except for those ugly halos. I’d probably pick Apple’s version here.

I decided to go towards the castle to test more. Here’s some stairs. The stairs are very dark and it’s very bright at the end, so you might expect this to be similar to the window situation.

And it is. The HDR version chooses to keep the shadowed foreground, but gives more detail in the highlights, while the Pro HDR version does the reverse, giving more detail in the shadows but less in the highlights.

Now, Okazaki Castle:

Again, we see something very similar: Apple’s HDR keeps the shadows the same but gives more detail in the highlights, while Pro HDR gives more detail in the shadows but less in the… oh wait, it gets the highlights right this time. Definitely the best version in this case.

One more: How about sunsets?

The HDR isn’t bad here, but Pro HDR has it beat again. Not ony does Pro HDR give us more detail in the sky, but gives us the foreground in a very nice way. There is lots of haloing here, but the sunset hides it well and you likely won’t notice it unless you look for it. I’d go with that one.

Although the regular version is very nice, and arguably the foreground isn’t very important here so having it go to black may be exactly what you want. Artistic choice.

Conclusion

As you can see, Apple’s implimentation of HDR is pretty conservative. At times you can barely notice it. Most of the time, I actualy prefer the original non-HDR image (or the Pro HDR image), but sometimes Apple’s version is nice.

The best thing about Apple’d HDR is how fast it is. The shutter release (you only hear one) is only slightly longer than for a non-HDR image, so they are taking these 3 exposures very quickly. This limits ghosting (movement between exposures) but more importantly, limits blur from moving the camera between exposures. Most people will handhold shots they take with their iPhones and so it’s very difficult to hold the camera still. This can be bad in any photo, but expecialy in an HDR photo, so any speed in taking them is a good thing. You can see the results of this above: There is very little bluring or ghosting in the Apple HDR images, whereas many of the Pro HDR images have some kind of motion blur due to me shaking the camera.

My final thoughts are if you are really into HDR, buy Pro HDR. It’s ony 2 bucks. Be careful about shaking between shots, use manual mode, and watch your saturation, but overall I think this gives the better photos. However, depending on the scene, you might sometimes use Apple’s buit-in HDR. At any rate, art is a very subjective game, so I leave final judgement to you on which is best.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: iPhone HDR: A mini review and comparison

Photo by Kevin Jaako

You will only find torii gates at Shinto shrines, not at Buddhist temples¹. The purpose of the gate is to divide our world and the spirit world. You see, Shinto shrines supposedly don’t actually exist in this world. They do, but they don’t. The shrine grounds exist on a place that overlaps with the spirit world. Therefore, they are holy places where the spirits² are more likely to hear your prayers. Torii gates mark the entrance to this area.

(From here out, I’ll use the word kami instead of spirit.)

Photo by Chris Gladis

Bigger shrines will have at least two torii gates. There is no hard and fast rule about the order of these torii, but I have found that often a red torii marks the entrance to the shrine grounds, then a stone torii marks the actual shrine area. Sometimes there are many stone torii, each one signifying you are closer to the holiest part of the shrine.

But as I said, there is no hard rule here. Sometimes the red ones are inside the stone ones, sometimes they are even black or unpainted instead of red.

Photo by Toby Oxborrow

As to the torii gates themselves, there are many different designs, and each one tells you different info about the shrine. Some tell you that this shrine is for a local kami, others tell you this shrine is for a kami from a different area, and so on. There are a lot of these small design differences that signify different meanings. They aren’t that important, so don’t worry too much about them.

Probably the most well known torii gate is the one sitting in front of Miyajima Island.

Photo by jpellgen

In the old days, this entire island was considered holy ground, and only a few select people were allowed on the island. It’s much larger than you might think from looking at that photo, by the way. To give you an idea: When the tide is in, the boat to the island goes through the gate.

There is one design difference you might want to be aware of. At inari shrines³, there tend to be entire paths covered with torii gates. At these shrines, successful people often donate torii gates as a way of thanking the kami for their success.

Photo by Bill McIntyre

This is only a brief overview. If you are interested in learning more, wikipedia has more info than you could ever want. It’s even pretty accurate on this topic.

The above post was republished from JapanDave.com, home of the most beautiful daily photos of Japan on the Internet. See the original post: All about Torii Gates