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Tag Archives | rice field

January 22, 2011

Daily Photo: Look at All That Rice [22/365]

It was a pretty good rice harvest this past fall; as you can see from the photo. Rice already has a yellowish color, but when the sun hits it the right way it really shines a nice golden color.

For this photo I muted down the colors here to give it a little bit of a faded look, but that golden shine is still visible. I also added some grain. Using my iPhone for photography has given me an incredible appreciation of lofi photography, and more and more I find myself carrying some of that over to my dSLR work, things like using grain more and more.

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November 14, 2010

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Purple skys, good rice harvest?

The sun had just dropped, and it was twilight time, when the sky turns strange colors like this one. Are purple skys good luck for the rice harvest? Must be — it was a really good one this year. Look at it there — it’s overflowing and is about to fall off on it’s own.

Other shots from rice patties.

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October 19, 2010

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Sunset Before the Harvest & a Spider Lily

Taken a few weeks ago a few days before the harvest. The rice was just about ready to fall off itself. The sunset was lighting up the sky nicely, and I even found a small Red Spider Lily to include in the shot.

I’ll give more info about Spider Lilies in a future post. For now, they are called higanbana in Japanese and mark the fall equinox for the Japanese. They are poisonous for some animals like mice and so used to be planted around rice patties and other areas to discourage these pests. Nice looking flower, isn’t it?

If you don’t want to wait on me in order to learn more, my buddy Len recently talked about them a bit on his blog. Go check it out.

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October 2, 2010

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Rice Is Done

Daily HDR Photo — Rice Is Done

The rice is overflowing!

Rice is becoming a little less popular every year (losing the battle against bread), but it is still grown everywhere. Of course it varies from region to region, but most farmers in my area (Aichi) seem pretty happy with how well it has grown this year. The inlaws up in Tochigi report it’s come in nicely on their farms too. But there are some complaining on TV about how bad it is this year and how the rice crop in Japan is doomed (and the sky is falling too). Go figure. Looks pretty good to me!

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August 26, 2010

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Rice and Barley

Daily HDR Photo — Rice and Barley

Today’s photo is some farmland. Some rice and just harvested barley (I think).

About

They rotate these patches every year here. This year they have rice and barley. It looked like barley anyways to my cityslicker eyes. I took this several weeks ago so the rice was only a few weeks old which is why it’s so low. Nice place here to walk and enjoy nature.

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July 16, 2010

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Let's Take a Walk: Peaceful Field at Sunset

Daily HDR Photo — Let’s Take a Walk

Today’s photo is a pleasant scene from a rice field with the multi-colored light from the sunset poking through and highlighting the clouds nicely.

About

If you look closely, you can see a bunch of people walking in the photo. Towards evening, many drive to the rice fields just in order to take relaxing walks through them. I’m sure this amuses the farmers to no end.

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July 3, 2010

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Resting by the Farmhouse

Daily HDR Photo — Resting by the Farmhouse

Today’s photo is from Shirakawa-go, a small farmhouse in the middle of some rice fields, and a weary farmer sitting down for a rest.

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My big shot of Shirakawa-go (which I’ll repost below) has become by far my most popular HDR, with more hits than all of the rest of my photos combined. So I thought we might revisit the village today. If you want to learn a bit more about the village, see this post where I talk about it a little.

Compared to the other farmhouses of Shirakawa-go, this one is somewhat small. Maybe it’s not a farmhouse then, but rather just a shed for storing the harvested rice and tools. I’m not sure. The farmer here is taking a well deserved break. That farming is tough work!

Other Shots

Here’s the other Shirakawa photo.

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The second issue goes out Sunday. If you missed the first, hurry and sign up so you can catch this one.

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June 16, 2010

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Rice Field Sunset

Daily HDR Photo — Rice Field Sunset

Today’s photo is a nice sunset taken from some rice fields. The rice is only a few weeks planted, so still plenty of water visible in the paddies to give us a nice reflection.

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Rice has always been the most common crop in Japan. The volcanic activity of the island makes the soil very acidic which makes growing rice ideal.

These days, however, the popularity and consumption of rice is decreasing rapidly as more and more people turn to bread and other Western foods. Not only that, but the rice fields themselves are disappearing. Young people don’t want to be farmers, so no one is replacing the aging ones. No one is quite sure what is to come of this situation.

If you look closely, you can see some school kids hanging out in the photo. I suppose a patch of rice fields is as good a place as any to avoid adults and get some privacy.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Remember, I offer the full-size version of this. Zoom in and let it fill your screen. I find HDR works best when the photo is too big for you to take completely in, so your eyes have to wander around. Try it.

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A few other rice field shots

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January 20, 2010

In the countryside

Image

Peaceful field

Near my apartment there is a large area filled with rice fields. It’s a relatively peaceful and quiet area, so is fairly popular with residents as an area to “get away from the city”, or at least pretend we are getting away. When the rice plants grow up but before the rice starts coming out at the top, they look very similar to giant blades of grass and will gently sway to and fro with the wind. The overall effect of this is very pleasant and adds to the feeling of peace.

Continue Reading →

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)

Daily Photo: Look at All That Rice [22/365]

Purple skys, good rice harvest?

Sunset Before the Harvest & a Spider Lily