Tokyololas Blog » Photomatix

Tokyo – Time Unknown

Laura — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 11:03:35 +0000

I don’t usually do too much with textures, but I was organizing my computer desktop files and found this (which I processed quite a long time ago) and thought I’d post it (click on the image for a MUCH larger version).

Contemporary Tokyo looking rather aged...

This shot was taken from the “Sky Lounge” in our building, which is basically a big common lounge area with a view of the bay, the Rainbow Bridge, and the city.

The water in the immediate foreground is the mouth of the Sumida river and the green space on the right is Hamarikyu Gardens (浜離宮 – はまりきゅう), which is the site of a 17thC Tokugawa family villa that was opened as a public garden in the early 1950s. You can see the tidal pond (salt-water pond) which is within the park and quite famous.

Tokyo Tower is also visible (half obscured by a building near JR Hamamatsucho station) and behind it is the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills.

As for the image itself, it is 3 shots layered (-2/0/+2 exposure), tonemapped with Photomatix, desaturated in Lightroom, imported into Photoshop, and blended with a layer of craquelure texture (opacity reduced to about 20%).

Pre-Typhoon Purple Sky Over Tokyo

Laura — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:37:59 +0000

Yes, it seems I’ve been AWOL again…I’m definitely not going to win any Pro-Blogger “post regularly” prizes. I’m not really sure where July has gone, but that’s a separate issue.

For now, enjoy this truly spectacular pre-typhoon purple sky over Tokyo. I just ran out with the tripod and shot this a few minutes ago, so it’s definitely hot off the press (and has certainly jumped the queue on a whole lot of other photos waiting to be sorted):

(click on image for a larger version)

An amazing sky over Tokyo this evening (3 shots, tripod, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Photomatix)

Tokyo Sky Tree Construction (Photo Update)

Laura — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:29:15 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted a Tokyo Sky Tree update. Construction seems to be moving at a fair clip now and it is now at 559 metres.

I took this shot about an hour ago (which is a good sign that the days are getting longer because there’s a lovely glow from the sunset and it was almost 4:30 PM):

Tokyo Sky Tree in the golden glow of sunset - 559 metres (3exp tonemapped)

Compare it to this shot from about a month ago and you can see how much it’s grown:

And this is from August, 2010:

Tokyo Sky Tree Tops 500 meters

Laura — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:07:46 +0000

This past week, Tokyo Sky Tree passed the 500 meter mark. I’ve written about the Sky Tree before, but thought I’d post a photo of it from this week, as it’s now passed the 500m mark.

Tobu Tower Sky Tree Co said the new communications tower reached the height of 511 meters as builders worked on the top part of its main section.

They docked a lightning conductor and an antivibration device with the ‘‘gain tower’’—to be fitted with antennas for terrestrial digital broadcasting—that was pulled from the ground to the top inside the structure. The operator plans to pull up the gain tower at a pace of 12 meters per week, with the building on course to reach 634 meters high next spring.

(From Kyodo News via Japan Today)

3 exposures tonemapped using Photomatix. Shot at 500mm with the Sigma 150-500mm f/5-6.3, which looks like this:

Sigma 150-500mm f/5.0-6.3 on my old Canon

Tokyo in the Pink

Laura — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 13:55:50 +0000

This week’s photo for the weekly photo-meme “Show Me Japan” is a very rare double whammy: Mount Nantai visible from central Tokyo AND a beautiful pink glow from the sunset filling the sky. Individually, each is a pretty rare sight, but, together, this might be the first time I’ve seen it in the three years I’ve been in this apartment.

I blogged before about seeing Mount Nantai (which is in Nikko) from central Tokyo, so you can read a bit more about it here. Today, I’ll just leave you with the image:

The pink glow of the sunset bathes the Tokyo sky and Mount Nantai shows itself

This shot is three exposures tonemapped using Photomatix – click on the image for a larger view.

I have been doing A LOT of building shots lately and have posted a few of the results on Flickr, so you can click here if you’d like to see more. I’ve really only posted a few from the past few months, but I have dozens more and am, in some way, working towards a thematic collection that I’ll eventually make a book of. I am becoming more and more attracted to shots like this, so I’ll go with it for a while and see where it takes me…

For more of “Show Me Japan”, click here: