Returning to Kaiyukan

I returned to Kaiyukan in Osaka last week and we went on a weekday, hoping to avoid the weekend crowd. Thought we were clever but as it turned out, we completely forgot that it was the summer holidays! Scores of families decided to take advantage of that fact and visited the aquarium on that very same day!

I was shocked to see so many people queuing outside the doors, snaking around a couple of barriers. But thank goodness this being Japan, the line moved quickly and after about 30 minutes or so, we got into the building.

I don't mind family outings - in fact I love them! But what I can't stand are those who allow their kids to run around and pushing everybody just to get to the fishes. What is worse are those who pushes everyone else so that they can get their kids or grandkids to the front line. Worst offenders were the grandmas!

But I did enjoy my outing there! Love the place - the calming blue light and the fishes swimming round and round and round. I know how it feels being outside looking in, but I wonder how does it feel like being inside, day after day, swimming around with human faces gazing at you and thousands of light flashing at you from the cameras?

As it was rather dark inside the aquarium, I had taken all the pictures at the highest ISO setting possible, resulting in grainy pictures unfortunately. Movements, and the aquarium glass made it difficult to get clear pictures (er, or rather, I do not know HOW to get clear pictures from these circumstances) and I had to post process a few pictures.

One of my favourite exhibits is the Pacific Ocean with now TWO whale sharks swimming along with a host of other species including rays. The gigantic manta ray that once swam together with the whale shark is now cut off from the other fishes by nettings. I wonder why? But I love it - I love the way it glides so beautifully. So graceful like the dancers of the sea.

And I love the look of this fish! More pictures of the Kaiyukan here at my flickr site. I will post more pictures of the jellyfishes in the next post!

Horizon Perfekt Part 3

More pictures of Gion Matsuri from the Horizon Perfekt. I have another roll of film to process but am reluctant to fork out the money just yet. This time, all of the photos were taken during daylight, so I would really love to see the result. Perhaps soon....

Horizon Perfekt Part 2

More horizon pictures. Enjoy!

Horizon Perfekt? Perfect!

Yeah! I finally got back my Horizon Perfekt pictures and they turned out to be better than I expected! My first roll and I am quite happy with them. Of course I should practice more but seeing how expensive it was to print the 22 pictures, I think I should practice sparingly. They were all taken during the Yoiyama night of the Gion Festival held here recently in Kyoto in mid July. It is the biggest festival in Kyoto and tons of people descend to this historical town to indulge themselves in some Gion Matsuri fun. I did not take many pictures this time around though - surprise, surprise.

It was always fun whipping out the camera and getting ready to take the pictures with the Horizon because everyone always stares at me and I can hear them going - what is that thing? Truly - the camera is big and it looks nothing like an ordinary camera!

Here are the first four pictures! These were scanned and then level and contrast adjusted because the scanned pictures came out kind of dark. More to come.....