More photography school

Today was the second instalment of our three-Saturday photography school (see last week here). We went up Mt Takao, a 599m mountain 38km south-west of here. We caught trains out there and spent the day traipsing around the mountain taking photos. I walked more than nine kilometres, much of it was up and down. 

This was the view at the top.

Lots of people there, many tourists. You can see it was hot (about 30C) as people were hugging the shade. Actually most of the walking was semi-shaded by trees, this was one of the sunniest spots. 

Riding the chair lift part-way up the mountain. So fun, I haven't been on a chairlift for a long time!

It was fun learning a new skill, but especially I think that it involved a lot of problem solving: Wanting to take a good photo, trying, failing, changing the settings on the camera, and trying again, and again, and again.

The below photo was taken at a museum at the bottom of the mountain. It was hard to take because it was under glass and there were numerous lights on the ceiling reflecting off the glass.

The next two were me playing with the depth of field. One is just focused close, the other has more of the distance in focus.

This photo doesn't look that great, but I appreciate it because it took a number of tries to even get it this good. An ant running around on this shady rock and I worked hard to get him in focus with enough light.

So aside from all the technical side of photography, it was fun people-watching.  There were many, many people on the mountain. We sat at the top for half an hour for lunch and lots of people walked past. The below photos were snapped with my iPhone while eating lunch.

I'm amused by Japanese hiking-fashion. Shorts and tights seem to be big. Some people even had thick woollen socks on. I can't imagine how hot they were.

Another good day, and I can't wait until I get my "new" camera on Monday, but I'm ready to chill out now. Time for a shower to wash off the sweat of the day and watch a West Wing episode.