Hitachinaka, Japan

This is one of my favourite images from Japan. This little girl was trying so hard to grab that rope and ring the bell of Miharashi no Oka Hill. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this bell is doing up here nor why people ring it. If anyone knows, drop me a comment over on Facebook or Instagram.

You may have recognised the ferris wheel in the background and the blue flowers from my last post. Miharashi no Oka Hill, from which I took both photos from, is located in Hitachi Seaside Park. And as I said in my last post, everyone should visit this place once in their lifetime. And bring the kids along too, there’s plenty to keep them busy.

I was hesitant taking this shot. Taking photos of children in public can be sensitive. But this little girl was so cute and trying so hard to grab that rope, I had to snap a photo. I have to say, I was very lucky not to have anyone else in the frame as there were a few people there. I was also lucky she was trying for a couple of minutes to grab that rope, it gave me the time to put some distance between us, to be less conspicuous, and to adjust my camera so that I just had to point and shoot. Because I was in Manual mode, my exposure was already locked in, I just had to change my focus mode to Auto and zoom all the way in. In regards to post-processing, I tried a black & white conversion but didn’t like it as much as the coloured.

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75 mm, 1/3200th second @ ƒ/2.8, ISO 100

Hitachinaka, Japan

Hitachi Seaside Park is one of those places everyone should visit once in their life. Choose well your season though as these gardens change constantly throughout the year. Magnificent, colourful plains of flowers, herbs and shrubs depending on the season. Though we visited it kind of in-between seasons, it was still stunning. As you can see by the green patches which are normally covered by blue flowers, we were towards the end of the Nemophila season. But, it was the beginning of the Poppy season which are the orange flowers on the bottom of the photo though they are everywhere within these fields.

The Hitachi Seaside Park is more than just a massive garden, it’s also a recreational park for families. With different golf-like games, BMX course, air trampoline, athletics course, water/pool area, a 400 metre obstacle tube and not forgetting the ferris wheel. And of course there are restaurants, cafes and other specialised stores. You would have to spend the whole day here to take advantage of everything. A great place.

Now you may have noticed I shot this photo at ƒ/2.8 … and I have no idea why I did that. Apart from the bottom quarter of the photo and everything beyond the ferris that is slightly blurry, the image is sharp. I would’ve gotten the same exposure though using 1/200th sec @ ƒ/11 but with the added bonus of having everything in focus and sharp. Lesson learned from a silly mistake.

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75 mm, 1/3200th second @ ƒ/2.8, ISO 100

Just as I had finished setting up for my gear in the middle of Ron Barassi Snr. Park for my sphere photo, I noticed these two hot air balloons traveling through the sky. By the time I got my camera off the tripod and took the shot, they were farther from the Melbourne Star wheel then I would have liked. Still glad I got a photo to remind me where I was when I saw them, and give them a little perspective. I took a couple of other shots but they weren’t as nice.

The EXIF data shows that I really didn’t have much time to take the shot. I literally took the camera, zoomed and snapped. I don’t know how I got such a sharp image at that shutter speed. I should’ve bumped the ISO up a touch and opened the aperture a lot more. I didn’t need such a large depth of field as everything was far away but a higher shutter speed would’ve been better. In the end I got the shot and that’s what counts.

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0.3 sec @ ƒ/8, 37 mm, ISO 100

Here is a different perspective of the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel. It looks much larger than my in last post, doesn’t it? Now that I post this photo, I wish I had taken it at blue hour. I think it would have made a beautiful photo with the buildings and the wheel lit up. Oh well, maybe next time.

I had edited this photo in colour at first but quickly realised it was more suited to black & white. The light wasn’t the best and there weren’t enough colours to make the image pop or interesting.

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1/400 sec @ ƒ/5.6, 55 mm, ISO 100

As I walked up to Spiky, I saw the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel between the buildings. All lit up. Beautiful! I tried to photograph the wheel once before but I was too late to capture it lit. This composition is much better too. Especially with the contrasting red light against blue hour makes it stand out. It was green at my first attempt. And I like the entrance as a leading line.

Though not all the lights on the wheel were working, I still tried to time my exposure to capture them all lit. It took a few trials and errors but I finally came away with this one. I could’ve close my aperture to ƒ/11 to gain an extra second of exposure but I find the images too soft at that opening. A one second exposure was enough.

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1 sec @ ƒ/8, 36 mm, ISO 100