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