Engetsu Islet in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture

Aug 08 | Evan | No Comments |

This summer in Japan I had planned to spend a week exploring Wakayama Prefecture. Wakayama Prefecture, Southeast of Kyoto and Osaka, is most famous for Koyasan and The Kumano Kodo, but this trip I wanted to explore the beautiful coastline in the Kii Peninsula. As it turned out, a typhoon also wanted to visit Wakayama Prefecture at the exact same time, so my trip got cut from 7 days to 4 days! In any case, I still managed to see much of what I wanted, though most places weren’t at the time of day I would have liked to be there for. One place I could photograph as planned was Engetsu Islet in Shirahama. I ended up coming to Engetsu Islet for 2 sunsets and 1 sunrise, partly because I just liked the location but also because there are lot’s of points around the coast to photograph Engetsu Islet from.

Imagine the coastline in the shape of a “U” but on the right side, instead of a straight line, it’s an “S” and most of the U merged with and S coastline I walked trying to find location I liked to photograph from. This was also the first time I had attempted to use graduated neutral density filters and also a 10 stop ND filter (which is what makes the water look so creamy in some of these photos). I really enjoyed exploring the area and had fun learning about the new filters, though I still have a ways to go with them I suppose! Here is a comparison of with and without the 10 stop ND filter:

The last morning I was in Shirahama, I even got to see a rainbow along with Engetsu Islet which was kind of nice if not a little cliche of a photo though…

Next up on the trip would be Nachi Taisha of the Kumano Kodo!

Photo Tour of Japan | Utoro Sunsets

Jan 24 | Evan | No Comments |

As the 2013 fall Japan Photo Guide tour was exploring the Shiretoko Peninsula and Shiretoko National Park, instead of camping in the wilderness, we were staying the the town of Utoro just outside of Shiretoko National Park. The Shiretoko Peninsula has quite a few places that are great for viewing the sunset and taking photos of the sun setting in Hokkaido. There are at least 4 good options, Cape Puyuni and Yuuhidai which both offer elevated views of the ocean and town below and or Oronkoiwa Rock area and pretty much any place you can find along the rocky shore that looks interesting to you.