As mentioned on my first post of this series, we had some luck on our way back through this forest. First, we visited the Jojakko-ji Temple nearby so that we can avoid the tourist crowds at the Arashiyama forest. Here are some photos of the beautifully landscaped gardens of this temple.
Jojakko-ji Temple really is a magical place with Zen gardens.
Entrance to the temple costs about $10 but is well worth the price.
Almost all surfaces, including the rooftops, are covered in moss.
The Japanese style roof of the temple's main building.
I believe this is a prayer hall of the Jojakko-ji Temple. However, we couldn't go inside since it was getting too late.
Beautiful Japanese red maple in full fall colors
It was getting dark and most of the tourists had left the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, allowing for an intruder free shot! However, it was getting dark and my poor habit of having auto ISO added a lot of grains to these shots. I am still lucky because my camera's (Canon 6D) low light performance is very good.
There were fewer tourists on our way back through the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. I got a lot of grains because having auto ISO cranked up the ISO to 12800!
Changed the ISO to 800 and now we have a more pleasant photo!
If I were to do this shoot again, I would go with a remote shutter release so that I can put my camera into Bulb mode when I am at a lower ISO setting. However, I am still not sure how to calculate the shutter speed in Bulb mode (how many seconds to keep the shutter open in order to get the correct exposure). Maybe someone from PhotoBlog can advise?
Trying a different edit
For the photo below, I edited the same photo with the VSCO Film Lightroom Presets. Which one do you like more?
Edited with VSCO Lightroom presets
Thank you all for reading this post. Please leave your comments and suggestions below.
My favourite of your three shots of the path in the grove is the first. Being an old film freak (and an old-film freak too), the graininess doesn't both me at all, and the better detail in the highlights, plus the overall warmer colour -- and the placement of the people leaving! -- all make it a very attractive picture.