Photos

The day I visited the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, it was heavily overcast and at times there was a light drizzle. This made getting outdoor shots with any colour in them extremely difficult, so I had to look for interesting angles from which to shoot. This photograph is of the entrance gate to the temple, taken from a roadway below and using a bed of azaleas to frame it. Taking photographs against a white or light grey sky never provides as much contrast as when they are shot against a blue or dark grey sky, but I think I get away with it in this shot because the POV gives a more dramatic look to the temple gate and the red painted wood, with white inserts the same colour as the sky, still provides a reasonable contrast against the sky. Focal length was 32 mm, and this is as shot except for a slight adjustment in levels, 10% cropped off the left hand side and a small amount of sharpening. I decided that no increase in saturation was required because the reds were already quite bright.