Today's Photos From Japan - Grill Master

Food is always one of the highlights of visiting Japan. We ate lunch at an amazing restaurant in Tokyo called Wakanui, which features grilled meats. Here's the grill master at work:

 

Grill Master, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 50mm f1.2 AIS Lens

iso 3200, f1.4, 1/250 sec.

 

The grill master was very impressive to watch. He used a metal probe to check the internal temperature of the meats. An electronic thermometer? Certainly not. He would insert the probe deep into the meat, then press it against his lower lip to sense the temperature with his own neurons. I like that.

 

Grill Master No. 2, by Reed A. George

Nikon Df, Nikkor 50mm f1.2 AIS Lens

iso 3200, f1.4, 1/250 sec.

 

I have found myself wondering why I carry any camera other than my Lumix LX-100 when traveling. These photos are part of the answer. Shooting at f1.4 at 50mm focal length, and getting these kind of results at iso 3200 are the sole domain of the Nikon Df in my camera set. These are jpegs straight from the camera, just converted to black and white and cropped in Snapseed, on my iPad.

 

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Now It's a Tradition - the Annual New Year's Oseichi (Japanese Food) Post

Third year in a row, I like to share my family's tradition of eating Japanese holiday food at breakfast on January first. This year, I shot it with my new Bower fisheye lens (Micro 4/3). I've been looking at a fisheye lens for a couple of years, but decided it would not be used often enough to justify the $300-$700 cost (depending on which brand I chose). This holiday season, it dropped to $200, including shipping, so I bought a Bower manual focus fisheye lens.

 

These were all shot with the Bower lens on my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1:

 

Oseichi Ryori (Japanese Traditional Food), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, Bower 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens

 

Happy Family, New Years Day, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, Bower 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens

 

Salmon and Salmon Eggs, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, Bower 7.5mm f3.5 Fisheye Lens

 

Hope everyone's having a nice year so far!

 

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A Family Tradition - Oseichi Ryori - Japanese New Year's Breakfast

 

Japanese Oseichi Ryori, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

iso 160, f2.2, 1/60 sec.

 
My wife is Japanese. Living in Northern Virginia, we don't get all that many chances to celebrate Japanese culture. One opportunity we take every year is on New Year's morning. We order out traditional Japanese food, oseichi ryori. Now I'm kind of a conservative eater, especially at breakfast. But, I thoroughly enjoy welcoming the new year in with fresh seafood and Japanese sencha (green tea) one day per year.
 
I also always grab a camera and take a shot of this year's selection. That tends to be the DMC-LX5. For these shots, I used iAuto, where the camera sets EVERYTHING for you. Obviously, I also used macro focus. Not bad for complete point and shoot automation.

Japanese Oseichi Ryori, by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

iso 200, f2.2, 1/60 sec.

 

 
 

Ohashi (chop sticks), by Reed A. George

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

iso 80, f2, 1/100 sec.

 

I almost sprung for an upgrade to the LX5 over the holidays - the LX7 was obscenely cheap at less than $300. But, the additional nearly $200 to upgrade the accessory finder from the DMW-LVF1 to DMW-LVF2, necessary with the LX7, was just a little too much. I've got no complaints about the LX5, and the LX7 has a faster (f2) lens, but no advantage in sensor size. So, I held off.

 

Happy 2013!

 

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