Photos of Kiyosumi Gardens, Tokyo, with Leica IIIG

My mother-in-law lives in Tokyo. She is a wonderful host to us when we visit. Her home is a short walk from the beautiful Kiyosumi Garden. With an interesting history, including the incorporation of natural stones collected from all around Japan, and being owned at one time by the founder of the Mitsubishi empire, today it's a public park that is perfect for a morning stroll.

 

(Click Here) to read more about the history of Kiyosumi Garden.

 

The garden is centered around a large pond, and features a floating teahouse.

 

Kiyosumi Garden, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIG, 5cm f3.5 Elmar Lens with Yellow Filter

Ilford HP5+ Film (iso 400)

 

In addition to the natural stones and traditional Japanese garden trees (including pines, willows, and cherry trees), the garden has a lot of wildlife, like the ducks you see above, as well as turtles.

 

 

Kiyosumi Garden Wildlife, by Reed A. George

Leica IIIG, 5cm f3.5 Elmar Lens with Yellow Filter

Ilford HP5+ Film (iso 400)

 

The Leica IIIG, collapsible Elmar, and 400 speed film are not your classic landscape gear. However, I quite like the images I was able to produce with them here. The yellow filter helped increase the contrast just a little, but it was imperative that I keep the bright sky out of the images. In the first image, I had to crop out a plain white sky.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

I Like Tea - and Found a Nice New Place to Drink It

I've been on a bit of a tea kick lately. There's so much variety in tea - green, black, fermented (Puerh), and from so many interesting locations. And, I'll admit, I like the more subtle caffeine boost, as compared to coffee (which I still love, too).

 

I also believe that social networking is not the only thing killing real socialization, at least not directly. Where I live (Northern Virginia), now that book, camera, and music stores are a thing of the past, there is a dearth of places for people to meet in person, especially any not associated with drinking alcohol. Well, I found such a place. It's called Ching Ching Cha, and it's located in the Georgetown section of Washington, DC.

 

(Click Here) to go to Ching Ching Cha's website.

 

My wife is from Japan, where public places to meet and have a hot beverage with friends are not rare at all. So, I didn't have a hard time convincing her to go have tea with me. I brought along one of my favorite cameras from the "Skeletons From The Closet" series of last year, the Minolta Autocord medium format TLR. Here are a few images I made there.

 

 

Ching Ching Cha Tea House, by Reed A. George

Minolta Automat, Kodak Porta 400 Film

 

For all but the second image, I used my Rolleinar 1 closeup lenses, which mount to the front of the Autocord lenses perfectly, as the Minolta shares the bayonet filter mount with Rollei Bay 1 cameras. The Rolleinars significantly reduce depth of field, which I must admit was a challenge for me. I didn't exactly nail the focus on the shots of my wife. But, it's pretty close. The big medium format negative is pretty forgiving.

 

I'm glad to know about Ching Ching Cha, and will certainly be a repeat customer.

 

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