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Timeless Shrines in Dazaifu

Dazaifu Tenmangu mini-shrine - Japan Photos

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine gate house - Japan Photos Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine gate house in color - Japan Photos

It’s nice to reminisce. Prior to creating this website, I had many adventures. Some are worth sharing. This post series is one of them. Enjoy.

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine Shop - Japan PhotosThe shrine grounds were much larger than I expected. Spanning about 3,000 acres there are two museums, two ponds, a beautiful garden, a multitude of plum trees and several small shrines and even a little amusement park for children besides the main hall. Within a couple hours I was able to explore to my hearts content and also take the photos I wanted. There is something so charming about the Dazaifu shrines. They’ve aged well.

When it came time to edit my photos I mostly went with muted colors and blurred the edges a bit to draw more attention to the serene shrines. In the above photo though you can see that I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted to go with some color for a change. Which do you think turned out better?

I’ve been back to Dazaifu and took some very compelling shots at the height of autumn colors. Don’t miss the full gallery here.

11 Responses to Timeless Shrines in Dazaifu

  1. Sacredmoonlite June 29, 2011 at 9:11 am #

    Wow…these pics are great. I want to go visit Japan one day ^-^

    • Andrew June 29, 2011 at 10:15 am #

      Thanks Sacredmoonlite, I appreciate the comment! Actually, very soon (next week!) I’m releasing an eBook trying to help people get themselves to Japan as I have. No one reads these comments and I’m not too worried about the book leaking a little bit, but I hope it will be helpful to you once it’s up for download from this site.

      Is there anything specifically that you would like covered?
      Sincerely,
      Andrew

  2. Frank and Deb June 28, 2011 at 11:10 pm #

    I liked the muted one that had hints of green – for the feeling of solitude but the green gave it a feeling of a living place. I would bring out slightly more deep greens and a bit of the gold – just a soft touch to give that inviting quality Lori spoke of. Color does make a big impact – or lack of it.

    • Andrew June 29, 2011 at 8:24 am #

      Awesome feedback! Thanks so much.
      Sometimes I look at these image so long I can’t even tell what looks right anymore.

  3. Kris June 28, 2011 at 9:06 am #

    Curious, what tools do you use in post-processing?

    • Andrew June 28, 2011 at 10:34 am #

      Photoshop CS4 you?

      • Kris June 29, 2011 at 12:07 am #

        I just user Aperture for some minor photo adjustments. I have Acorn, but haven’t done much with it. I’ve been reluctant to go down the PhotoShop path as I’m afraid it would consume me.

        • Andrew June 29, 2011 at 8:27 am #

          Cool. I haven’t heard of Acorn. Is that specifically for photos?
          I am looking forward to doing some tethered shooting in Lightroom one of these days like you can do in Aperture.
          Photoshop most assuredly will consume you if you are anything like myself. Even when I just want to tweak an image, it can end up taking 30 minutes because I think of tons of other options to explore. Ah, this age we live in has too many choices and not enough time.

          • Kris June 29, 2011 at 8:52 am #

            Acorn is a Mac-only, poor man’s photoshop. Leery of diving too deep; as you noted it too has endless options…

  4. Lori June 28, 2011 at 9:04 am #

    I’m personally attracted to the colors in this one =) because it gives off a warm inviting feeling.

    • Andrew June 28, 2011 at 10:33 am #

      Thanks! I think I went a bit overboard on the toning of the image, but I’m glad you liked it.

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