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Takahata Fudoson hydrangeas in 2021
On a cloudy day in 2021, I saw the Takahata Fudoson hydrangeas. I hadn’t been there for two years, so I was looking forward to it. It turned out to be a good day. Well, it was a mostly good day! There were a couple of minor problems. For me, there is always a hiccup or two.
I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone this trip. Of course, I wanted to do flower photography. My other purpose was to get enough material to write about the temple. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was too heavy. Behind the buildings was just a sea of white, which didn’t look attractive. Luckily, I did manage to get one nice photo of the pagoda from a hill. That made my day, but I was hoping for more.
Another problem was the rebuilding work going on at Takahata Fudoson. Workers were all over the place. Some were ripping out the insides of buildings to give them a facelift. Others were hard at work keeping the hydrangea gardens in good condition. The temple grounds didn’t look appealing.
The final problem was that most flowers weren’t around those buildings. They were on a hill. You can only get very few pictures with a temple “feel” to them.
And it was the first time to use the Eterna film simulation. It made a difference in my post-processing. Before, I used Velvia. But, it boosted the saturation of colors too much. It was a pity I hadn’t noticed that years earlier.
So I moved to Eterna. The company named it after the film emulsion of the same name. It is beautiful. Instead of boosting colors, it has low contrast and saturation. Everything is more muted. I’m enjoying it a lot. Things look more realistic.
That had been a problem in the past. Were the Velvia colors too vivid? Having bright hues in pictures is great, but shouldn’t images reflect what we saw? I feel some of my past pictures look somewhat cartoonish.
Eterna is a superior film simulation. I enjoy its muted look as it is more realistic. It is now a part of my post-processing workflow. Congratulations to Fujifilm for creating it.
Anyway, I had an enjoyable time at Takahata Fudoson with its hydrangeas that year. Yes, it was a little cloudy, but as I pointed my camera down at the flowers, that was okay. Still, if I had the chance to go again on a sunny day, I’d take it.
Where is Takahata Fudoson?
The temple and gardens are very close to Takahatafudo Station, on the Keio Line. Leave via the station’s south side and turn right. It’ll only be a two-minute walk straight ahead.
You can see it here on Google Maps.
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