On the afternoon of 31 August 2025 I kept twenty-five frames from Atami. Atami Station at 12:51, AKAO Forest from 13:38, Kiunkaku at 14:58, and the last frame at 16:00. Gardens outside for the first half, a villa's rooms for the second, and an ISO that climbs from 100 to 640.
13:38, the garden is still at 1/1000s
AKAO Forest climbs a hillside, open toward the sea, so in the middle of the day there is more light than you need. From 13:38 to 14:22 the aperture holds near f4 between 1/400s and 1/1600s, with the ISO fixed at 100.
Bonsai set into gravel, a terrace over the water, a building framed in timber. The focal length moves between 24mm and 52mm as the subjects change.
13:56, f1.4 and 1/8000s
Four frames between 13:56 and 14:11 are on a different lens, a NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.4. Wide open at f1.4 there is so much light that the shutter runs to 1/8000s, which is what the frame at 14:09 is doing.
Shooting wide open is about dissolving the background so a flower or a tree lifts off it. In the same garden, an f4 frame and an f1.4 frame are doing different jobs.
14:58, three stops darker through the gate
Kiunkaku is a Taisho-era villa open to visitors. The gate at 14:58 is 24mm, 1/250s, f4, ISO 100. Ten minutes later, indoors, it is 1/60s at ISO 500. The ISO has gone up five times.
The corridor at 15:09 is 1/25s at ISO 640. No tripods are allowed, so whatever you can hold by hand becomes the limit of what you can photograph.
Choosing the rooms with windows
Some rooms can be photographed and some resist it. The frame at 15:14 facing the garden is 1/500s at ISO 100; with a big enough window you are almost back at outdoor settings.
The room with the fireplace, at 15:17, is 1/30s at ISO 640. The vermilion alcove at 15:57 is 1/15s. Four stops of difference inside one building.
16:00, back out to the garden
The last frame, at 16:00, looks back at the building from the garden. 1/800s at ISO 100. Step outside and the settings snap back to where they started.
A shuttle runs from Atami Station up to AKAO Forest; the frames at 12:51 and 13:21 are that journey. Later the same day I moved on to Enoshima and was shooting on the beach by 17:56.
Aviation and landscape commissions
Airport and landscape shoots start at ¥22,000 (tax incl.) for half a day. Tell me the aircraft or the light you want and we plan from there.