Nature and Landscapes
People
Portfolio
Urban and City
In Japan, you have the opportunity to visit so called owl cafes, which is exactly what it sounds like - you go in and have a coffee while being surrounded by owls (and some other birds). This little fella here is from Nara, a famous place in Japan that is crawling with deer in the city centre. When we finished checking out the local temples and had enough of taking photos of deer, we found an owl cafe on our way to the train station. The rule is simple - get in, get a coffee, and stay no more than 1 hour. There are also some birds that you cannot touch, either because they are on break or because they simply dont like it. Initially it feels odd to see so many birds chained to a relatively small area - especially considering there were some owls that were massive! However, we have been told the birds are very well kept after and before opening hours, and any sign of stress would have the bird brought to an open area right away for the remainder of the day. One may think whatever about keeping birds in a cafe like that - but it was an interesting experience for sure. When I was in the cafe, this bird here was on break, meaning no touching or getting too close. -Phillip
Autumn - one of the greatest times to own a camera. It is not just about the new places that you can visit to get some awesome colours in the vegetation, but you also have the chance to revisit places you have been to a hundred times to see them in a different light. This place is called Glendalough (Ireland) and I have been here so so many times! But - never when the trees changed colours. In fact, when I arrived I barely recognised the place! The weather was dull, light rain in the air and just a few people (usually you have a bazillion tourists there) but nevertheless some great colours in the trees that cover the mountains around the valley. The only downside was that I had to clean my lens every 1.5 min to remove little drops, and changing the lens was not the greatest idea I had... This was the day before storm Ophelia hit Ireland, which explains the calm water. -Phillip
Fushimi Inari Taisha is the head shrine of the kami Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto - and its one hell of a walk! There are hundreds of these red Tori gates alongside a small mountain and they make for awesome photos. The difficult part was to not have 1000 people in each photo - having said that, when you start the walk at the bottom of the path, having empty tunnels is virtually impossible. Most people give up after 20 min walk though as the walk gets tougher, so then its much easier. In fact, having the occasional person walking through makes for an even better scene, so I take it! Oh dont you worry, there are about 13424231 more photos to come from this place. Phillip
