Memories of Hokkaido
- Thread starter giantcanopy
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giantcanopy
Senior Member
Hi denizenx
It was stitched with three pics taken with my 24mm PC. I did not tilt the lens though, just seeking to make a panorama out of it.
Spent about 11k+/- for both person excluding airfares. My gf has some basic requirements for a room, so budget hostels out for me. If u stay in budget youth hostels, it is much cheaper.
We dreamed of going Hokkaido for more than a year, only started serious planning like 4 mths back. For summer hols period try to book > 2 mths in advance. I booked > 3 mths before. Even then some of the popular ones might not have available dates. I have a friend who KS booked earlier than 3 mths for his summer trip and could not get the dates for Hotel Taisetsu. And I could not get dates for Hotel Winsor of Toya. Winter skii hotels like Furano New Prince Hotel are very very popular and overbooked as well.
There is a premium hotel surcharge for holidays and weekends or days that coincide with local festives, and can amount to 50% more. Some of my hotel lodging i gotta shell out > 500 SGD per night because of little charges here and there.
We bought the JR rail pass in singapore thru the tour agency. We preplan with the assistance of JR rail schedule provided online. Planning an alternative itienrary is good as well :bsmilie: Unfortunately there arn't lots of Hokkaido only travel books, most of my itinerary planning was based on online info, forums, and tips by friends who went there before. ( and yes thanks to g-khoo for suggesting the beautiful Mount Moiwa so that I made some last minute changes - literally last minute cause he only suggested in the midway of my trip ! :bsmilie: )
You can check out tripadvisor for travelling tips in Japan. I got alot of information and feedback from the great folks there. They volunteer information freely and no one will chide u for not researching online
Hope it helps
Ryan
giantcanopy
Senior Member
# 151
The view at the JR Lavender stop. Open concept.
Farm Tomita is a short walk from here.
The view at the JR Lavender stop. Open concept.
Farm Tomita is a short walk from here.
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Farm Tomita of Furano
Originally a lavender farm, it expanded to grow a myriad of colorful flowers and poppies.
Here is a shot taken before the rainbow field, with some purple flowers as foreground
# 152
Originally a lavender farm, it expanded to grow a myriad of colorful flowers and poppies.
Here is a shot taken before the rainbow field, with some purple flowers as foreground
# 152
edwinlimlx
New Member
Wow~ jaw dropping! upz!:thumbsup:
Farm Tomita of Furano
Originally a lavender farm, it expanded to grow a myriad of colorful flowers and poppies.
Here is a shot taken before the rainbow field, with some purple flowers as foreground
# 152
simply beautiful.
pano stitch or pano crop?
giantcanopy
Senior Member
thx edwinlimlx
hi jfoo
Pano stitched from 3 frames with the 24mm PC
:bsmilie: I try not to make faux panos from a cropping a shot.
The only problem is occassional incongruity in the flora because of wind
Ryan
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Almost always tripod. To cover the same area handheld I might end up taking more than 6 shots after accounting for misalignments here and there and the resultant cropping PP.
I move around with the camera attached to the tripod in Furano and Biei. The setup was much faster, and it did not take me more than a minute to make the panos ( so that my fiancee doesn have to wait too long, or rather I dun have to catch up with her too badly :bsmilie: - family guys u know what i mean ... )
Ryan
Genie In A Lightbox
Senior Member
Hi Ryan
How come I do not notice any characteristic distortion of a 24mm lens in your pano stitch? I tried to do it with pics taken using 28mm and I have trouble stitching everything up nicely in Photomerge.:mad2:
How come I do not notice any characteristic distortion of a 24mm lens in your pano stitch? I tried to do it with pics taken using 28mm and I have trouble stitching everything up nicely in Photomerge.:mad2:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Actually the distortion still exist but not too badly, since all the pictures are taken from the same image circle for a PC lens, and shift lenses are pretty well corrected for distortions. My older 28mm shift lens corrects very well as well.
There are a few options for stitching in Photomerge, you can try to see which one works for you
Ryan
landscape or portrait orientation?
Six-GHz
Senior Member
Farm Tomita of Furano
Awww man... I'd better stop my wife from viewing your stuffs... she might not want to come back!! :sweatsm:
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Even we also got that feeling of going back again. There is always another season to go!
It was pretty cloudy and very windy and we thought it was almost going to rain ( again )
I would imagine the place to be much prettier with skies blue beyond blue, and bits of fluffy clouds. :dunno:
We spent about less than 90 minutes in Tomita. It is actually along a slope and easily spotted from the JR lavender. The car park on the right of this picture
# 153
A pan of two shots
Beautiful photos again, as usual....
Is it not September the best time for the Lavenders?
During my Dec hols, we've been staying at Niseko Hirafutei ( at Hirafu slope)booked through Prime Travel. Costs about S$250/night/person inclusive of breakfast and dinner (fabulous dinner), and an attached Onsen in the room. Went to Furano a few years ago (without children) and stayed in a Pension (very near ski slope, booked through internet) and was S$60 /pax/day, dinner (6 course) was S$26 extra, also had a small inhouse Onsen.
I think you would enjoy staying in one of these Japanese Traditional lodging. ..
Esther
Is it not September the best time for the Lavenders?
During my Dec hols, we've been staying at Niseko Hirafutei ( at Hirafu slope)booked through Prime Travel. Costs about S$250/night/person inclusive of breakfast and dinner (fabulous dinner), and an attached Onsen in the room. Went to Furano a few years ago (without children) and stayed in a Pension (very near ski slope, booked through internet) and was S$60 /pax/day, dinner (6 course) was S$26 extra, also had a small inhouse Onsen.
I think you would enjoy staying in one of these Japanese Traditional lodging. ..
Esther
giantcanopy
Senior Member
The idea of staying in the lodgings came across our minds, but the idea of sharing toilets / bathrooms was no no at least for my fiancee. I went through a selected few other nice Pensions near Furano but dates were not right . I think I will definitely revisit the idea again for my winter trip
One way of bringing us closer to appreciate their culture and way of life !I got the Lavender timetable from here.
I wanted to see some sunflowers too.
But of course any earlier is difficult due to the G8 Summit in Toya.
( My sis who came back from Hokkaido June - July said that the Lavenders were still not in full bloom yet. Her trip to Tomita was less purple than mine )
Ryan
Last edited:
night86mare
Deregistered
i really like your panos. for the last shot though, the house is tilted?
giantcanopy
Senior Member
Hi night86mare thanks for ur feedback. The shot taken was actually a flower field that was slopping downwards and rightwards ( I was standing on higher grounds ) , and I aligned the trees and people vertical instead.
Is there anything that might help better? The apparent slope will make the overall look slanted somewhat. Most of my panos here have a somewat slanted horizon as well with trees as the marker actually.
Tripod
Ryan
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