Hydrangea + classical lens part 2/2: FUJINON 55mm F2.2 [June 2019]

Hydrangea blooms in bright sunny days, too.

Location: Takahata-Fudoson Kongo-ji temple, Tokyo（高幡山明王院金剛寺）
Date: 16 June 2019

Camera: Fujifilm X-T30

Lens: FUJINON 55mm F2.2

June is a rainy season in Japan called "Tsuyu（梅雨）". Lots of rainy days, high humidity and increasing temperature towards summer usually make feel down. However, I love this rainy season because June is also a season of hydrangea in Japan (and a month of my birthday!).

In Part 1, I introduced the hydrangea in Hakusan jinja shrine（白山神社）and Asukayama park（飛鳥山公園）with a impressive blurs and bubbles of an classical Russian lens Helios M44-2. This time I will introduce a hydrangea festival at Takahata-Fudoson Kongo-ji temple (Kongo-ji temple in short) with a special, but cheap Japanese classical lens named FUJINON 55mm F2.2. 

I made a photo album at the end of this page which has photos that are not listed on this gallery. Some of the photos are also available at Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. 

Link to Kongo-ji is here (English)

Link to Part 1 is here

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As I briefly introduced about the hydrangea in Part 1, Hydrangea is a flower of Japanese rainy season in June. When I visited Kongo-ji temple, however, it was a brightly sunny summer day. This temple is located in a western rural area in Tokyo, but many people were enjoying the sun and beautiful flowers.

There is a small hill and bush in the temple, and it is filled with hydrangea and Buddhism statues. The biggest Buddha is impressive and beautiful. The surrounding of the statue is neat and clean as other temples are, so one sad thing is: no hydrangea around the statue.....

The lens I used this day is a Japanese classical lens from Fujifilm. Every single classical lens has a feature the latest ones do not have, and for this lens, it is the soft focus and bright bubbles at open aperture. I like this feature when I shoot flowers. The photo also becomes sharp when I close the aperture a little.

 

I used a different lens in Part 1, which depicts a spiral blur like the photo above. It also has many photos of hydrangea at hydrangea festivals in Tokyo. Going out in rainy season of June sounds painful, but why don't you visit find your favourite types or places of hydrangea? Not only in temples, but you can also find the flower everywhere in Japan!

 

Link to Part 1 is here

Photo Album (includes photos that are NOT on this page!)