Lavender › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

HOKKAIDO PREFECTURAL GOV'T

Sunday 19th July, 05:01 AM JST

A field of lavender in full bloom at Farm Tomita in Nakafurano, Hokkaido. The 6-hectare field, which contains about 60,000 lavender seedlings along with poppies and baby’s breath, is a big drawcard for tourists every summer.

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Latest 15 of 21 Total Comments Show All

koneko22 at 02:08 PM JST - 19th July

Beautiful spot to take a nap....
pawatan at 03:39 PM JST - 19th July

Would be a better pic if it weren't horribly horribly horribly downsampled. Someone needs to save their jpg files at higher quality settings.

Sorry, it is a lovely scene but it just annoys me when bandwidth is so cheap these days that someone (in this case the Hokkaido Pref Government) feels the need to compress like it's 1995.

Look at this one on flickr for a different view: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2247/203839185458f7dcabb1b.jpg
smithinjapan at 04:20 PM JST - 19th July

Beautiful shot, regardless of not being the best quality. It must be absolutely stunning in reality.

Sebaschan: I hear you! But if you think about it you don't really want it to be close by and convenient. Just imagine hundreds of thousands of Japanese flocking to it and crowding around like 'hanami' season or autumn leaf-viewing.... ruins the experience and nature of it all.
Sarge at 05:54 PM JST - 19th July

Oooh! The picture got bigger since this morning!

Moderator: You are mistaken. It is the same size as it was this morning.
cleo at 06:02 PM JST - 19th July

The picture got bigger since this morning!

Everything grows quickly in this heat, Sarge.

:-)
tigris at 06:47 PM JST - 19th July

Considering the awful false sky - easily recognized by the incompetent selection visible at the tree tops- this is a terrible photo.
grafton at 10:15 PM JST - 19th July

tigris at 06:47 PM JST - 19th July

That might depend on what you call a “false sky”. My guess would be that the photographer used a UV filter & what you are picking up on at three top level in light spillage between the strong blue & green. Not a patched in whole new shy.
tigris at 10:53 PM JST - 19th July

grafton,

Believe me, that is a patched sky, not a natural sky even, just a partial selection filled with blue with the top slightly darkened. And I don't guess - I do this stuff professionally. The natural color of the sky was much more pale as you can see at the tree tops. The light of the field doesn't fit the light of the sky - sky is much too dark for starters. A UV filter would never produce this effect (hardly any for that matter), not even a pol filter. It was done in Photoshop with the Quick selection tool by a dilitant. Not that I am particularly against digital manipulation as long it doesn't change the content. In old times we did it in the lab. But this is a wretched job anybody in the photo/media business would recognize immediately. Wanna bet?
pawatan at 11:26 PM JST - 19th July

But this is a wretched job anybody in the photo/media business would recognize immediately. Wanna bet?

I'll 100% agree with you. A UV filter doesn't create effects like this, a polarizer might, but with the fringing on the trees and the general jaggy look it sure seems like a poor 'shop.
Sarge at 11:33 PM JST - 19th July

By golly, the mod and Cleo are right - the photo is smaller on the home page - I mistook the homepage for what I was looking at earlier, ha ha ha!
fldpi at 11:40 PM JST - 19th July

nnnaaaa, not "patched". Come on, anyone could filter that out in photoshop. More likely some kind of saturation effect in a digital cam. I mean those colors are pretty stark contrasted. Look at how even the jpg compression suddenly went Pablo Picasso when it got to the treetops. :)

I say untouched, pristine beauty, both man-made digital and God's own analog.
womanforwomen at 12:07 AM JST - 20th July

I was just about to start dreaming about the lavender field, until some of you started off with the false sky thing. How I hate fake things.
Triple888 at 02:03 AM JST - 20th July

Like a dream!
MinatoMochizuki at 04:17 AM JST - 20th July

Lovely! Don't see things like this often. I miss those places.
amerijap at 05:12 AM JST - 20th July

Wow!!!