Japanese Monolith

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Yesterday was my last day in Japan and my plan to photograph the countryside around Mount Fuji had to be abandoned due to heavy rain and low cloud.  So I decided to head back to Narita where the airport is located and visit the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple.  It is one of the oldest and largest temples in Japan and located just 20-minutes from the airport.

 I will post a longer feature on the temple in the coming days but one of the standout shots I took in the gardens was this one of a standing stone in a wooded glade.  The stone was one of many but was the largest of the group, with two statues flanking each side. 


The stone reminded me of the monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and I decided to fit the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens to the Fujifilm X-T2 and get down low beneath the stone.  
The light on the stone contrasted nicely with the surrounding trees, which also gave a nice composition with the converging verticals in the image.




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