Frogs in Japan

Hello Friends,

We just got back from Japan a couple of hours ago. When we took off from Tokyo it was 5pm on Saturday the 23rd, and when we arrived home it was 1pm on Saturday the 23rd, so we must've travelled in a time machine. I'm a little woozy, but home sweet home, no matter where you've gone, it's great to get home. Needless to say Pepper was glad to see me.

We had lots of fun in Japan attending the International Stereoscopic Union's Congress in Tsukuba, and were fortunate to stay for four days in the mountainous Nagano prefecture, two nights each in Akumino and Matsumoto. I'd like to welcome new friends and ISU members who signed up for my image-of-the-week.

According to a Google search of "why are frogs popular in Japan", "Frogs are seen as iconic creatures that symbolize success and good fortune in Japan. Frogs are called “Kaeru” in Japanese, which can also mean to return. Therefore, this symbolic creature symbolizes the idea of that good things will come back into one's life."

While there we frequently encountered all sizes and manners of statues of frogs, as well as a few live ones. These two and many of their kind in various motifs were at a gift store at Hataka Shrine in Akumino. I shot them with a Panasonic Lumix GX7 with 3-D lens, on a backdrop of the wooden shelf where they sat. I didn't use frame sides to turn them into phantograms, but instead reversed out perspective by approximating a rectangle onto the right-eye shot with guide lines, and then matched up pixels on the left-eye shot to form the corners.

I converted the stereo pair into a "dubois" anaglyph with StereoPhoto Maker. Dubois anaglyphs are often much better with green than standard color or half-color anaglyphs, and it's extremely useful to compare them in StereoPhoto Maker to choose which looks best.

The most notable tribute to frogs we found was Frog Street in Matsumoto, which of course, is a great tourist shopping destination. If you email me back I'll sent you a 3-D night shot of the large samurai frog sculpture guarding the crossing of Frog Street and the Metoba River.

Regards,

Barry Rothstein

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