Into Aether

I loved shooting this shot and the Longevity photo—both taken the same night within about an hour of one another. A lot of that was down to being there almost by myself (there was one other photographer and his friend there part of the time). Torii symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred, and a spot where kami are welcomed and thought to travel through. So each one imbues a sense of the magical and inspires reflection. This particular gate sits offshore of a lake north of Kyoto and it’s not super easy to get to without a car. I took a train to the nearest station and then hoofed it for about 3 miles to get here. The sunset produced soft, subtle pastels with a beautiful blue hour afterwards. This shot was taken well after sunset and I like that you can see lights on the far shore of the lake. But staying late led to an adventure of me getting briefly lost(ish) on the way back to the train station, in the dark, with a nearly-dead cellphone.