Blue river

Early Morning in Biei by kawasemi1

Landscape


Early morning in Shirogane Hot Spring Area, Biei, Hokkaido, Japan. From the Blue River bridge, overlooking Shirohige-No-Taki ( White Bearrd Fall.) Spring water from underground falls directly to Biei River below through the cracks of rocks . The water from the waterfall is transluent, but when it hit the river, it turns into blue due to aluminum deposits found in the river causing chemical reactions and reftects blue spectrum of light. Aoi-Ike or Blue Pond is about 5-10 min below this river. Mountain Cherry blossoms were still hanging onto the tree, which delighted me. Taisetsu Zan mountain range still had snow ( Big White Snow Mountain if translated directly) . It was about 5:30 am in the morning but I was so excited when the sky was almost clear and quickly got up and run outside with the gear. It is panorama of 3 vertical shots, each of which I did HDR with 7 exposures. I will upload Shirahige-No-Taki shot separately later but I wanted to include whole atmosphere I saw in that morning. Biei is close to my hometown, about 1.5 hours drive, and famous for Colorful flowers such as lavenders and rolling hills in summer and hot springs year around. Sprry for the long break but I am back with many photos to process…..