Trees, Stars, and Ponds - Starry Landscapes - | Oze

I quietly open the door of the mountain hut.
I walk along the wooden path as if being drawn into the darkness.
There, a clear night sky and spilled grains of light were waiting for me.

For a while, I will share the scenery I encountered in 'Oze,' a place I have deeply loved and continued to visit just as I do Tokachi (Hokkaido).

Clear Sky

8:30 PM.
As I slip out of the sleeping mountain hut, the chilly night air brushes against my cheeks.

Every time I walk on the wooden path, only the sound of my own footsteps, 'clack, clack,' is absorbed into the darkness of the marshland.

Looking up, a clear, innocent sky spread out before me.

Night in Oze

Ozegahara, a vast marshland spanning Gunma, Fukushima, and Niigata prefectures.

It is a heavenly paradise created by peat that has accumulated over an unimaginably long period of time.

This place, where Asian skunk cabbage blooms in profusion, shows a completely different face once the curtain of night falls.

Silent Night

The wind has stopped, and the clouds seem to have vanished somewhere far away.
Tonight, it is surprisingly quiet.

Occasionally, a shooting star silently tears through the sky.
Each time, I fall under the illusion that I am feeling the heartbeat of the universe up close.

My eyes grow accustomed to the darkness.

There was a shadow floating vaguely within the marshland.

It was a single tree standing alone in the marsh.
The lights of a distant town illuminate its form like a faint spotlight.

At my feet, a pond called a 'chito' (marsh pond), filled with snowmelt, stands still.

I set up my camera and press the shutter.
A moment of dialogue with nature lasting several dozen seconds.

What appeared on the camera's LCD screen was a sight that my naked eye could not fully capture.

The stars in the night sky are spilling over onto the water's surface.

A world inverted, where the boundary between sky and earth melts away, making it impossible to tell which is the real universe.

Light of the night

A camera is not merely a tool for recording scenery.

It is like a special pair of glasses for rediscovering the 'beauty of the world' that we usually overlook.

If you are currently hesitating to pick up a camera, or if you feel like something is missing from your photos, try placing yourself in the silence of the night just once.

There, a light that only you can find is surely waiting. Next, it is your turn to capture that 'universe'.

The camera settings used for the photos introduced this time are shared in the free section of the article below.