I love Japan and had been visited many different places in Japan. Kyoto is properly the most visited place in Japan. I like the way you cropped out the sky as I don't think it has added value in the frame you chose. I would take the image in landscape format from different angle to include the temple whole structure, the sky, and the pond instead of chopping off the structure.   Posted: 07/02/2026 03:45:13

Robert, I agree with Jean about the crop of the sky--the image is stronger without the sky.

I'm not in love the people in the image, I'd be tempted to remove them. That way so we just see the beautiful, peaceful scene. Camera Raw and Lightroom also have "remove people" now, and it automatically removes people perfectly.

  Posted: 07/04/2026 00:21:21

Robert - I'm going to mildly disagree with Brenda. I like the person in the red coat in the image. The color draws my inward and complements the red bushes in the foreground. Also, I like the sky and might crop a small bit off the foreground. If you do want to crop out the sky then maybe a bit more.   Posted: 07/04/2026 18:33:51

This is an interesting composition. The beautiful garden and the lone person in red add a nice point of interest. Phone cameras are capable of producing impressive images, but they still have some limitations, especially in high-contrast scenes like this, where the sky appears overexposed and lacks detail.   Posted: 07/06/2026 01:38:04

Response to Jean, Brenda, Kathryn, and Sunil. I agree that the poorly recorded sky detracts from the image and that cropping it off improved the remainder. What I wanted to capture in the image was the harmonious layout of the pond, trees, and temple. Other accessible perspectives did not serve to do this. It was somewhat amazing that the crowds of people on the Sunday afternoon while I was there did not contaminate this view. I consider it most fortunate that a person in bright red happened to be almost alone in the field and became an important feature in the image. I wished very much to have had my Canon R5 with me on this trip, but I probably would have suffered greatly on the hikes from its extra weight and size. The very small pixel size of the sensor in my iPhone suffers from the common problem of purple fringing when photographing high contrast subjects. Fortunately, evidence of this flaw could be cropped out.   Posted: 07/06/2026 15:50:06

very nice work. I really love the harmonious layout of the pond, trees, and temple, as well as the person in red.   Posted: 07/10/2026 22:09:12

I think the sky would add a lot to this image, but the sky in your original looks strange and unrealistic. I don't know what's going on there. I would remove the person dressed in red because I see it as a distraction. And, I would straighten the image so that the vertical walls of the building are vertical.   Posted: 07/12/2026 15:15:57