This structure can be found on one of the outer layers of Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan.

We arrived here at blue hour, as you can see, as the castle was allowing people in during the evening to view it ‘lit up’ at night. Or at least, that’s what I thought.

I grabbed this image with little thought prior to entering, I was really just checking out how blue the light was at this time and so simply held the camera over the hedge and took a quick snap of it.

Happy with the current light, I rushed to be a ticket and enter the grounds to then find a viewpoint of the castle itself.

Alas, this was not to be. Most areas were blocked off, tripods were not allowed in some places, and indeed the only parts that seemed to be lit up were a couple of cherry blossom trees. All in all, extremely disappointing.

I wandered around the place trying to find something to shoot, and ended up back at this structure, but on the inside, which isn’t as nice a view. Defying the no tripod rule I set up my camera and tripod and took a few shots, but the light had gone by then and I was left with a disappointing image from a disappointing angle.

It is therefore this first quick snap that I return to when looking for an image to post from this location. After the disappointment of ending a very long day this way, I wanted at least one image to show for it. I do wish I had composed a little differently, but for an image where I was simply testing the light, I’m happy with the outcome in the end – it’s certainly the best of a bad bunch.