For some of the best Nara photos, we went in November where the leaves were beautiful and the weather was mild. If you get a clear day, which we did, you’ll go mad.  I shot a mixture of film and digital with a 24mm and 35mm and that was good enough for 90% of the things I wanted to shoot.  For Nara Park, there’s two tips here.  Go early in the morning and enter the North Entrance, you might see some local artists painting the trees, and because the Park’s open all the time, you can get in as early as you want.  As with anywhere in the world, the early you get up the least amount of people are there.

Not really much street photography in Nara, but head down to the center of Nara Park in the afternoon and just people watch and take shots of people doing silly things with deer.  When the deer know people have food, they’ll follow them around and quite often try and get into their bags, which can lead to some entertaining shots and funny moments.  Keep your camera up to your eye because it won’t be too long before you see something worth shooting.

Here I Make a Dick of Myself in Nara Park

As well as Nara Park, I really liked Keihanna Commemorative Park and recommend visiting that if you’re wanting some good Nara photos.  The leaves on the trees are bright and vivid and the bridge thing, whatever you call that, makes for a nice back drop.  It’s only about 15 minutes from Nara Park and there’s not a whole lot of people there, even in late afternoon, early evening.  I spent a few hours there and it’s nice enough to walk around so if you have kids and family to deal with while trying to get the shot, there’s things for them to do while you pretend you’re a much better photographer than you actually are.

Basically you come to Nara for the deer, but there’s more to shoot if you have the time to walk around and get out of the real touristy areas. If you need any advice or have questions about the best photo spots in Nara or taking Nara Photos, get in touch with me.