Living in the Washington DC area, the arrival of cherry blossom season means the beginning of spring, warmer weather, and one of my favorite times of year to go out to create images. I try to go as much as I can and early morning is always the best bet. There are fewer people and more available parking 🙂
This year’s cherry blossom season has come and gone and it felt like it went by in a blink of an eye. The weather in March was all over the place with nice warm days and cold snowy days so it was nice to see the flowers finally bloom. It felt like all the days that I went out to photograph were very cloudy. The silver lining to clouds meant that when the sun would peek through them, it created this beautiful glow on the flowers. This was the moment I was living for.
I have been photographing the cherry blossoms for almost 10 years now and each year is still very exciting. Obviously, I love photographing the typical scenes: cherry blossoms with the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and just the flowers themselves.
I also like trying to photograph the images that tell the unique story of that year. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of going to the same location and photographing the flowers in the same way, but I tried my best to do things differently this year. That meant parking my car in a different location (other than Ohio Dr) standing a little further back in the grassy areas instead of the sidewalk, and basically, letting life unfold in front of me instead of rushing to find the shot.
The first morning I went out to the Tidal Basin had a bit of fog presunrise. As I was walking from my car to the trees, I couldn’t help but capture the way that it was glowing in the lights of the Washington Monument.
But I found the most fun just standing back and people watching. Since I was there in the early mornings, the light varied each day and as the time went on.
Another way that I tried to make this year different was by switching up my gear. My go-to lens is usually the 70-200mm telephoto lens. I just love the compression that I get from this lens but for some reason, was not feeling it this time around. I had my 50mm prime on for 90% of the time.
This allowed me to get a wider view of my surroundings and capture more of the environment. I guess that means I like the isolated person shot of them photographing the blossoms? LOL
It’s just so light and easy to carry around. It’s also a lot less intimidating and much more inconspicuous to photograph others.
But the Tidal Basin is not the only place to see the blossoms. These were captured while I was walking around the National Mall outside the Hirshhorn Museum and National Gallery of Art. Two of my favorite museums in DC.
Although I wish the cherry blossoms could bloom year around, I really look forward to the one week that they here. It makes being in the city just that much more special. Luckily there are other flowers and blossoms around the city that I look forward to photographing. Until next year cherry blossoms <3
