cherry blossom peak bloom

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What do you do when the cherry blossom flowers have fallen? If you’re at the National Mall around the Tidal Basin, you find any way possible to gather and collect them. It was fun because I saw the NPS people use shovels and snow blower to pile them all up. Pretty much by any means possible.

But I kinda felt like a creeper because I followed them all around the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial with my camera just so I could capture this scene. I just couldn’t help myself. It was so beautiful. I already love it when the petals are  falling from the trees, they look so delicate and fragile. The snow blowers created a similar effect but x 3000. It was the coolest thing ever.

So when I captured this image, I actually had the person snow blowing the petals in the frame. In the end, I thought it was a little more mysterious cropping them out and removing all context. It just looks like a pink snow globe to me an I love it. You don’t get to see scenes like this very often.

It also makes you wonder though. Can you imagine how insane it would be if they didn’t pick it up? Just look at how much is on this little part of the wall and floor alone. That’s definietly a huge slipping hazard for when it rains. So thank you, NPS!

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/1250th sec and ISO 1000 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom.

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The watch is onnnnnn….

Last week Capital Weather Gang and the National Cherry Blossom festival both announced their predictions for the peak of cherry blossom season this year. It’s not always accurate, but they are usually pretty close. So I think I can confidently say that we should expect the cherry blossoms to start their first blooms the first week of April.

I C-A-N-T W-A-I-T. It’s always my favorite time of year and literally when I will probably be coming out of this winter hibernation I’ve been experience ever since the last snow storm here in Washington DC. Sometimes I do feel a little pressure to come up with new composition ideas but once I actually get to the Tidal Basin, I’m always inspired by the flowers. Honestly, the city doesn’t get any prettier than when the cherry blossoms are here.

So if you’re in the area, definitely mark your calendars for the 1st week of April. It will be a good time and if we run into each other, please say hello. It’s always great meeting people who read the blog.

This image was taken 2 years ago. It was probably one of the most epic cherry blossom days in recent memory. It was so foggy and visibility was so low that everything else around me just disappeared. I imagine if it weren’t so foggy you’d even see a little bit of the Washington Monument in the background. My favorite part is how this tree limb is barely touching the water but the reflection is just so nice. I don’t know why but I just keep staring at the right side of this image and I love it so much.

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/80th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and 28-70mm lens.