The wonderful weather that resulted in this year’s cherry blossom appearing a good two weeks earlier than usual, sadly upped and left the minute said blooms hit their much publicised weekend peak. Truly rotten timing that left picnic spots awash with rain rather than revellers, with none but the hardiest of hanami goers opting to sit down, drink and deal with the elements.
But between the cold and rain there was a brief spell on Monday when the sun shone, the temperature was turned up a notch or two, and all seemed well with the world. A welcome respite that allowed for this lovely moment, before the rain swept in again and unceremoniously washed it all away.
Martin says
Pretty picture!
Lee says
Thanks. It’s a lovely spot.
Hans ter Horst says
Fabulous capture of the sakura blossoms! You really found the excellent spot with the stream and the lean of the branches all cooperating with your choice of DOF, very nice!
Lee says
Cheers! It’s a location pretty close to home, so I’m very familiar with it. Needed the weather more than anything, and fortunately the mother and daughter were sat in pretty much the perfect spot.
I was happy to have the man painting in the frame too. Gives the photo an added sense of tranquility I feel.
Evan says
Wow, what a shot Lee! I want to be in that magic place/moment.
Lee says
Thanks, Evan. I can imagine. It’s a wonderful little spot. Not overly well known either, so it never gets too busy.
Hampus says
With a million and one pictures of cherry blossoms floating around the net at this time of year the people in the shot definitely make the difference. Beautifully captured.
Lee says
Thank you! Yeah, I know what you mean. As pretty as they are, images of just blossoms do very little for me — it’s the scene they help create. And this one was wonderfully peaceful.
Andrew says
I love the focus and bokeh here. Was this all in-camera or including some post-processing? What lens did you use?
Lee says
Cheers! Nah, there was some post-processing. Not a huge amount though as the light was lovely. The mother and daughter chose the perfect spot in more ways than one.
Oh, and it was shot using the Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8. Don’t use it much, but when I do it produces some great images.
Andrew says
Thanks!
Jordan says
Not sure how you feel about this but I would LOVE a 1280×800 version of this for my background if possible. I can’t get enough of it 🙂
Lee says
So long as it’s just for personal use I don’t mind at all. Send me a mail (just use the contact form) and I’ll sort it out for you.
Natalie says
悽美動人
Leonardo Ito says
This is probably my favorite picture. Composition-wise, it almost looks like a painting where everything was carefully weighted in and planned, even though I know it was not. Amazing shot!
Lee says
Thank you!
Yes, it was one of those moments when everything came together. I did have to wait a while though, as for what seemed like an age there was another fella taking photos stood right in the middle of the frame…
Jeffrey says
Another of your great shots. Looks like a wonderful place to enjoy the blossoms.
Part of the problem with hana-mi (if it can be seen as a problem at all) is that what I believe to be the Yoshino variety has been over-planted. Here in Seattle, where we’ve had anything but a warm Spring, except weekend before last when temperatures reached into the 60s (20s for you lot), we’ve got different varieties still coming on.
The quad at the University of the Washington is the best place to see sakura because it was planted about 60-70 years ago with, you guessed it, yoshino that were a gift from Japan. They’ve mostlyl been rained off over the last week, but weeping cherry, and various other ornamental varieties are still blooming. In a climate as mild as most of Honshu and Kyushu have, hana-mi should last a month from place to place if it wasn’t a single variety peaking at the same time.
http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/03/20/2013-cherry-blossom-watch-quad-be-in-the-pink-soon/
Lee says
Cheers. It really is a lovely spot. Wonderfully peaceful too.
That’s a very good point. Something I’ve never thought about either. It’d certainly be nice not to have the option of several weekends for hanami, rather than just the one. One that is always horribly busy, and often not ideal weather-wise. But if it did last a month, imagine the damage it would inflict on people’s livers…
CC says
Hi, I love this fabulous photo. May I know where in Tokyo it is taken? Thanks
Lee says
Thanks. Good to hear.
It was taken in Tachikawa, west Tokyo. A little river that runs parallel with the Tamagawa. If you want the extract location, I sort a map out for you.