Cherry Blossom Festival Photos

Just a few pictures from today's event, April 8th.  The sky was sunny and kind of cool, and we had lots of fun.

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Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

 Jim and I spent a lovely day in Washington DC photographing the beautiful Cherry Blossom Trees at the Tidal Basin on the Potomac, the circular basin surrounding the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the nearby Washington Monument.  I hoped to be there just after sunrise, by getting up a 5AM, but that was much too late. 3AM might have worked or an overnight in town.  The weather was gorgeous and I tried to capture some of the curves of the basin and the trees, as well as the paddleboats.

Most of the Cherry trees along the Tidal basin are single white flowered Yoshino Trees, with some single flowered pink Akebono trees.  We took a $1 shuttle to East Potomac Park to view the many other Japanese Cherry trees:  Weeping Cherries, Kwanzan, Autumn Cherries (double flowered), Takesimensis, Afterglow, Sargent, and Okame.  The park has a golf course and picnic area.  The West Potomac Park also has some different cherry trees along the water.

Here's a few photos from our memorable day.

             Tidal Basin Panorama

                          Japanese pagoda

     Washington Monument with Paddle        Boats

                       Looking up!

May 2013 winners from St. Mary's County Camera Club

Here are my winners from May.  You might have seen the first place winner before, my Pink Mist photo from February.  On rare occasions the water gets misty and creates a lovely mood.  There was frost on the ground too.  The photo was taken around 7am.  As most serious photographers know, the best times of day to photograph are early in the day within an hour or so of sunrise and close to sunset.  Photographing in the middle of the day often creates harsh short shadows that tend to be less complimentary to a subject and make the image look flat.

I also received an honorable mention for this unique photo of  weeping cherry blossoms.  I have tried taking cherry blossom photos from all different angles and even held a branch over the water last year.  I thought this shot was unique, shooting straight up from beneath the buds.  I particularly liked the way the blurry flowers framed the subject with a nice curve.  It was taken in my yard at around 5:40pm.

I've been very busy lately.

I finally posted a little album of photos of the Cherry Blossoms in April 2013 in Washington DC on my Calm Reflections Photography Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/CalmReflectionsPhotography.  Please check it out!  I was practicing some unique techniques, panoramas and focus stacking in Photoshop.

I want to share two of my recent favorite photos.  Neither of them won the April competition at our local camera club, but I liked them.  Maybe you will too!

The pier photo was taken on an early special morning in February when the mist was lovely and the sky became pink.

The squirrel was outside my window.  He/She was running up and down a maple tree looking for nuts.  He almost looks like he is smiling.