Last week I shared images of cherry blossoms taken in the Spring of 2012 and explained that cherry blossoms were forever tied to Spring in my mind after spending several years living in Washington, DC. Over this past weekend, I asked for some help from my ‘fans’ on Facebook to help me find trees at peak blossom. I was pointed to a few spots around town but one person asked if I had been to the Harris Street Cemetery yet.
On Saturday, after the rain let up, I decided to check all the spots recommended to me. I started on Beach street where I had spotted an amazing street lined with magnolias and got a nice image of them. I then visited Abbot Public Library and captured the great tree in front. At some point, I found myself on Elm Street (having forgotten to check out the Harris Street Cemetery) when the memory came to me and I made a quick turn. As I drove around the bend, the most incredible color flashed before me and a huge smile spread across my face.
There are three great cherry trees at Harris Street Cemetery and I spent almost 3 hours there on Saturday shooting various compositions while waiting for unbearingly short breaks in the heavy cloud cover for decent light to stream through. When I got home and reviewed the work, I was reasonable happy with my efforts but made sure to set my alarm clock for 6am to try again at sunrise.
On Sunday morning, I headed straight back to the Harris Street Cemetery and got to work with two specific compositions. This was the first – as the sun came up, I tried to capture a sun star / sunburst coming through the cherry blossoms. The light was very different on this day compared to the last and it took little time to capture this image with the sun growing stronger as it rose in the sky.
Lots more blossoming trees to come this week…