Back to Harris Street for some new perspectives thanks to the very shallow depth of field of a 35mm lens. This is a collection of tombstones near the edge of the cemetery facing Harris Street and very close to the jagged stone wall. I crouched down and composed this shot to include the foliage of two of the cherry blossom trees resplendent in pink-purple flowers and backlit by the golden glow of sunrise.
Since I first discovered the patch of three cherry blossoms at the Harris Street Cemetery years ago, I have returned each April hoping to capture them at peak bloom. I had little hope for good color this year as the little snow and rain seemed to amount to stressful conditions for the trees that had not shown great color in a few years now. Imagine my surprise then when I pulled up after sunrise on April 14th and found vibrant colors contrasting with the deep green grass and the greys of the weathered tombstones. With this very small piece of [...]
Five years after moving to Marblehead in 2008, I stumbled upon the three cherry blossom trees at the Harris Street Cemetery. I've gone back each year to capture them in full bloom and, despite the small space, am thrilled to keep finding new compositions as the blooms and light change slightly each spring. This was the earliest I had ever captured the cherry blossoms in full bloom (in 2013 they didn't reach peak until April 21st!). However, with this year's mild winter and spring, it wasn't a surprise to find the trees had reached peak on April 6, 2020. This [...]
After capturing the sunrise at Grace Oliver beach on April 1st, I made my way to the Harris Street Cemetery where I had been capturing the cherry blossoms each year since 2010. For the first time ever, and quite fittingly for the first day in April, snow fell as I wandered the small cemetery looking for new angles and compositions. The snowfall was quick and so I had to make some fast adjustments to try to capture the rapidly falling flakes. This was my favorite capture of the 'snow blossoms'. You can make out the bright patch of grass which [...]
My favorite part of spring is capturing the cherry blossoms in full bloom. This began when we were living in Washington, DC while I was a medicine resident at Georgetown University. After moving to Marblehead, I was thrilled to find a cluster of cherry blossom trees in the Harris Street cemetery. I have returned each year and have lucked out with conditions on some more than others. This image is from late April 2018. I have a feeling this year the blossoms will peak much earlier.
My first trip to the Harris Street cemetery took place on Wednesday evening when the cherry blossoms had reached peak bloom and the small green leaves had yet to appear. Unfortunately, the sunset fizzled as clouds rushed in and I missed out on great light to highlight the beautiful flowers. As I left the cemetery, I stopped at the rock wall separating Harris Street from the grounds and graves to capture one last shot. I had never seen this part of the street empty of cars and I couldn't pass up the chance to capture this image of the cherry [...]
After arriving at the Harris Street cemetery on Friday, I quickly decided that the first tree had the fullest canopy and was also receiving the best light. I tried to capture the tree serving as a border between the cemetery with its ancient gravestones and the old houses making up historic downtown Marblehead just past its trunk. With the angle of the sun, I found my shadow kept appearing on the ground before me and ruining my compositions until I found this spot where I was able to crouch down and get the view I had envisioned.
Between the clouds, rain, wind and work, this year, I only had two opportunities to capture the canopy of cherry blossoms at the Harris Street cemetery. I tried to make the most of those opportunities and looked for compositions I had not yet attempted in this small patch of land in historic downtown Marblehead. I had better light on Friday at 5pm when I headed to the cemetery right after work and lucked out with a few rays of sunshine between dense cloud cover. I had always wanted to capture the view looking up at the tree that marks the [...]
They're here! It's officially cherry blossom season in Marblehead as the three trees in the Harris Street Cemetery have bloomed. I visited the trees several times over the past few days and then returned with my camera gear tonight to capture a few images before sunset. In this image, I focused on the far tree which was reflecting the last light of sunset on some of its branches. I used my new lens and its very fast aperture to keep focus on the cherry blossoms and lightly blur the gravestones and distant tree. With rain in the forecast, I'm hopeful [...]
This weekend, my instagram feed lit up with images of the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin in Washington, DC. Those trees were among my favorite aspects of living in DC during my residency and I still don't feel like spring has arrived until I can capture images of cherry blossoms. With our trees usually three weeks delayed from those further south, I turned to my archive and found this image of cherry blossoms in perfect bloom from a late April morning at the Harris Street cemetery. It won't be too much longer before the cherry blossoms in Marblehead bloom [...]