For a homesick Japanese friend

[Tronhard]

She is in New Zealand as they head into fall right now and was envious that I would be coming to the northern hemisphere for spring. Even more so when I said that there would be cherry blossoms in bloom about now. She asked that I take a couple of shots for her to enjoy the traditional Hanami celebration. I actually found it much harder than I expected to get even a remotely decent shot of the blossoms: I needed a still day - it was breezy; I wanted some sun but not too much to blow out the colours, I needed selective DoF and a decent shutter speed (I was doing these hand held and I have walking pneumonia so I'm not at my most efficient).

So.. this is what I got:


Taken with Canon 5D Mk III and 24-105 lens

and


Taken with Canon SX60HS

She said she has made a photo her desktop. I hope it was the second one... I could never hope to find an icon with the first as the background!

I recommend playing the first track on this when viewing to get the ambiance... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sfl7lgJcxs. It's called Sakura, which means cherry blossom...

[Shadowman]

Nice set.

[rpcrowe]

As a very young man; I was once in love in and with Japan during the sakura bloom. Talk about Paris being a city for lovers, I still remember my time in Hodogaya, near Tokyo!