Counting on the predictable weather in the Washington, DC Metro area is not a good business to place your bets. There are so many factors that the meteorologists will say contribute to the fickle nature of weather in this area. Predicting the peak bloom for cherry blossoms is also an annual ritual that can be difficult to time correctly. We have invited many out-of-town guests to come for the occasion, but the window for their best viewing is only a few days at most. This year had to have been some of the best blossom-viewing time I have ever witnessed. After a LONG winter, we had warm mornings with no precipitation. The winds were kept to a minimum so the fragile blossoms stayed on the trees for as long as they could. I took advantage of the luck, and made a trip to the Tidal Basin early before sunrise, and in the middle of the day just to see the blooming trees, the flowers, sun, the crowd, and all the activities.
Yes this blog post is very late today. I do have a good reason, though. The cherry blossom trees in Washington, DC are in peak bloom! Being a native northern Virginian, this has been an annual outing for my family for a VERY long time! The earliest photo that I have of my swaddled very well was less than a year after I was born. The crowds were a little less packed that the ones today, but there were already a flood of people walking the Tidal Basin with their best cameras in tow.
I am about the same age today as my mother was in the photo on the left. She still enjoys walking through the blooms, and taking lots of photos! It has never become cliché, and if anything, the event has become more popular than ever. It is inspiring to see so many photographers out there! And I don’t just mean at the peak times in the middle of the day. You have to carve out a spot even an hour before sunrise! That is another testament to digital technology making photography more accessible.
Yes it does look like there is a lot of competition for photographers out there – and there is. For me, though, this is something I would do whether or not this was my main profession. But knowing what people do for photos out there really pushes me to make even better photos! There are just as many visions for capturing images as there are people behind the camera. The tools may be similar, but they can be manipulated in an almost infinite number of ways!
Get out there this weekend before the blooms blow away! They are already starting to fall from the trees as of Friday evening. I have lots of editing to do with the many photos made over the passed few days. I’ll be sure to update the blog as I finish them. Happy Spring!
