Cherry Blossoms and Washington D.C.

My favorite part of the basin is the original Cherry Blossom trees, which were planted over a 100 years ago, as a gift from then Mayor of Toyko. And in this scene, it was later in the afternoon and I wanted to use those older, mature trees to help frame the Washington Monument. So I scouted and scouted the area to try and find a foreground. I finally found this tree (foreground/upper frame), but the light was wrong and it was in full shade. I noticed a small gap behind me where the sun could potentially pop through later on. So, I wandered around capturing other scenes until I notice the light appearing on the tree I had been watching from a distance. I hurried over, set my tripod low to the ground where I had planned, to frame the Washington Monument within the hanging limbs and began capturing different compositions. With this image, and other similar types of scenes, I photograph them as a focus stack and blend in Photoshop, giving clarity and sharpness through the entire scene (so both in the foreground tree/pedals and the background trees/monument are in focus). The DC Cherry Blossoms are still in full bloom. This image was captured on Wednesday and the beautiful weather and lack of wind over the past few days has kept the delicate pedals on the tress throughout the basin. So, if you’re in the Mid-Atlantic area and considering going this weekend, I would recommend it (but I would also check online first, to ensure the wind didn’t blow them off today). If you’re not in area, well, I guess you can take a look at this image and work on planning a trip to the DC area sometime in late March/early April in the coming years.