It's been a while since my last blog, and I remember when I said I would post these pictures a while back, so here are my pictures from the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. I know they are late, but I have been working on some cool projects with my photography while continuing to pick up work on the side. Although I have neglected my blog, I have had some wonderful photography opportunities and I am working on an online store to sell my work.
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To recap this trip, when I arrived in Washington, D.C. on a Thursday evening, the cherry blossoms had just reached full bloom in the prior weekend, but the weather was not very cooperative with cold rains. The forecasts for my stay were hopeful in that they expected the weather to clear for the weekend festivities. My plan was to walk around early Friday at a minimum to scout some good spots for the festival activities, but what I found was that the weather forecast changed to heavy rain for Friday afternoon. Fearful that the cherry blossoms would not make it through these last rains before the weather cleared, my scouting walk turned into my last chance to get the best photos of cherry blossoms for the weekend.
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Although the sky was overcast and the blossoms were not completely full, the experience was still fantastic. Walkers and cyclist passing by were telling me that I missed the bloom, but to my virgin eyes that had never before witnessed this event, the scenes were that much more impressive.
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The rain started just after noon and continued to get heavier through the early to late evening. By the next day, the scene was much different, while the blossoms were still evident and cheerful, the fullness was gone. I was grateful that I had brought my gear that Friday morning to scout the scene. Saturday it remained overcast, and I didn't take many photos after that morning, but I got to enjoy the company of friends the whole weekend. Sunday, the weather finally cleared for the kite festival and looked like it was there to stay. My flight home was in the afternoon on Monday, so I planned to get up before the sunrise. The friend that I stayed with has been doing his medical rotations for Med School and is very familiar with leaving his appartment at 4:30 in the morning. He suggested I start at the Iwo Jima Memorial and move towards the Mall as the sun began to rise. The advice was perfect and it was well worth the early morning. Although the friends whom I visited and the experiences outside of photography really made this trip awesome, the photo opportunities and the beauty of this majestic city really puts this weekend in the top of my list of recommended things to see.
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Thank you for being patient with my work and continuing to follow in spite of the lapses in blogs. I hope you will soon enjoy the opening of my new online store. My goal is to make my work affordable yet meaningful to all fans of my photography. I plan to offer fine art limited edition prints at affordable prices and keep things simple to start. I will be slowly building it up to offer more of my work in a variety of formats while also inviting my friends who are artist or photographers a convenient affordable way to start selling their work through my online store with very little overhead.
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I hope you enjoy these photos and can understand the wait between blog posting! I will be working to make my online store public soon, and I hope you can find something you would like from my collection of work.
