I'm starting to get fed up with cherry blossoms. Seeing the blossoms with your own eyes is one thing; shooting them is another. Firstly, framing is difficult. I find macro shots the easiest but they normally turn out lame. But if you attempt to shoot the whole tree, there's the problem with contrast - you don't get the details.
Last Saturday night, when I was trying my hands on shooting lighted-up cherry blossoms at the compound of a hospital nearby, a middle-aged man stopped by and started chatting with me. It turned out that he's a professional photographer and he shared the same opinion about photographing cherry blossoms. He then invited me to his house (he lives just around the corner) and showed me the shots he took. They were awesome! He managed to capture the depth in the scene by cleverly choosing his angle of view, thus reproducing the liveliness of the blossoms.
Armed with the generous tips given by Fukumiya-san, I headed towards Chidori-ga-Fuchi Ryokudou (千鳥が淵緑道) just outside the imperial palace for the cherry blossom light up. But unfortunately, I did not manage to get any decent shots. The place was as crowded as a rush-hour train!
One last day before university lessons starts tomorrow. It's today or never because the flowers aren't going to wait any longer. I eventually resorted to taking macro shots. Oh well, I've got to brush up my skills before the next spring!
Bye-bye sakura!
10 persons flung their shoes:
The sakura somehow looks.... stiff and dead, lol. To me, sakura shots should always be petals dancing in the wind, full of life swirling around in the air
Because of the wind blowing alternatingly from the north and the south, there's barely a calm, sunny day. It's cycles of rainy, cloudy (though calm) and sunny (but usually windy) weather. If you choose to shoot on a sunny day, you have the problem with wind. Go macro and you risk getting blurred images. Shoot scenery and you loose the details. Forget about catching "petals dancing in the wind".
And if you go for cloudy days, it's even worse. You get poor contrast and grey sky.
"Petals dancing in the wind"? If I cud shoot that, I could make a living just by photographing sakura.
shoot today in Titech. The sakura are falling. i think that's "dancing in the wind"
>>Kim: yup that's what I meant
>>Kryptos: u shud try that lol.
hi there! found your blog through alden, and realised you're also a malaysian studying in japan :) noticed that you hv really great photography skills ^.^
§nóflèk>
thanks for the compliments :D
"...and realised you're also a malaysian studying in japan"
--> does that mean u're a malaysian in japan too?
yes i am! alden and i came to japan on the monbusho scholarship in 2006. i'm assuming you're studying in tokyo?
oh, u're the same batch as alden. we sat next to each other on the plane to japan.
yup. i'm in tokyo. i suppose u've finished ur masters?
oh i c! what a small world then, we might have been on the same flight together too.
ya, after my masters, i got a job so now i'm in tokyo. btw, your recent post about the hanafubuki was also what i wrote in my last post ^.^
Ah, so u're a sempai then ;) This year's my third year of bachelor's in titech, staying in Ota-ku.
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