Cherry Blossoms 2012

[gmat]

Taken April 5th, 2012 next to the Sotobori Canal, the outer moat of the Edo Castle. West of Iidabashi Station. Not the best shots, and in poor light conditions with the trains running in and out of shadows. Taken from 16:11 to 16:40.

 

The first batch was taken across from the British Council Tokyo Centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The others are farther west just past the first bridge W of Iidabashi Station.

 

 

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[keitaro]

i always get confused with flowers from plums etc but that doesn't look like sakura from the shots though it could be the lighting and my monitor

 

still nice flowers 

[gmat]

Plums generally blossom one or two months before the Sakura. In Tokyo, it's late Jan and Feb.  That's how I tell them apart .... or  more often, my wife corrects me.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[keitaro]

or  more often, my wife corrects me.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

 

lol same here i remeber a few years back at osaka castle i was like sakura... wrong

[KenS]

Nice location, Grant, and I particularly like the sixth photo.

 

Framing a shot through trees is really hard since you have to line up both the trees and the target with the places it's possible for you to stand.  I was trying that a couple of weeks ago (not with trains) and the results were disappointing to say the least.

 

I think the lighting here was generally good.  The slightly reddish tinge of late afternoon wasn't really obtrusive, and I think long shadows give more dimensionality than mid-day lighting would. The only bad part was the front of the cab being in shadow because you were shooting towards the sun, which wasn't an issue for the trains where the cab was facing away from you.  If you could get a north-east angle where the cab front was lit, it might look better.  Or it might just wash out the shadows and look terrible.

[miyakoji]

I think the red of the late afternoon/early evening sun is requisite in Japanese photography/cinematography.  Observe this nimo5 video from about 4:10 to 5:30:

 

[bill937ca]

I was trying to find a video I came across earlier this week.

 

 

This is 2012 on the Randem.

 

 

...and at night.

 

[stevenh]

Heads up for Sakura + Shinkansen fans... the 'Airline' blog's (where we get our Dr. Yellow timetables from) author has been getting some amazing shots, some even with motion blur.

Check out the cherry blossoms here: http://speedbird.mediacat-blog.jp/