Tag Archives: cherry blossoms

Spring or Winter?

“Spring Snowfall and Cherry Blossoms”
Heatherwood Spring

Just when I was getting ready to go outside and work in the garden, the skies darkened and this funny white stuff started to fall again. This time it was with big snowflakes. Is it spring or is it winter? This flash of winter-like weather has many orchardists in our area very worried. It is occurring at a time when the new buds are emerging. They are cautiously checking for any frost damage potential to this year’s crop. More snow and below freezing is forecast for the balance of the week. I am considering delaying the start date for my spring planting for a week or so.

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A Beautiful Day at the U of W

“Rainier Vista Without the Mountain”
University of Washington

Yesterday was a special day! Several of our precious group of college friends gathered at the University of Washington to dedicate a bench for one of our own. It was a beautiful day. The sun broke out and spread its gentle warmth on the blooming cherry trees on the beautiful campus. The only thing missing was the “Mountain” on the horizon beyond the fountain.

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Enjoyment and a Little Sadness

“Double Weeping Cherry and Naches-Selah Irrigation Flume”
Heatherwood Spring

As I look over our Double Weeping Cherry, I enjoy its beauty against the surrounding hills and the old Naches-Selah irrigation flume. But my heart also saddens. We have received information that the flume will be replaced with a pressurized pipeline this winter if the funding is approved. One of the first things that attracted me to this property was the beautiful hillside with the historic structure hugging its side. The need for efficiency and cost prevails and the historic flume built in the 1890’s will see its last use through this spring and summer. I will do my best to record this last remaining section of flume with my camera to remind me of a bygone era.

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Another Perspective

Cherry Trees
Yakima Arboretum
, Eastern Washington

This image is another perspective of the photograph in my prior post. It is also an infrared (IR) image, but processed in black and white. This is typically how I handle infrared images focusing on the contrasts of dark sky and light clouds and foliage from the trees.

A positive ramification of our “stay at home” order is that I can spend a good part of my day working on my photography skills. I enjoy experimenting with different methodologies to create moods and feelings. One of my next endeavors will be to combine IR and long exposure photography into B&W images. Rather than facing each day and thinking about what I cannot do, I much prefer to envision what I can do. It is a time to explore, examine new things, experiment, and learn. I really do not have time to think about what I can’t do.

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Pretty Spring Day!

“Cherry Tree Abstract”
Yakima Arboretum

It is a pretty spring day here in the Yakima Valley. The cherry trees are out in the Arboretum. I’ve been a little restless so I decided to experiment and play a bit. I shot this with a converted full spectrum IR camera. The colors were a little gaudy. Black and white looked pretty good but I felt like a splash of color. So … I added a little artistic flair to simulate a watercolor painting. So here is something a little different for today. I hope it brightens your day.

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Spring: First Cherry Blossoms

140503_First Cherry Blossoms by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF18-55mm @ 35.8mm, f/3.6, 1/480 sec, ISO 500

What would spring be without cherry blossoms.  This image was taken on the first day that the blooms popped out of the tight buds.  We have seven flowering cherries in our yard.  They are my favorite spring highlight.  When the cherries bloom, spring is really here.  I worked the aperture setting to come up with the optimum setting to capture the sharpness of the first group of flowers and blur the background flowers.  They were hard to separate with a standard length zoom lens.

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