We had a little break in the weather this afternoon, so I decided to visit the Quad at UW main campus to photograph the cherry blossoms. If you’re thinking of visiting, the blossoms are at full bloom now. Tomorrow calls for an overcast day, which I think is perfect for photographing the blossoms. There won’t be any contrasty light to play havoc with your exposures. The gray skies will look dull, so I’d try to keep as much of it as possible out of my frame. Even if there isn’t a lot of light, I would still utilized a polarizer. It helps to minimize glare from the surface of the pathways, blossoms and benches.
The blossoms this year are more white than pink, but still unbelievably beautiful! They have not bloomed everywhere on campus yet but are spectacular at the quad.
I had my little Panasonic GF-1 camera and the kit 14-45 lens with me. I’m amazed at the quality I’m getting out of that combo. I took 3 bracketed exposures, then combined them in Photoshop to get the “perfect” exposure. I played around with Channel Mixer to get the b&w tones looking a little contrasty.
Below is an image I made this afternoon, along with a Google Map of where I was standing when I took the shot. (The green arrow points to my exact spot.) I hope you enjoy the image.
Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 14-45 f/3.5-5.6 lens, 25mm (50mm equivalent), f/8, (1/5, 1/8, 1/13 seconds), ISO 100
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