Frozen in Time
It’s widely accepted that us humans are different to “the animals” in many ways; with one key aspect being our “understanding” of time. We have the ability to recall previous events, and plan future ones. In fact, it’s arguable there is no present at all. These words you read are in the past, and the words further down the page are in the future, if you scroll down.
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Why am I mentioning this? Well, perhaps because this year’s cherry blossom season has not been as good as previous year’s. Such an opinion, as with all opinions by definition, is completely subjective. The sun has risen each day, there’s been occasional downpours, I’ve had a cold, and the “full bloom” did not fall on a weekend. Due to heavy thunderstorms in today Tokyo, we’ve battened down the hatches and only ventured outside for the briefest of moments. We had plans, and had to change them. Animals don’t make plans.
Furthermore, I mention time due to the very nature of photography. A photograph is “an image created by light falling onto either exposed film or an electronic sensor”. A photograph is an image of a scene at a specific time. There is no movement, no passage of time. Snapshots of what we call the past, are created with each press of the shutter. Weather conditions are paused, suspended, waiting for our return. Unfortunately, we can only suspend thunderstorms in photographs, and not for more convenient times.
These thunderstorms have meant that we could catch up on a few household chores (wahey!), and I also have a growing photo-library to prune. Today’s photos are from that library. In the above shot, I was trying to capture the falling sakura petals (look closely at the dead-centre of the frame), which proved to be rather difficult with an f/1.4 aperture. I did like the couple in the background, though.
Tokyo’s now well past 100%, and the petals are being replaced by jagged green leaves, and the mixture is quite aesthetic.
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On my route to the shops, I decided to turn back and look at the beautiful tree from a distance.
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There are petals almost everywhere. I have found them inside my shoes, and have even found some inside my bag.
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One reason I made the effort to get outside at lunchtime was because I knew that the afternoon was bringing huge thunderstorms, which would persist for most of the weekend. I took the snap below, from the floor of my office, shortly before heading home after work.
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