March week 5

There is so much color in Golden Gate Park right now that I don’t have to go very far to fill my frame.  The Japanese Tea garden is especially pretty as the cherry blossoms are coming into full bloom. The Tea Garden was originally developed in 1854 as a Japanese Village for the California Midwinter International Exposition. You can wend your way through the bridges, pools, and statuary and take in the lush plantings of trees and flowers before stopping in the tea house for refreshment.

I didn’t make it that far, because I found wonderful blossoms outside.  This one was early morning, still wet from fog which had cleared to revel some very beautiful blue skies.  I used the on camera flash with a diffuser over it.  I took my meter reading first at aperture priority f/22 and the camera told me I needed a shutter speed of 1/8 of a second.  So I set these in the manual setting and added fill flash.

Although many of the cherry blossoms are pink or at least pink around the edges and the buds, I liked the almost completely white of this grouping as well as its almost s-shaped cluster.  Also I wanted to show part of the branch and trunk to keep it in context.

The end of March and early April the Red Winged Black Birds in the Marin headlands begin their couting rituals.  Their songs and beautiful colorations signal spring and the joyousness of the season.  I don’t know why, but their songs remind me of the music of Hidegard von Bingen – one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages – visionary, mystic, composer, naturalist….

The scrubs and the reeds of the marshes are the red winged black bird’s “monastery” where they present their own experiences of the Holy Other.  They are very common and tend to be over looked by photographers.  But do join them in their cattail dominion!

 

This entry was posted in Weekly 2. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.