Cherry Blossom Timelapse: Fleeting Floral Fireworks
Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/80 sec, f/18, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos

Earlier I posted a few preview pics of late-blooming “bundle-of-tissues” blossoms, and of plum blossoms, so today I'm posting a few pics of Kyoto's run-of-the-mill “cherry blossom” blossoms.

Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1/160 sec, f/13, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos

These first three pictures were taken a year ago by hooking up a bunch of extension tubes between the camera and my big Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 zoom. I didn't yet have my good tripod, so this big, heavy combination on my previous (tiny, flimsy) tripod made for a comical view.

Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
D200 + Extension Tubes + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 190 mm — 1/160 sec, f/16, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos

The three pictures above are fairly so-so – nothing special – but I've included them here to delay you a bit so that the images in the feature below have time to load. Drag your mouse over the image below to see a month-long time-lapse that shows just how fleeting blossoms at full bloom really are....

Still Loading: o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
time lapse of cherry-blossoms blooming, in Kyoto Japan
Cherry Blossoms in Kyoto, March 25April 27
scrub mouse side to side over image to see movie

(If you're reading this post via an aggregator, you'll likely have to come to the post on my blog to get the time-lapse to work.)

I took these fairly haphazardly last year, just walking out onto my veranda and aiming at the bush you can see in the center (most clearly in the first shot). I've been sitting on this time lapse for the last 10 months, just waiting for this year's season to approach so that I could post it.

I really should figure out a way to mount a camera that can automatically take a picture each day for a year. That would be cool...


All 3 comments so far, oldest first...

Hi! I’d just like to say that the month-long time lapse is really cool! Thanks for putting that up.. It’s really pretty over in Japan 🙂

— comment by Stephanie on March 14th, 2008 at 11:20pm JST (16 years ago) comment permalink

You did quite well with that time-lapse for just going to the same place and taking a picture.

I have a similar project going, where I have a couple of webcams permanently set up and I grab the image from it every 5 minutes, and upload it to my website every half-hour, allowing me to make videos with each frame being the same time every day, in that case 4PM. I have pictures of my setup, but as you can see from the video, the quality isn’t that great, and I am trying to do something a bit different from your setup there.

What you could do is mount a 1/4″-20 bolt somewhere and screw your camera into it to have it be in the same place every time you take the picture. That wouldn’t be automatic, but does give you a bunch of flexibility.

More description on my slashdot journal.

— comment by Anders on March 16th, 2008 at 3:18am JST (16 years ago) comment permalink

i am from san diego ca
thank you very much for all the wonderful pictures
i owe you for this and may the sharings bring your family much happiness,

best regards

— comment by hung nguyen on September 18th, 2009 at 1:58pm JST (14 years, 6 months ago) comment permalink
Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting