I know it's not the season for cherry blossoms (except in the Southern Hemisphere?), but I'm finally getting around to processing photos from last spring and ran across two blossom photos that make fantastic desktop backgrounds. They perhaps don't look like much in the small versions shown here, but follow the links to the large sizes for gorgeous, delicious desktop-worthy images.
Here's the first one:
The 1,600×1,200 size is appropriate for any standard 4×3 desktop (e.g. 1,280 × 960, etc.). A first with this post, I've included widescreen versions in native sizes appropriate for Apple MacBooks and Cinema Displays, up to an expansive 2,560 × 1,660. (If someone would be so kind as to send a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display to me, I'd be able to test that the 2,560 × 1,660 size is indeed proper 🙂
Images straight from my camera are not the exact aspect ratio of either normal nor widescreen displays, so I have to crop them slightly in one way or another when making desktop-appropriate versions. This next image presented a challenge, as I felt the composition was just perfect as is, and I had a hard time cropping for a standard 4×3 display.
Here's the uncropped photo:
Here are two slightly different 1,600 × 1,200 crops, and one uncropped version with vertical padding added to make the proper size. Which do you like?
1,600 × 1,200 |
1,600 × 1,200 |
1,600 × 1,200 |
Widescreen versions: 1280 × 800 · 1440 × 900 · 1680 × 1050 · 1920 × 1200 · 2560 × 1600
These were taken at the now-closed-for-two-years-for-renovation Takagaraike Children's Park in northern Kyoto, at the same time I took some other pictures that appeared in my blog at the time: Cherry-Tree Desktop Background Photo and Life Stages of the Cherry Blossom.
I tend to like darker, more muted images for a desktop background, which is why I really like these. If you prefer a lighter/brighter background, consider this full-bloom cherry-blossom background.