I glanced out the window to notice some little kids playing with the fallen cherry-blossom petals, and ran to grab the camera...

Unfortunately, when I grabbed the camera, neglected to notice that I'd left it in a five-stop exposure-bracket mode, so only every fifth frame was reasonably exposed. (For non camera geeks, this is only slightly better than leaving the lens cap on, or forgetting to put in film.) At least I was able to recover something from most of them, because I shoot in raw format, not JPEG.

These trees along the river quickly started molting the day after [...]

Traffic on the way home from Mass became jammed packed once we got near the Okazaki area (of Kyoto), by the throngs coming to enjoy the cherry blossoms. I expected it to be crowded, but was surprised by the number of people milling around the Shirakawa river, with many sitting for lunch. It was nice.

But not everyone enjoyed the Cherry-Blossom Joie de Vivre of the area...

It's a common problem each season.

Anthony took the opportunity to snap some shots as well...

... and as a bonus garnered a wave from some ladies...

What a week it's been. I took more photos today than in the first three months of the year combined, and this is after a ramp-up in activity at the start of the month due to the cherry blossoms and then a highly photogenic three day family trip followed by a fun photographically-friendly play date for Anthony. Suffice to say I've built up a new backlog on top of my old one, but it's sure a nice problem to have.

So today I went to the preschool/kindergarten entrance ceremony for my friend Britto's boy, to snap some photos..... he's an [...]

After returning last night from a short trip to Imabari, I got a good night's sleep and slept in late, and awoke to a warm, beautiful day and the cherry blossoms further on their way toward full bloom.

The first blossoms appeared a bit more than a week ago, and soon they started appearing in droves, and after three days away, they're maybe halfway toward full bloom.

The weekend should be fantastic!

After 430km of driving, I'm ready for a snooze...