I made my first visit the other day to the Haradanien Garden (原谷苑) in northwest of Kyoto, a few kilometers into the mountains beyond Kinkakuji ("the Golden Pavilion"). It was, without question, the most amazing place to see blossoms (cherry and others) that I'd ever been, by orders of magnitude. "Stunning", "Awesome", and other overused platitudes don't do it justice, at least when at the peak of season when I visited.

It's been a while since I've done a wigglegram, so even though I've not yet gone over the photos from the visit, I went ahead and grabbed out enough [...]

It's been a busy few days since I posted "Weeping Cherry at Kyoto’s Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺)". I came down with a cold, my wife performed in a local production of Swan Lake, and I recovered from my cold, in that unfortunate order. No time to even look at the photos from the other day beyond a quick glace at the top of the stack, so here are a few more from the start of that outing...

After all the buds and blossoms I posted last month (such as here, here, and here), I told myself I'd concentrate more on shots [...]

I spent most of the day at the Ryouanji Temple (龍安寺) in northwest Kyoto, which I often visit in the fall for its spectacular autumn scenery. I think today was my first visit during cherry-blossom season.

I was tickled to discover that the "weeping cherry" (シダレ桜) at the west end of the property were spectacular, both pink and white. Best earlier in the day... by noon the light was too harsh.

I haven't looked at the photos yet, but while flying through the grid of 881 shots to mark color-checker shots as part of my import routine, I thought this [...]

I popped up to Shogunzuka the other day for the first time in ages, for what I hoped was a promising sunset that ended up being very hazy, lending more of a moody shrouded feeling than "dazzling", but a little over-exuberance in Lightroom brings out a variety of dynamic results.

A couple of months ago I posted some similar shots in "Views of Kyoto From Shogunzuka Over The Years", and some others last summer in "Anatomy of a Nice Kyoto Sunset", so I worry I might wear out this kind of overprocessing that's best only in moderation, but I guess [...]

This posts continues "Enjoying the Blossoms at the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park" from the other day, with more folks enjoying themselves, as seen through the uncommon perspective of 300mm at f/2.

(The mask, common in Japan during pollen season, is likely to help ease her allergies.)

Some of the unspecific shots of blossoms seem a bit mesmerizing to me...

At one point Paul Barr stopped by, and tried the 300m f/2 a bit himself...

On the way home I couldn't help but pause for a quick shot from time to time...

But mostly what I noticed on the way home [...]