Cherry Blossom Season In Fukushima Prefecture

I have photographed cherry blossoms all over Tokyo and throughout my own prefecture of Chiba, but there is still so much of the country I have not seen during this beautiful season. So, over the past few years, I’ve tried to plan out a trip during cherry blossom season to see something unique. This year’s trip took me to the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture. As someone who was in Japan on March 11, 2011,...

An Afternoon In Hiroshima During Cherry Blossom Season

At the end of my trip to Iwakuni in early April, I was able to make a very brief stop by Hiroshima, as my path back home necessarily took me through Hiroshima Station. As you probably know, Hiroshima is where the first nuclear bomb was used on actual human beings. It has been estimated that the immediate death toll of the bomb in Hiroshima was over 70,000, though tens of thousands more would die over...

Photographing Cherry Blossoms In Iwakuni, Japan

A little over a month ago in April, I was able to take a trip to photograph the cherry blossoms in one of my favorite places in Japan – the town of Iwakuni. More specifically, I spent almost all of my time around the Kintai Bridge and Iwakuni Castle area. This is a trip I have wanted to take for quite some time. I lived in Japan when I was a kid between 1995-96, and...

A Snowy Evening In Matsudo

The Tokyo area doesn’t see a lot of snow, but every few years there is a decent sized snow and I always love to get out and photograph these brief events. This year we had a pretty good amount fall one evening in February, so I put on my snow boots and trekked around my town looking for some interesting shots. Almost all of these were taken with the Nikon Z 40mm f/2 lens. I...

Beauty In The End

One of the things I love about cherry blossom season is how the beauty of the blossom pervades the entire season. That is to say, from the blossoming of the first flowers to the dropping of the final petals, there is a unique charm that can be enjoyed. In fact, in some ways, I would say it is after the trees have peaked and begin to shed their petals that you will find some the...