Branch Brook Park Bloomfest 2013

After last weeks mistake, I wasn’t going to miss the Cherry Blossom Festival at Branch Brook Park . There were many more trees in bloom and the sky was a perfect contrasty blue when the clouds cooperated. The close-up images were taken with my ancient Nikon 28-105 lens. It’s suffering from a sticky zoom mechanism, but it still delivers. The dancers are from the 10tecommai group. Enjoy !

Cherry Blossom and Butterfly

In preparation for some springtime photography, I entered “Branch Brook Park Cherry Blossom Status” into Google. An instant dose of disappointment came over me when I read the headline “Coaxed by an exceptionally warm winter, thousands of cherry blossom buds have already burst open at Newark’s Branch Brook Park” in the 3rd item in the results dated March 19th (Link). I rushed over to Branch Brook Park expecting to see the trees past their peak. I was surprised to see only a few trees had actually bloomed… it turns out, the article was from last year.

Doh! .

Wildwood NJ

Ferris Wheel at Morey’s Piers

I closed out the summer in Wildwood NJ with the family. We arrived right after the hurricane, and practically had the place to ourselves for the first few days. I also learned the meaning of “Going Ham” and “Come at me bro!” which were plastered on t-shirts on the boardwalk.

Cherry Blossoms at Brookdale Park

- Brookdale Park Cherry Blossom –

The wind and rain killed my chances of going to see the Branchbrook Park Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend. I did get to stop by Brookdale Park in Montclair which has about 4 Cherry trees in bloom. This was one of the better images, taken with the GF1 and 20mm. I used an ND filter so I could shoot with the lens at f/1.7 to get the nice shallow depth of field. I like the monotone pastel color and the contrast on either side of the blossom in focus.