Cherry Blossoms

So here was my experiment: I got up at 5:30am to go photograph the sunrise over the fully-bloomed cherry blossoms on the tidal basin -- because you only live once, right?

My observations:
- the only ones up that early are other photographers -- the serious kind, with flack jackets because you never know when the blooms will turn on you.
- the number of tripods set up in various locations easily outnumbered people and made circulating around rather cumbersome, esp given the low light.
- some people think that using the built-in camera flash will somehow illuminate an area the size of several football fields and be able to compete with the rising sun.
- a couple of (clever?) photogs brought their own lights to shine on the sleeping trees, ruining it for the rest of us who just wanted to continue snoozing for a few minutes. I sooo wanted to say: 'you know, if you wait just 34 minutes, you'll get the best light in the world: the sun.'

So this blip is a tribute to the hardcore photogs who'll do anything for a shot. If you expected beautiful cottoney blooms, well, there are probably 1 million such images around :)

Next time I have a bright idea like this, someone please stop me.