(Translated from the original post on April 24, 2024)

Hello, this is KA-TSU.

The cherry blossoms were declared to be blooming everywhere at the beginning of April, and a week later they were in full bloom. It seemed a little later than in recent years (personally, I had the impression that the blossoms were in full bloom at the right time this year).

In the Yokohama area, where I live, the cherry trees were in full bloom on Sunday, April 7. However, the weather changes a lot in spring. It was cloudy at night, and on Monday and Tuesday it rained with strong winds.

Late Tuesday night, the rain stopped and it looked like we might be able to see the stars, so I went out to photograph the light trails of the night cherry blossoms and stars in the urban area. Here is the photo.

This park is in my neighborhood, about 15 minutes away by bike. It was quite dark in the park, which is rare in urban areas, because the cherry blossoms were not illuminated by street lights.

I took this photo slightly brighter than my impression. By developing the RAW data, I was able to reproduce the green of the grass on the ground and the light pink of the cherry blossoms, but both were blacked out like a shadow in the JPEG image as it was taken. It really helps that you can save the RAW data of the light trace photos.

The cherry blossoms look a little sparse. One might mistakenly think that the cherry blossoms were exposed to strong wind and rain after they were in full bloom and fell down, but that was not the case. I overexposed the picture so that you could see the cherry trees and the ground.

I set the exposure three stops brighter and was able to get a good look at the cherry blossoms. You can see that there are many flowers in full bloom. But the sky looks like daylight. ......

Now let me explain why the interval composite photo looked like it had fewer blossoms. It is because the sky was brighter than the cherry blossoms. Since many comparative brightness composites were taken while the cherry trees were being shaken by strong winds, the cherry blossoms that were moving were dulled by the brightness of the sky. The result would have been different if the photo had been taken in an area with a darker sky.

In addition, midnight on April 7 was the night of the new moon. In urban areas such as Yokohama, the light emanating from the city is stronger than the light from the full moon, so there is not much difference in the results. However, if there was strong moonlight in an area with dark skies, I think I would have been able to capture beautiful colors in the light trails, cherry blossoms, and what's on the ground.

In some areas at higher elevations, the cherry blossoms are at their best right now. The moon is just after the full moon. You may want to try to get better photos of cherry blossoms and star trails just in time to see the bright moon and cherry blossoms in full bloom.

I apologize for the poor cherry blossom shots, so I'll end with a preview of the daytime cherry blossoms on April 7.

The focus here is on the bicycle, but you can see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the blue sky, and the crowd of people enjoying the cherry blossoms.

See you soon.

(KA-TSU)