Blossoming
From June until recently I've been rather busy with things. Aside from the monthly entries on the community I maintain that only involve listing items and don't require any writing composition skills, I haven't been very active on LiveJournal. I've been keeping up with my friends list off and on; and although I wanted to, sometimes I didn't have enough energy or lacked motivation to write-lazy. There was also a span of several weeks where my access to the internet was unpredictable; and of course, that had to be during the time I wanted to log on. :/ I wanted to post about this Cherry Blossom Festival I attended much sooner. I actually started writing this entry back in the beginning of June (^^;), but better late than never! Even though it's well into autumn, I see some confused flowers blooming outside-who knows how long that will last!-and the enjoyment of looking at lovely flowers is not limited to any season.
Cherry Walk.
I attended the the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, or Sakura Matsuri, held at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn, New York for the first time this May. The event lasts one weekend and celebrates both spring through the viewing of the blossoming cherry trees, and Japanese culture with performances, demonstrations, and displays. I tried to go one day last year, but because of a forecast of rain, I canceled my plans. The days leading up to that date I kept hoping that the weather would change, but the forecast never gave any good news. Lo and behold, when I woke up the day I had wanted to go, the sun was shining and there was no sign of rain! It was just too bad that I wasn't able to benefit from the good weather because I slept in late. So this year I was more determined to go, but the threat of rain loomed again. When my friend and I got out of the subway station in Brooklyn, it was raining lightly, and I was a little worried about how well we could enjoy the cherry blossoms and the festivities. Fortune was in our favor, however, because after an hour or so the showers stopped, and eventually the sun came out! =) The weather was beautiful for the rest of the day. When my friend and I initially made plans, we were going to go on the second day, but we later switched to the first because it was more convenient for her. It was a good thing we changed our plans because I think we would have dealt with damp weather all day if we had gone on Sunday.
It was the first time I was able to appreciate blossoming cherry trees in abundance. The only other time I had seen that many cherry blossoms was when I went to a wedding in Washington, D.C. several years ago, and then I was only able to catch a glimpse while turning a corner during the drive to the church. My friend and I had a fun time taking photos of each other among the cherry trees; it seems like we spent half the time posing next to flowers. (^^) Something we noticed while doing this was that people were climbing the trees to pose for pictures, and my friend wanted to do it too. After she did, I decided to climb up and pose as well, and after a couple of shots I noticed a man with a professional camera mounted with a super long lens was also taking photos of me! (O_O) I was taken aback and wasn't sure what to do. Normally when I see someone taking photos or video, like in tourist places, I try not to be in the shot. My friend does the same thing. I realize that type of thing is not a big deal because who pays attention to who's in the background, but I still do it anyway. I probably should have tried to cover my face in that instance, but I let my friend take one more photo of me. I didn't want to climb down and have to go back up later, and wouldn't you know it, the stranger photographer started taking pictures of me again when I posed one last time. He even took photos of me as I got out of the tree! (O_O) When we entered the park there was a sign which stated that by entering you were giving permission for your image to be photographed or filmed, but a lot of people have SLR cameras. How can you tell who's a professional on a job and who's just doing it for personal enjoyment? I unwittingly captured the photographer's image in the background of a few photographs that I took of my friend, and on a later date my friend happened to see him walking in her neighborhood but sans camera. For all I know one of the photos he took of me was published somewhere. I'm not saying I approve, but if those photos are out somewhere I hope there was a little airbrushing done. :P I know it's vain, but I was lacking sleep and felt like I didn't look so great that day. :P Maybe some people don't mind having a "telescope" pointed at their face, but I do! (>_<;) I know I'm making light of it, but really, I was not happy with that whole situation. :/
I happened to mention the incident to my mom, and the first thing she asked was, "What did he look like?" (O_o) Does it even matter? Does she mean that if he was good-looking I should try to flirt with him? (O_o) *Gag* I wonder if that response is partly a cultural thing because one of my aunts asked the same question when I mentioned it while showing her the photos. I told her that he was old in the hopes that would bring an end to any strange ideas in her head. Later I even showed her the pictures with him in the background, and she said that he wasn't that old. I'm guessing he was around 50, which is not really old, but a lot older than me. She even said that I should have tried to get some contact information from him because maybe he can teach me about photography. (O_o) What! I was somewhat amazed. That would have been terrible! He would've gotten the wrong idea; and I'm not going to willingly give my information to some "creeper." Well, maybe he's not one, but I think it's best to ask before you take a photo of some stranger, especially if it's at some angle that makes them clearly identifiable and that person is the obvious subject. It's not like I'm a celebrity. It's not as though I was performing the Everyone Take Photos of Me Show. :P This topic also happened to come up again when my mom, my brother, and I were together. My brother's comment about my mother's response went something along the lines of: "I don't understand why do you have to romanticize everything." We both agreed that the photography incident was creepy; and a person can be a creep no matter if he is good- or bad-looking.
Anyway, apparently that was not the last time my image was intentionally captured on camera by a stranger. I was surprised when not too long ago I stumbled upon a photo someone had taken of me at some other event I attended! Why'd that person take a picture of me? It wasn't the most flattering angle-there I go again!-but I saved a copy anyway. :P At least in that case the photo was taken in such a way that only people who know me and knew I was there would recognize it as me, and maybe not even then. When I went to Japan Day in Central Park this year, a professional photographer happened to take a photo of my 11-year-old cousin while she was participating at one of the activity areas. I wasn't there at that moment, but her mother told me later and didn't seem bothered by it. I wonder if that was ever published somewhere.
Getting back to the original topic, besides the cherry blossoms, my friend and I also saw a few of the special performances and exhibits, including a traditional Japanese dance and a bonsai display. I also happened to see one person taking photos of her BJD. ;) I didn't see any other people taking the opportunity to photograph their dolls, but while sitting on a bench in the garden I did overhear one woman make several comments in a negative tone about some man, saying something like, "Why is he taking pictures of a doll?!"
Because my friend and I got caught up in taking photos we weren't able to explore the entire grounds, but I felt we were able to see a lot of various flora. There was a special area just for tulips, and they were especially beautiful. Below is a sampling of some of the photos I took that day.
Close-up of a bonsai.
Tulips in the Annual Border.
A torii in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.
Kanzan cherry blossoms.
More photos can be seen in the set on my Flickr. It seems like a lot of the photos I've taken in the past few months have been of flowers and plants; I visited a few parks and gardens during the summer. In my previous journal entry I mentioned that I wanted to take some photos of my Heather Sky Blythe among some flowers, and I did. I'll post them next time.