[wulinka]

This weekend Brooklyn Botanical Garden is stage for the 25th annual Cherry Blossom Festival, a celebration of Japanese cultur. So half New York it seemes packs their kids and picnic, and pilgers down to Brooklyn...

The garden has over 200 trees which are flowering now, so you really get to see a lot of

cherrry blossoms


and of course it's all about who gets the best shot of them:


In the morning, staff were busy setting up stages and getting ready for some impressive perfomances, but
before those could start, it seems, some people had to pay nerves. I am not kidding you, this is a genuine shot
of one of the staff members, minutes before one of the performances, straight from the camera:


Once they got it all set up though, there was some nice drumming, dancing and other performances,

(This was taken in a tent, with flash and at ISO 800, and I am not particularly proud of it)

particularly fascinating for some of the younger members of the audience


And there was a number of costume parades like this one through the whole of the garden







Of course there were hundreds of families out there, enjoying the extraordinarily beautiful weather, and
the kids were a pleasure to watch, as they were enjoying not only the cherry blossoms.

I know a lot of you have skills and experience in taking children's pictures, whereas I was just walking
around spotting other peoples kids, so I would really like your comments on these random shots:

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


...and those closer portraits:

6.


7.


8.


9.



Finally, I couldn't resist this one:




Thanks for looking, everyone, I hope you enjoyed,

uli

[Russt]

great series Uli, I enjoyed them........ the kids looking in wonder is great. The costume parade with the red are standouts as well..........I would love to see some wide shots!

As for your kids shots I love the light and exposure on #'s 1,2,3 but #5 gets me in!

well done

[Irma]

You captured the mood of the place nicely, Uli...

Your pictuares are lovely, I admire the bokeh you got in some of them... it looks really nice...

My fav is from the first set w/o numbers... the one before the last one... Excellent colors light and composition... very sweet expression of the lady and great background meaningful but not distracting...

Thanks for sharing

[wulinka]

Thanks guys!
yeah, at moments I missed not having a wider lense with me, but I avoid lense changing outdoors, and my philosophy is kind of trying to capture the mood/meaning in the detail I shoot.
but I agree, for a complete series, there should have been a wider shot of the parade, and also, I could have tried to give you an impression of what the whole garden looked like, it was really spectacular.

[NT73]

Very interesting set. No criticism neccessary.

(This was taken in a tent, with flash and at ISO 800, and I am not particularly proud of it)
I read it first as... 'I was taken in a tent, with flash and at ISO 800, and I am not particularly proud of it'.... Whoops.:o

[wulinka]

;-)

[Don Schaeffer]

Nice photos. How did you get pictures of children without being arrested?

[shuttertalk]

Hey thanks for sharing... wish I could have been there. These sorts of festivals are so fun to photograph...