It’s been a good weekend for photos; I broke my camera out yesterday and shot some macros, then went on a photo safari this morning. All in all quite productive.

I’ve gone to the cherry blossoms every year for the past eight years, and every year I enjoy it. I used to spent a lot more time at the festival, but the past few years I’ve spent most of my time with the trees themselves. Getting a macro lens really changed how I look at photographing the trees, and this year I brought macro lights and a beanbag for stability. One photo was even taken with the camera balanced on my extremely understanding girlfriend’s head, although I’m not telling which. Although I didn’t get quite the bumper-crop of printable photos as last year, I’m happy that I was able to find a different aspect of the trees to photograph, coming just after the peak.

I went to DC’s Chinese New Year Parade today with some friends, and it was a lot of fun. I managed to get a great place to shoot from: a bus shelter, where I could stand on the bench and see over everyone’s heads. It was a beautiful day for it, and I’m pretty happy with the photos.

I’m probably happiest with this colorful guy:

The whole set is available on flickr for commenting what whatnot.