It was a rainy day all day long in April 4th, 2003, however, I went out for photo shooting from early in the morning till evening.  Beautiful flower photos are taken in sunny days, usually, but rainy day's photos have another attractiveness, i.e., very calm and silent, I think.

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	I got to the cherry blossom spot, Shohfukuji-yama Park in Hiroshima prefecture, at around the daybreak. It was heavy rain at that time and I prepare for my camera in my car, as we'd better not change lens in the rain. Then I saw the scene through the view finder of the camera in the car and found a fantastic scene. Wet glass of door window played as a soft focus filter and the scene became such impressive.
	A heavy rain made a dense fog on the hill, and cherry blossoms were covered gracefully by the fog.
	Rain makes color of cherry blossoms subdued. This was taken by dual exposure technique, but is apparently different from sunny day's color.
	Colorful leaves and blossoms in a forest, all became in subdued color thanks to the rain. The fog rising from the mountainside add an accent on the image.
	Waterdrops on petals in gentle color.
	I used transparent vinyl umbrella for photo shooting to prevent subjects from being colored in umbrella color. This was taken together with waterdrops on the umbrella.
	Waterdrops below buds.
	Rain on a flowers fell in a drop. Was it a tear drop of her?

Many Japanese cameramen go out for taking cherry blossom photos in fine spring days. So sunny day's cherry blossom photos tend to be all-too-common. I therefore picked up photos which do not look too common.

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	Cherry blossoms in flush of dawn.  Strobe was used to make flowers not in silhouette, but Canon's E-TTL can't manage this situation mainly due to too small object and resulted in over exposure. So I turned 550EX to manual mode and reduced power.
	Sunrise, silhouette of cherry blossoms, and orange background.
	A morning dew was hold by two flowers.
	Kenko MC85 soft lens created such a refined photo.
	Another morning cherry blossom in oblique amber light.
	Yaezakura (double flowered cherry tree) in backlight of the morning sun.  I intended to make pedals bright as much as possible while pistil keeping its expression.
	White cherry blossoms called Ohshima-zakura.
	Let's look up to the sky, and feel magnificence of cherry trees.
	This cherry tree is in Yasuno Station, which is located in northern part of Hiroshima Prefecture and is famous for spring flowers. The cherry blossoms look noble thanks to yellow forsythia flowers in the foreground.
	Another view of the cherry tree in Yasuno Station, in combination with deep pink peach blossoms.
	I think some garden designers arranged Yasuno Station, or who can make such a nice color coordination in yellow, pink and pale pink?
	Whole view of the Yuki's weeping cherry tree in 2003. Mild daylight in cloudy day makes blossoms color gentle.
	Cherry trees on the lakeside of Ueno Park, which located in Shobara city, northern part of Hiroshima Prefecture. Shobara city is next to Miyoshi city which is famous for fog, thus Ueno Park is frequently covered by fog.
	Small weeping cherry and forsythia on the lakeside.
	Red carpet (we called it MOUHISEN, which is used for Japanese traditional tea party in the field) and shadow of cherry tree, and a flower.
	Red umbrella and pink weeping cherry tree in the background. This red umbrella is called NODATE GASA. "GASA" means umbrella. "NODATE" means traditional Japanese tea party in the field, which usually takes place in cherry blossom viewing season.