spring is here!

Last week's assignment was neighborhood/tree.

The class kind of knew that if the weather gets much warmer, cherry blossoms would start blooming and we would be able to take lots of wonderful photos.  Luckily that's exactly what happened on St. Patrick's Day.  The weather was wonderful - the sky was blue with beautiful clouds.

I love when the cherry blossoms first bloom in spring.  You don't have any green leaves on the tree yet and the flowers are so fresh and clean, you just wish they could stay like that forever.

Amazingly, Cincinnati is full of cherry trees and you can see the blossoms everywhere you go.  I feel so blessed to be able to experience this.

I took these shots with my 18-200mm lens with no tripod.  I had to drop my arms and take a break every few shots to make sure that my arms are not too tired from holding the camera for too long.  I could feel my arms shaking and I wasn't sure if that would cause motion blur when I zoom in so much with no tripod and everything was on autofocus.  I wish I have a macro lens and a solid tripod for these shots because I am sure I can get more beautiful and abstract photos if I get much closer!  Oh well, they will have to go on to my B&H's wish list...