Spring Blossoms at Tongdosa

It is that time of the year again. Blossom time! While it is still a bit early you can still head out and get the jump on some prime locations. There are a few things that I will run over through this quick tour of my most recent trip to Tongdosa.

1. Get the Scene

What makes this time special is that the delicate pink, white, and yellow flowers transform normally drap areas into magical landscapes. Don’t just take a shot of the tree, get it with something. Shoot down the sidewalk or in my case at Tongdosa, against the backdrop of the temple. You must give your viewers a sense of place. This will create, in their minds, that magic we all want in these shots.

2. Get Close

One of the hardest things about shooting in this time of year is that everyone else is doing the same. During my last two visits to Tongdosa there have been a minimum of 50 well-equipped and at least 50 more with everything from a point and shoot to an iPad circling around the trees getting these shots. So how do you get a shot without some dude “being cute” for his girlfriend in the background? Get in close. Shoot macro if you have it. What I do is I bring along my 77mm Canon “Close-up” filter. This is what I like to call a poor man’s macro. It is basically like sticking on a magnifying glass on the end of your telephoto lens but it works. The depth of field is a little hard to work with but the results are interesting. In this case you can also use an extension tube as well.

3. Create a Theme.

Sometimes we get overloaded with the same shots and lose our focus. You get home only to find that you have 16gb worth of the same shot. I sort of feel into this trap but decided to go with a theme of some bees and whatnot. Weak, I know but there was not a lot of creativity coming out of my brain this day.