So, when I saw this landscape challenge posted on Facebook I knew I would participate, well, since I sort of do it every day. The goal is to give viewers a sense of wonder for the beauty that is out there in the natural world. No problem for me, I figured, I've got hundreds of landscape shots to pick from--and I do have that many. But I wanted to pick a shot that also gave a sense of calm as well as show the beauty in the natural world and that limited my choices. Many of my landscape shots are from out west and while I love the west and standing in those vistas does give a sense of calm, on the computer screen, I see a lot of rocks and colors and shapes and beautiful skies but those don't really give that much of a sense of calm. Not like being there. So, I thought of a couple of shots that I can post during the next few days that might fit the "sense of calm" in a landscape scene but this one, with a new HDR filter that I recently added, is my new favorite. Obviously, these are the Cherry Blossom Trees at the Reflection Basin (see some "calm" right away in the name) in Washington DC. I was lucky enough to be there in peak bloom back in 2017 and got up super early before my meetings to get out and get this shot before the sun rose. The fog was just lifting and the calmness of the water gave some great reflections to pick up even more of the pink in the trees. To top it off, I got a single duck to float into the scene to give a sense of scale. So, hope this challenge submission wins your approval. More to come.
