Copyright © 2023 Tokyo in Pics | Powered by Tokyo in Pics
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases you make on this website.
Hakusan Shrine Hydrangea Festival 2022 on a dull day
The Hakusan Shrine Hydrangea Festival 2022 was good. It didn’t happen in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. I was happy it was back. And along with me, many people were there to see the flowers.
I would have appreciated some blue sky. But there was little to be found. It was completely overcast. That was okay, as the dull light made things perfect for flower photography. I only had to avoid pointing my camera upward! The clouds looked ugly.
The Hakusan Shrine hydrangeas looked great. I thought they were at their peak. They were missing from some areas, though. There were none around the altar and komainu (lion-dog guardian statues). I don’t know why they weren’t there.
The shrine also has a small hill that hydrangeas cover. That was closed again this year (i.e., 2022). We couldn’t enter it, so we all took our pictures from the bottom.
I had a short conversation with another photographer while I was there. We were waiting to get photos of the front of the shrine. But there were so many people, and we kept umming and ahhing, pulling away from the shot. Both of us could see the other struggling with the timing.
We started talking, and she mentioned that photography was a waiting game. It’s either hoping for people to leave the area or waiting for them to come. I could only agree with her. It can be frustrating at times.
I was also frustrated that I only had one lens. Earlier in the morning, I went to the Australian Embassy to renew my passport. It cost me over AUS$400! I couldn’t believe the price. It was terribly expensive.
Anyway, due to the limited space in my bag thanks to the paperwork, I couldn’t take my 10-24 mm or 55-200 mm lenses. The wide-angle would have been nice to have at the shrine. Some of the hydrangea flower beds are pretty big.
So that was my day at the Hakusan Shrine Hydrangea Festival. It was pretty good. Most of all, I was happy to see it back to normal after its absence of two years.