I photographed the Kanda River cherry blossoms again in 2020. That year I had planned to photograph some new places. But due to the pandemic, that didn’t happen. It was a disastrous flower photography season. But at least I had something close to home to fall back on.
In retrospect, I was lucky. Traveling far by train wasn’t an option for obvious reasons. The further you go, the greater the chance of contracting the disease. That left me with only local places. And that meant the Kanda River, where it flowed past Takaido Station.
On that day, after returning from work, I had lunch and worked on this blog. Then I grabbed my camera and headed to the river. I enjoyed my time there. The flowers were in full bloom and looked great. It was a pity the weather was overcast. The flowers would have looked much better if there had been a little blue sky. Even so, they were good enough.
And I did something different this time. I used a prime lens, the Fujifilm XF 35 mm f/1.4 R lens. That was something I’d never done before. It proved to be a good choice as it was so small and light. Yes, I had to zoom with my feet, but that was okay. It was a good break from using the heavy 16-55 mm.
I have to say that there were very few people along the river. A few people in suits were making their way home, and a few joggers were running. But, there were almost no mothers with kids, older people, or school children along the paths as in previous years. I’m only assuming, but I’ll say coronavirus was the reason. It was keeping some people indoors.
Just to let you know, I’m republishing these photos in July 2022. If you could see the trees now, they would look very different. I heard that some disease got into them, and many of their branches were lopped off. So they won’t be at their best again for a few years at least.
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