Friday, March 18, 2016

15 Photos from the Higashi Village Azelea Festival

These Flowers Will Brighten Up a Cloudy Day

 

 

Don't let the weather loonies, keep you locked up indoors this month.

One weather channel will predict heavy rain and, another says clouds and sunshine.

 Then, showers will come in late the afternoon.  They're all nuts.


flowers, ocean, mountains, Higashi-son, festival
Up into the hills of Higashi, we decided to go and, check on the azaleas, again.

It turned out to be a bit cloudy and hazy, at times but, we spotted sunshine sometimes, too.


entrance, gate, Higashi Azelea Matsuri, flowers

Just peeking through the Tsutsuji Matsuri (Azelea Festival) sign, things were looking good.

 There were lots more bright colored flowers blooming than, last time we came here.


pretty girls,peace sign,smiles
 These pretty girls, take your money and give you tickets, to get in, for only 300 Yen.

They remembered me, from the last time I was there.  Last Friday.

So, after joking around awhile, I asked if, I could take their picture.

And, got smiles with peace signs.  Little darlings.

stage, sign, hillside, azelea, flowers

 The stage, directly in front of this hillside of flowers, was a bit distracting.

But, I bet when there are dancers, up there, it looks much more attractive.


stones, rocks, flowers

Not a big fan of cloudy, grey skies, I decided to keep the lens out of the sky.

Between a wide angle lens and a zoom, for close-ups, I shot lots of flower images.


pink and white flowers, azaleas, leaves, buds

With a camera, you could easily, spend two or three hours, walking those hills.

So, that's what Doc Graff and I, planned on doing, as long as, the rain held off.


flowers, azalea, pink,red, white,violet


Azaleas come in all sorts of colors so, I tried to get a variety to show everyone.


whire azaleas, flowers

 There are still many flower buds, that haven't opened yet but, will in the near future.


pink and white flowers

 Not too wild about the pure white flowers, I preferred shooting mixed colors.


red, dark pink, flowers

These things look psychedelic.  I wonder if anyone ever tried to smoke the things,

Just kidding but, they hurt my eyes.  What color are they, anyway ?


rock, black background, pink and white azalea, raindrops

Mother Nature, provided a black backdrop for this pink flower.

It's actually a big rock, that had been rained upon, before we showed up.

Another thing it proved to be handy for, was blocking the wind from shaking the subject.


purple azaleas, flower-buds

I shot more of these psychedelic things, in order to show you the unopened flower-buds.

Probably, during the next week these hills will see full bloom for the Azalea Season.


mulit-colored azaleas, flowers
 One flower, in the center of this scene, appeared to be almost orange, in color.

 By now, I was feeling like, I had enough hill-climbing and flowers, for the day.


bridge, azalea, ocean, forest

So,  I decided to take some parting shots, on the way out of there.

Here, you get Azalea Bridge, pine trees and, a bit of ocean, all in one snap of the shutter.


forest, bridge, family walking

Down here, you can see families crossing the Azalea Bridge, from outside the park.

Do you suppose, we should head back up to those hills, next week ?

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