Every year I tell myself I am going to do a photoshoot in the cherry blossoms at the Utah State Capitol and every year something holds me back, usually the crowds! Sometimes it's the weather or the timing, but let's be honest, it's the crowds.
The cherry blossoms bloom for just a couple of weeks each year around the end of March and the beginning of April. There are 433 Yoshino cherry trees that line the Memorial Walkway encircling Capitol Hill. As a symbol of friendship and reconciliation following World War II, the cherry trees were sent by the Japanese to Utah. To honor that friendship, they were placed around the Utah State Capitol. Many other states and the nation’s Capitol also have these same Japanese blossoming cherry trees.
In Japan, blossoming cherry trees, with their rapidly appearing flowers that die within weeks, symbolize the impermanence of life, or as Anthropologist Ohnuki-Tierney writes, “the cycle of life, death and rebirth, on the one hand, and of productive and reproductive powers, on the other.” Though, many Americans also see them as the advent to Spring!
The evening I met Nicole and her mother, as expected, there were hundreds of people, however, we were still able to get some stunning senior photos of Nicole. She looked almost angelic in her white dress against the cloud-like cherry blossoms. The sun was golden and beautiful.
Next year I am planning on more sessions in the cherry blossoms, but my strategy is to go early in the morning and beat the rush!
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