Above the Treetops

The plan was the reflecting pool. I’d staked out a spot there for sunset before any other photographers arrived, and was waiting for the light. My wife went wandering and came back to tell me she’d found something better I might be interested in along a path closer to the castle where a gap in the trees lines the keep up between the trunks.

She was right. The gap is narrow enough that going wide would have bought me nothing but bark and leaves, so the frame went vertical and the castle stands in a slot of its own.

It was the back half of a long day. We’d taken the morning to Himeji and come into Osaka for the afternoon, and the grounds were full — tourists spread across the park in good weather, more photographers arriving at the pool behind me as spent sakura blossoms drifted around us.

This ended up pairing with the frame I’d improvised at Himeji that same morning, Only Color Left, which is still my favourite from the whole trip. Move Through Time, the photo of Matsumoto Castle, joined them later. All three hang together in our dining room.