Close-up of cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin.

Last weekend was the peak for cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. On Sunday, I road my bike to the Tidal Basin to photograph the blossoms as the sun rose. I did the same thing last year.

Last year, I took a lot of photos of the Tidal Basin ringed by cherry trees in bloom. While the Tidal Basin itself is an obvious subject, it’s actually a bit hard to get interesting photos of the Tidal Basin. It can actually be hard to see the blossoms when you focus on the water because the blossoms are so small and at a distance lack definition. I tried to do a bit of the same this year but with some added creativity:

Cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin at dawn.

The photos I really liked the most last year focused more on the trees than the Tidal Basin. Here’s one with of a tree catching some of the morning light hanging over the water.

Cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin at dawn.

But this year, I made an extra effort to focus on the blossoms themselves. I think the bokeh (pleasing out of focus background) on this one is really nice.

Close-up of cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin at dawn.

Another thing I tried was turning around and looking away from the tidal basin. I found a pleasing canopy of cherry blossoms:

Cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin early in the morning.

Pointing my camera up also gave me some fun results:

Cherry blossoms in morning light.

One added benefit of focusing on details is that you can avoid the crowds--and there are big crowds at the Tidal Basin for the National Cherry Blossom Festival--though it also helps to go really early in the morning as I did.

Photographers and tourists admiring the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin at dawn.

Sometimes it’s nice to get people in the photo. In this one, the presence of the girl in orange make things feel very relaxed and serene, but I could do without that photographer way off in the background.

Bicyclist relaxing under a canopy of cherry blossoms.

I walked all around the Tidal Basin and came to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. While not a photo of cherry blossoms, I could not resist taking this photo:

Statue of Thomas Jefferson at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

The columns right outside struck me as particularly interesting. I tried playing with the shadows that they created and some depth of field. Notice how the columns look like they are different widths?

Pillars casting shadows in morning light at the Jefferson Memorial.