I'll Be With You In Cherry Blossom Time.

Cherry Blossom on Chek Lap Kok Road, Hong Kong.

Last week I was off looking at autumn leaves; this week I've been looking at spring blossom.

On Tuesday I decided to go to the cherry tree garden on Chek Lap Kok Road. This is the road that leads from Tung Chung to Hong Kong International Airport. In an attempt to beautify the area hundreds of cherry trees have been planted here and when they blossom in January and February, people come from all over Hong Kong to see them.

To get there I took a bus to Tung Chung then crossed the road to the old bus station. The path to Tung Chung Waterfront is between the old bus station and the cable car.

I noticed there was a Chinese New Year market here so stopped to have a wander around that first. It sold mainly flowers and plants, but also some Chinese New Year decorations.

2024 will be The Year of the Dragon.

Orchids on the flower stall.

Flower stall.

Flower stall.

Kumquat trees.

Stall selling Chinese New Year decorations.

Stall selling Chinese New Year decorations.

After looking at the market, I headed across the nearby pedestrian bridge. From here I could have got to the cherry trees, by turning left, then walking along the road that runs parallel to the waterfront.

However, before I did that, I stopped to photograph a beautiful bauhinia tree with white flowers. I had just focused my camera when a butterfly flew directly into my shot and stayed still drinking nectar for several minutes, allowing me to get a good photograph of it. I love it when animals pose for you and it certainly doesn't happen often.

Bauhinia flower and Red based Jezebel butterfly.

Bauhinia flower and Red based Jezebel butterfly.

I then headed back to the correct road and crossed over a bridge. There are good views from here and there were lots of cable cars trundling by overhead on their way to and from the Big Buddha.

Crossing the bridge.

Funnily enough the weather has been cold, grey and foggy almost every day recently. I have been avoiding going to the blossoms in the hope that a day with blue skies might finally turn up. I finally gave up on the weather and decided just to go anyway or all the blossom would be gone and surprisingly the day I chose turned out to be really hot and sunny. I ended up carrying my jacket and sweater and wandering around in a T-shirt.

I soon saw a sign for the cherry tree garden. There were lots of people going to see the trees. Just like last year it was going to be really crowded.

Cherry tree garden sign.

Last year I photographed the crowds and took some closeup shots of the blossom and a selfie or two.

This year I became fascinated by the fact there was so much wildlife flying around the blossoms, and by wildlife I mean: butterflies, insects and tiny birds that darted around so fast they were almost impossible to photograph. Instead of wandering all over, I found myself a spot where I could stand completely still and focus my zoom lens onto the blossom laden branches above my head. I was so fascinated by all the creatures fluttering around up there that I was soon totally oblivious to the crowds.

After taking many photos I headed off into the shade and sat down and scrolled through all my shots. I had to discard lots of blurry failed efforts. I realised that the problem was that the camera was unsure what to focus on due to the layer upon layer of blossom. If it focused on a background layer, there were big blurry patches in the foreground and the photo just looked rubbish. I decided to work out some solutions and have another go.

The simplest solution seemed to be to take photos of bits of blossom that stuck out from the tree and had a background that was just sky.

Blossom with sky background.

Blossom with sky background.

Or to take the blossom with some other neutral background such as branches, leaves, but not other layers of blossom.

Blossom with a neutral background.

Blossom with a neutral background.

Blossom with a neutral background.

Or to ensure that the blossom in the foreground of the photo was in focus. This actually looks good against a blurred blossomy background.

Blossom focused in the foreground.

Blossom focused in the foreground.

Blossom focused in foreground.

Or, if possible, getting so close to the blossom that there isn't really any background.

Cherry blossom with no background.

I've no idea if these techniques are what you are meant to do or not, but they seemed to work for me.

In some shots the blossom in layers just seemed to work out without blurring. I may just not have used such a strong zoom for these.

Beautiful cherry blossom.

Beautiful cherry blossom.

Next, I had a go at getting a shot of blossom with butterflies on it. Here they weren't as helpful as the butterfly I had encountered on the bauhinia tree. I frequently just managed to finally get the butterfly into focus and it was off, but I persevered. After all, the butterflies did occasionally settle on a flower and stay there. I suppose these are also shots with a clear foreground and blurred background.

Butterfly and blossom.

Butterfly and blossom.

Butterfly and blossom.

Then, the hardest task. I tried to get a photo of one of the tiny birds that were zooming around. This was a bit of a nightmare. For a start they were really fast and they never seemed to settle anywhere or on anything. I was beginning to think my task was impossible unless I had the kind of camera birdwatchers use. After many failed attempts. I finally got the bird in focus and took the shot, only to find that most of its head was missing. I came close to throwing my camera on the ground and leaping up and down on it for a while, but I managed to restrain myself. I kept trying and trying and finally got a shot of bird with blossom. I only got one successful photo but I will put up that photo and a cropped version of the same shot. According to Google lens the bird belongs to the white eye family. It was one of the smallest birds I have ever seen.

Bird, blossom, blood, sweat and tears.

Bird and blossom cropped.

I took one very easy shot of the cable car passing by overhead.

Cable cars trundling by above the blossom.

Anyway by this stage my eyes were beginning to water and hurt from desperately trying to see what I was photographing. I decided to head back, but go via the Tung Chung Waterfront Promenade as it usually gets nicely decorated for festival times.

Looking back at the bridge I crossed from the Tung Chung Waterfront Promenade.

Tung Chung Waterfront Promenade.

I saw a beautiful tree on the waterfront with lots of little fruits growing on its branches.

Tree.

Close-up of tree

There were several people fishing on the waterfront. It looked like quite a peaceful place to sit and think while gazing out across the water.

Gone fishing.

There's plenty more fish under the bridge.

There's always been a lot of artwork along the edges of the promenade, but there seemed to be even more than usual. It definitely adds a lot of colour. Most of it shows the things you can visit in and around Tung Chung.

Art along the promenade.

Dolphins.

Cherry trees.

Big Buddha and water buffalo.

Discovery Bay.

Art and bridge.

Chinese opera.

I continued onwards and came to a display featuring lucky golden carp leaping through the air.

Golden carp display.

Golden carp display.

Further on and I was surrounded by lanterns lining the bright pink walls of one of the buildings here.

Colourful lanterns.

Colourful lanterns.

Close-up.

Rows of lanterns.

There are some very colourful buildings along here. One seems to contain a cafe, another could be an exhibition space. To be honest I haven't investigated them yet. There were beautiful cherry trees here last year, but this year they were completely bare. Maybe I was too early for them. There was a huge flower display outside the buildings.

Colourful building.

Colourful building.

Staircase.

Staircase.

Plant outside the colourful buildings.

Flower display.

Further on and there were passageways with row after row of lanterns overhead.

Passageway and lanterns.

Passageway and lanterns.

Lanterns.

Lanterns.

Continuing along there were more decorations and some fake cherry trees, after all the real ones don't blossom for long.

More decorations on the waterfront.

Fake cherry trees.

Fake cherry trees.

At this point I began to head back. I passed one final beautiful blossoming tree on my way home.

Blossoming rosy trumpet tree.