The Lost Flowers of Kyoto

I love taking pictures of flowers, so it’s no surprise that a stroll through the Kyoto Botanical Gardens was one of my favorite days touring in Japan. I spent hours wandering among the most beautiful and pristine rose bushes I have ever seen and savored every moment I could standing under camellia trees bursting with pink blooms. During the trip, I became most attached to these pictures. The sheer variety of colors and shapes were an inspiration and an example of all the charm that can be found in just one tiny corner of Japan. That day made me realize how much I genuinely love plants.

So, you can imagine my horror when I returned home to find that the memory card in my camera had failed, and all these images were lost. I was utterly devastated. When would I be back in Kyoto to see these gardens again? How could I have lost all those triumphant and graphic plants? I spent hours shooting, experimenting with depth of field for the right effect, carefully considering my compositions and exposure so I could best capture each bud. I fell in love with the flowers on this day, and I felt wrecked that I hadn’t backed up the images, or worse, had done something to jeopardize my photos.

I cried.

But then my brilliant husband, comforting and apologetic, helped me in the effort. We tried all kinds of technical programs and then settled on mailing the card to a digital recovery specialist, where they were able to get back every single picture.

It may not seem like a big deal, but I left my heart in that Botanical Garden. So enjoy these photographs – they almost didn’t make it.