Jeanne Selep's Selep Imaging Blog: 2025

Spring: my favorite time of year, where I get to watch the natural world come alive in a myriad of spectacular steps.

Kiyomizu Dera Temple in Kyoto Japan by Jeanne Selep

Image 1: Lush Pink Cherry Blossoms in Japan

While I try to see, experience, and contemplate spring's miracles, I find myself wanting to encourage others to do the same.

Image 2: White Cherry Blossoms in Japan

I think a synonym for spring could be "transform".

Image 3: Pink Cherry Blossoms past peak in Japan

Spring is a season of miraculous transformations.

Image 4: Cherry Blossoms like Pink Lace against the Sky

Spring's transformations are so ubiquitous that many forget to realize the miracles happening before their eyes.

Image 5: Cherry Blossoms like lace backed by sky

I find it hard not to be awed by the complete change in the landscape from winter to summer.

Night illumination of Kiyomizu Dera Temple in Kyoto Japan

Image 6: Cherry Tree in bloom, Kyoto

I love the mad rush of blossoms that transform some trees into an exuberant floral fantasy for a couple of days, changing the tree from months of bare branches to months of green leaves.

Image 7: A Floral Fantasy: Cherry Tree in Bloom, Kyoto Japan

Emerging spectacles link together to form the season of "spring", yet the individual scenes of spring, the blooming cycles of individual plants, are sometimes only 2-5 days long for a specific plant type, and the weather can interfere with those periods.

Image 8: Pink Cherry Blossoms

Spring's joyous surprises are fast and fleeting.

Image 9: Cherry blossoms in Japan

If a modern person found a watch on the surface of the moon, they could recognize the watch as evidence that a watchmaker existed, because the watch could not "naturally" occur. I see spring's, and life's transformations and I recognize spring as evidence of a Creator.

Image 10: Cherry trees with Tulips, Kyoto Botanic Garden

Spring, and all of nature's miracles, convince me that a Creator existed, a designer of our planet's miracles, a watchmaker of life.

(Some people say - "Who made the Creator?" which sidetracks the point that a Creator existed. One shouldn't ignore the evidence a watchmaker existed just because we don't know where the watchmaker came from.)

Image 11: Fun Shaped White Cherry blossoms

All of these photos where taken on my trip to Japan in 2025. I hope to someday document parks and gardens I visited, but I wanted to share some of the cherry blossoms I saw while it was still spring 2025. (In Wisconsin USA the redbuds are still blooming, and the Lilies of the Valley are in full bloom - it's still spring here!)

Japan Tokyo Ueno Park Cherry Blossoms by Jeanne Selep

Image 12: Japan's Ueno Park in Tokyo with Cherry Blossoms

Here are two photos from Tokyo's Ueno Park, to show that I also tried to take lovely landscape views...

Image 13: Ueno Park with Cherry Blossoms reflected in water

But today's post consisted mostly of cherry blossom portraits - trying to capture close-ups of a fraction of the millions of blossoms I saw.

Bird in Cherry Blossoms in Japan by Jeanne Selep

Image 14: Bird in Cherry Blossoms

I know further South it's summer (and in the Southern Hemisphere fall will be starting soon) - I find the seasons and timing of spring fascinating. Spring photos can be enjoyed any time of year.

I hope you had a great spring with some beautiful memories, and I hope you enjoyed my photos while reflecting on spring... If you read to here, I would love to hear your thoughts!

"The Earth laughs in flowers"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Note: This garden sign from Shinjuku Gyoen garden in Tokyo Japan is packed with information on cherry blossoms. Sorry about the quality, the photo was taken in pouring rain. Sigh...)

Image 15: Garden Sign in Tokyo about Cherry Blossoms

Click on the images to see them enlarged.

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I returned from a trip to Japan with this view from Kyoto etched in my mind.

Image 1: Kiyomizu Dera Temple in Kyoto, Japan

I took this photo of the Kiyomizu Dera Temple around sunset. It was the last day that the temple was illuminated for the cherry blossom season in April 2025.

My daughter and I had checked out of our Tokyo hotel and took a fast Shinkansen bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. We raced to check our bulky luggage into our hotel, and then we ran up the roads, paths, and steps leading to the Temple, not knowing what to expect. I had made the note "last night of the Kiyomizu Temple illumination" on my calendar, but had no idea what the Temple illumination actually meant. Much of our time in Tokyo had been rainy, so we hadn't see many "illuminations" in Tokyo.

As I stood there, shivering in the cold, I had been wishing that the clouds hiding the setting sun would somehow magically disappear. (Shivering because the side of a mountain is much colder than valley below, and Kyoto was colder than Tokyo was, and the temperature rockets down once the sun disappears, and the extra layers of clothing and gloves were safely packed miles away in our hotel room...) As the sky turned darker we caught our breath. I began to appreciate the temple's orange glow against the blue and purple skies and hills framing the city lights of Kyoto. In the cold air (I couldn't see my breath, but I felt like I should have been able to!), the crowds thinned and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to share this day with my daughter.

Image 2: Night Illumination of Kiyomizu Dera Temple in Kyoto

Back at home, I have thousands of images to backup, sort, and process, which will allow me to relive and savor the trip. Reviewing the photos from Japan might become my major project for the summer. I plan to share more photos over time.

Until then, I am posting a collection of other travel memory posts below - click and enjoy!