Prunus continued

Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn)





Prunus avium 'Plena', easily identified because it's a much bigger tree than other double white cherries, photographed 24th April




Prunus 'Hokusai' photographed 12th April





Prunus 'Amanogawa' photographed 24th April




Prunus avium (Wild Cherry)




Prunus 'Cheal's Weeping Cherry' photographed 20th April


Here are some more of the photos I've taken recently. Where is 'Kanzan', you ask? The truth is, most of the ornamental cherries I've seen are not practical to photograph. These trees are typically found in suburban gardens rather than parks and (I feel rather than know) the act of taking photos outside someone's garden is now an act viewed with extreme suspicion. I only felt comfortable about it if I was well away from a view of the house.

It used to be different; we didn't mind so much, a few years ago, if we saw someone taking pictures with an Instamatic. After all, a suburban home does (necessarily) have its public face, the view that is taken in by the casual glance of a passer-by. The photo snapped by an Instamatic from the street more or less represented that public face and nothing else. A modern camera captures so much more information; even if there was no invasive intent, nothing stops someone later zooming in to the image and having an invasive poke around.

And besides that, in the old days there wasn't the remotest chance of a casual snap being published; the instruments of publication, the press and the book trade, were securely in the hands of professionals: high-class gents (they usually were male) who were never likely to turn up in your neighbourhood. But now any old passing stranger can publish their picures.

The idea of publishing that was current until recently was an enormity. Perhaps we panic unreasonably - Internet-publishing is nearly always closer to publication in the pre-Caxton sense; sticking a picture on a wall or sharing it round your immediate circle of pals. But anyway, we've remembered again that a photo steals your soul.