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Life On The Move
The Drive-By Temple
Beautiful temples in Japan are like great venues in New Orleans, they are everywhere. My base here in the foot hills of the Okutama mountains is no exception to that fact. With spring now rampant, I am driving around more and more scouting for shoots that will yield a different look to some of my future work. More to come on that later.
A month ago I was driving back home from a long day in Tokyo with my buddy Jensen. We took a different route home than normal to skirt some bad traffic. The light was low and the setting sun was beyond beautiful on the rice fields that we passed. We rounded a curve and there it was. One of the most beautiful spring sights I have seen so far in Japan.
The Entsuji Temple located in the Akiruno area is, for a lack of better words, breathtaking. The end of March is really the start of the plum and cherry blossoms, but this year the season was two weeks early. This was great for me since I was leaving for the month of April and I thought I would miss this remarkable time of year.
I slammed on my brakes and veered hard left into the small parking area. We jumped out and started snapping away. This was actually the last time that Jensen I would shoot together in Japan and what a magical place to do so. The entrance is lined with amazing marble statues of Buddhist gods and warriors that set a scene that when the wind blows takes you directly back to the Edo period. The temple is surrounded by perfectly raked zen gardens that are shrouded in sweeping sakuras. The only thing missing was the far off sounds of a could of Kendo masters practicing in the distance.
Fall is my favorite time of the year, but spring is a close second for sure. Spring sweeps over me each year and is in many ways a fresh start for me professionally and personally.
The front door to springtime is a photographer’s best friend. ~Terri Guillemets
