One of the things I love most about travel photography is that some of the best images are completely unplanned. On the morning of the Akita Kanto Festival, I grabbed my camera and headed out to lunch with the group. My expectations were low because I don’t like shooting in the middle of the day. The contrast is just too harsh, and photos usually don’t turn out. The city was already active as many of the Kanto participants were setting up their lantern poles and preparing for the morning competition. As I wandered through city, I came across a pond covered with lotus plants and blooming Lotus flowers. The vibrant pink petals standing out against a sea of lush green leaves immediately caught my attention,
The lotus flower holds a special place in Japanese culture and Buddhist tradition, symbolizing purity, renewal, and spiritual awakening. What makes the lotus particularly meaningful is its ability to emerge beautifully from muddy water, a reminder that beauty and resilience often grow from unexpected places. Seeing this blossom illuminated by the morning sunlight felt like a perfect representation of that symbolism.
Photographing flowers may seem simple, but capturing their elegance requires patience. The morning light highlighted the delicate texture of each petal while the softly blurred background helped isolate the flower and draw attention to its intricate details. Sometimes the challenge isn’t finding a subject but recognizing one when it appears unexpectedly.
Later that evening, thousands of spectators would line the streets to watch performers balance towering bamboo poles covered in glowing lanterns during the Kanto Festival. Yet this quiet scene became one of my favorite memories from the day. Before the crowds, the music, and the excitement, there was this peaceful moment beside a pond, reminding me that travel is often as much about the unexpected discoveries between events as it is about the headline attractions themselves.
This image was taken with my Sony A7R V using my Sony FE 24-105 mm f/4 Lens set on 105 mm. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/6.3, shutter speed at 1/6400th of a second, and ISO set at 1600. I handheld the camera and captured a single image which I processed in Lightroom and completed in Photoshop using Topaz Photo to remove the noise and Nik Color Efex 7.
T. Kahler Photography
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Great photo, Terry.