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For only a handful of days per year, cherry blossoms are at full bloom. A prelude to spring, these beautiful flowers quickly give way to the greater green.

There may no better place in the world to witness these trees than in our Nation’s Capital — a reason that it holds an annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The Tidal Basin, with its grand vistas to our most treasured National Monuments, is lined from end to end with these gorgeous beings.

Only the right conditions allow one to photograph the beauty of these trees with a long exposure that accentuates the magic of a sunrise. All conditions must converge in during one of about 5 days of possible bloom, when the clouds take only a portion of the sky, when the sun rises in the proper place in the horizon, when the wind carries clouds in the stratosphere but does not disturb the branches on the Earth’s surface.

And as soon as this scene comes to being, it fades away. The blossom only lasts so long; signs of its fleeting nature are apparent, as expired blossoms fall to the Earth.

Just like the dawn, our appreciation of the blossoms comes not just from their explicit grace, but their momentary nature. And while we should appreciate the moment that will pass, we should also rejoice in the awakening that will follow.