Kyoto, Japan

PhotographerGerald
SeasonWinter
Time of dayAfternoon
Session length55 minutes

Proposal in the rain at Kitano Tenmangu plum blossom garden, Kyoto

Couple after proposal under umbrellas, Kitano Tenmangu Kyoto

Portrait session in the rain, plum blossoms Kitano Tenmangu

The story behind the shoot

Plum blossoms, heavy rain, and a garden to themselves

Hi everyone! I'm Gerald, the photographer on this shoot. I wanted to share with you how D and R's proposal came together, including the one thing we could not control and why it ended up working in their favour. Read on!

What they wanted

D was very specific: he wanted plum blossoms for the proposal. Not cherry blossoms, not a garden in general. Plum blossoms at peak. In Kyoto, Kitano Tenmangu is the best option for that. It has one of the largest plum groves in the city, and the timing of D's chosen date lined up well with the bloom. The location was clear from the start. What we could not plan for was the weather.

The challenge

The forecast for that day was heavy rain. Not a light drizzle. The kind of rain where you need an umbrella the whole time or you get soaked. D had no flexibility on the date, so there was no alternative. We were going regardless. The rain meant lower energy, slower movement, and less freedom to move around the garden. It also meant Kitano Tenmangu, which normally draws crowds in the afternoon during plum blossom season, was almost completely empty. When we arrived, there were maybe two or three other people in the entire space. The rain that made everything harder also gave them the garden to themselves.

How we shot it

I was already in position in the plum grove when D and R arrived. In weather like that, anyone with a camera is just someone sheltering under a tree, so blending in was straightforward. D proposed among the blossoms, and R was genuinely surprised. She was emotional from the moment she understood what was happening. She cried a lot. What struck me was how well both of them handled the rain. They were not trying to fight it. They were having fun, enjoying what was in front of them, laughing about it. The portraits came together because of that energy. We worked with the light we had, found spots where the rain added to the frame rather than fighting it, and by the end we had something that felt like theirs. A beautiful, quiet, very wet Kitano Tenmangu with nobody else around.