Four photos, five years – A father’s beautiful pictures of his daughter growing up at Nara temple

Loving dad also has a heartwarming idea for what to photograph next.

The biggest sightseeing draw in Nara is Nara Park, with its herds of free-roaming deer and adjacent historical buildings. But the prefecture’s points of interest aren’t limited to Nara City, and one that’s worth venturing out of the prefectural capital to see is Hasedera Temple, in the town of Sakurai.

Situated part-way up a mountain, climbing the covered staircase to the top will reward you with a beautiful view from an observation deck, and it was there that Japanese Twitter user and photography enthusiast @shingo_camera snapped the above photo of his daughter as she offered a prayer against a backdrop of crimson autumn leaves.

However, Hasedera’s full beauty isn’t something that can be conveyed in just one trip. It’s also known as “the temple of flowers,” and each season offers uniquely enchanting scenery. So @shingo_camera eventually took another trip to Hasedera with his daughter, this time in the summer, when the leaves on the trees were a vibrant verdant hue.

You might notice that @shingo_camera’s daughter is taller in the second shot than the first. That’s because the they’re part of a series that he took over the course of roughly five years, with the girl standing in the same spot, and with the same pose, each time.

▼ The spring photo, with sakura cherry blossoms on the branches

In the first photo, she’s still just six years old, but by the time we get to winter, she’s turned 10.

5年かかってようやく撮れました。
秋の紅葉、夏の新緑、春の桜、冬の雪。
最初に紅葉を撮ってから雪を撮る間に
娘も6歳が10歳になり、シルエットからも成長を感じます。
これで撮るのをやめるわけではありませんが一つの目標が叶った瞬間です。
並べると今までの思い出が思い出されて溢れそうです。 pic.twitter.com/gwp64K9yww

— しんご (@shingo_camera) January 12, 2021

“Seeing her silhouette grow, it hammers home how much bigger she’s gotten,” @shingo_camera muses. “Looking at them all together like this, it brings back so many memories.”

The palpable sense of the passage of time is all the more poignant considering that Hasedera was founded more than 1,300 years ago, in the year 686, and the deeply moving photos of a father’s-eye view as the little girl grows up produced comments such as:

“This is beautiful in so many ways.”
“Taking photos in the same spot like this really makes you feel how the past flows into the present, and the present into the future.”
“I have a two-year-old son, and looking at photos like this reminds me to treasure the time I’ll have with him, and how much I’ll get to see him grow into an adult.”
“I think you should keep taking pictures of your daughter like this as she grows up.”

Regarding the last comment, @shingo_camera says that he’s finished with this series, now that all four seasons are accounted for. But as a skilled photographer and loving father, he’s already got another four-photo idea lined up. His plan is to take one of the photos once his daughter starts middle high school, the second once she’s in high school, the third when she’s dressed in her kimono on Coming of Age Day and becomes a legal adult, and the fourth if and when she’s pregnant with her first child. “That’s a long way off,” he says of the milestones, “but I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the photos when they’re ready,” he says, and in the meantime he’s got a lovely visual record of her early childhood to reminisce with.

Source: Twitter/@shingo_camera via IT Media
Images: Twitter/@shingo_camera
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