Ahhh Tulips!!!

In mid-April, dma and I headed up north to the beautiful Skagit Valley tulip fields. Its kinda hectic at work these days, so I ended up heading into the office early & taking just a little bit of leave. It was definitely worth it... the fields were much less crowded than they would be during the weekend and the lighting was pretty amazing.

Sometimes, rejuvination can be found by the crashing waves of an ocean or the swift rapid of a river. Sometimes, renewal rides the gentle wind of a mountain top. Other times, you just need to stand knee-deep in glorious color.

I took too many pictures to post. Seriously... I have 30-something that are edited, 90-ish that are pretty impressive proofs. I loved the variety of scenes available.... landscapes, close-ups, abstracts, portraits; I used all of my lenses, too... even the lens baby!

Here is a standard field shot... isn't that pink pretty?

And check out my bee shot! It definitely wasn't luck... this frame took some work! I camped out for a good fifteen minutes snapping pics of these busy guys. I faced certain danger, too, because I am moderately allergic to bees! I have some other cool images, too, where you can see the motion of the bee's wings! I liked the lighting the best in this one, though.

Of course, I couldn't resist converting a close-up into a contrasty black & white image....

For this soft white tulip, I used my bff the 50mm & set the aperture at f1.8. Peaceful, isn't it?

Aha, here is my lens baby shot! This tulip in the walkway was a popular subject for those creative-type photographers. Count me in!

The image below of the white tulip is probably the most edited of the images on this post. I had to do very, very little to the others since the lighting was so interesting this day. But, the white tulip was in the path of some harsh direct light, but I liked the contrast of white and deep purple.

oh! And this one took a bit of work, too. It was one of my first frames for the day and I was soooo excited to take pictures that I didn't even think about using a polarizer or neutral density to cut back some of the bright afternoon sun. I increased the temperature, adjusted the hue & lowered the saturation a bit to get this image. (and added a vignette, of course!)

DMA and I actually wrapped up the photoshoot before midnight & enjoyed a leisurely drive back. It was our third trip to the tulips, and our most creative yet. Our first trip was back in 2007, so it is cool to see how our photographic styles have evolved. And our gear... hahaha.... back then, dma was using a Panasonic Lumix & I was rocking my sweet Canon A520!

Thanks for checking out my tulip pictures; hope you enjoyed this little glimpse of spring as much as I did. ahhh, tulips!!!