GARDEN SPOTLIGHT- TULIPS

I never was into flowers, and until I started selling pictures did not ever think of them except if it was for a woman I was dating. I have been amazed at how they sell now. The other thing about them is that they attract the insects I like to photograph. But when there are no bugs around--I take shots anyway. A walk down the street can yield a garden kept by anyone here in The Dalles or just growing more or less naturally.


Here in The Dalles this year at least, there are TONS of tulips. But since I never noticed flowers until I started photographing them--I really can't say if this has been a better year for them other then the fact that my back yard is full of them.

I shot all the tulips in this post on a sidewalk garden made by some neighbors of mine. It's great because I do not have to go into anyone's yard to take pictures. It's on the other side of the sidewalk--so I have a full range of motion to capture any kind of shot I want. These relatively small tulips that look like they are on fire or belong in a car show.


Other flowers are highlighted quickly with a method of photographing flowers I figured out about a while ago. It takes care of all kinds of problems like wind and other things. But you have to have a good camera with all-manual controls. It's done basically by stopping up to f8-22 and firing a carefully placed flash--sometimes I use a brighter extra flash unit.

So that way they light-up without any photoshop work. All these pictures are stright from the camera with no edits done in the camera.

A close-up of one of those red hot ones--I find insects here as well, aphids and other small insects are easy to find in flowers even if they are not the big nectar producers that insects love the most.

Here is a shot through the sidewalk garden. You can see how I am able to get around and take pictures without trespassing or stepping into the garden. Carefully done--I could never figure out how to do this. But women like them- and if the flower pictures sell it's well worth it so I hope my yard keeps coming up with them.

Colors are everywhere here. A baby one and a big one. There are many yards here where photography is possible.

All kinds of interesting flowers and plants grow here. I still can't get over the crisp high-resolution power of my new camera. I don't mean to brag but it's just really awesome.


I guess these are tulips as well---I think you can tell them by the looks of there leaves-
the flowers look much different but the leaves all look basically the same as a kind of plant.

A shot straight into the flower showing again the way these flowers work. An insect flies in and touches most of the parts inside--the middle is the organ that gathers pollen. If it's not pollinated by itself (which is most-likely what will happen) then it could grow as a mix. But I know nothing about these bulbs or if they even have seeds.


A tulip at the end of it's glory--it only has a couple days before it will give way and an interesting transformation happens. It's peddles fall completely off quickly--and the only thing left is the center organ. Everything else falls away naturally leavening what looks like a living stick right up into the air.