Tulips (my turn!)

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

The landscapes are all from the Skagit Valley 60 miles north of Seattle, and the backlit detailed/macro shots are from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm just south of Portland.

The sunset shots I drove up after work (nothing like 2 hour drive for a 60 mile commute - yay Seattle traffic). The problem is I would get to a field with about 30 minutes of light left and not have enough time to find any compositions, only to repeat the same process the next day on a different field (I'm going for breadth here, not depth!). Incidentally, a lens longer than 105mm would have been really useful for a lot of these.

I might make a few more visits as there's easily a week or two left of color, and about 4-5 fields I haven't yet visited.

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6:

#7:

#9:

#10:

#11:

#12:

#13:

#14:

#15:

#16:

#17:

dlplumer · April 28, 2009

These really suck Ron, but keep working on it.

2,3,6,9,11 suck the most imho.

Did you use slow shutter speeds on these with ND filters?

Dan

AAABluestocking · April 28, 2009

#2 is remarkable.

How do you get them to look like they are lit from within?

anwmn1 · April 28, 2009

Yeah dude.. like seriously I think you need to put that 5D up on Craigslist or something and take up basket weaving.:poke

5, 7, 11, 12, & 13

Especially #12

bow

kdog · April 28, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

These really suck Ron, but keep working on it.

:dgrin

Pretty amazing set. I think #9 might be my favorite.

Cheers,
-joel

dseidman · April 28, 2009

Well, Ron, since this whole series is excellent I'll try to provide critiques on a couple of them.

#1: The vignetting in the upper left corner is distracting

#4: I'm not too fond of the composition with the road and power lines.

#9: I wish you had increased the depth of field to get the foreground tulips in focus.

Seriously, that's all I've got for you. Out of these 17 pictures, I only had issues with three of them. I especially like the last six images.
Good work!

Tharhawk · April 28, 2009

Nice. Wonderful photos and great eye candy. Way to pick the light and great compositions.

jaminphoto · April 28, 2009

Love them all. except maybe #4, the road is not too photogenic

#2 and #9 are my favorite. excellent composition and beautiful color.

--ricardo

rhondavid · April 28, 2009

Wow an incredible set of pictures. Cannot say there is a one that I dislike. Certain you get the award of shooting the most tulips in a single frame. Must have been an incredible site to see them in person.

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

dlplumer wrote:

These really suck Ron, but keep working on it.

2,3,6,9,11 suck the most imho.

Did you use slow shutter speeds on these with ND filters?

Dan

Thanks for the encouragement

And yes, 2, 3, 9, and 10 all had a 2 or 3-stop GND and the exposures were 10-30 seconds on them.

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

AAABluestocking wrote:

#2 is remarkable.

How do you get them to look like they are lit from within?

Thanks! The sun did all the work for those macro/detail shots. Conventional wisdom is that the worst time to take photos is during the middle of the day when there's a lot of shadows. For most landscapes, that's true. But for some flower macro/detail shots, that's the best time, because they look great backlit by the sun. The fields looked like crap, but the individual flowers looked really nice.

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

anwmn1 wrote:

Yeah dude.. like seriously I think you need to put that 5D up on Craigslist or something and take up basket weaving.:poke

5, 7, 11, 12, & 13

Especially #12 bow

Thanks - unfortunately, I'm already an expert basket weaver so I need to take crappy photos in order to keep myself humble. Otherwise I'm unbearable.

dnie · April 28, 2009

Ron, Could you just throw in a bad one every now and then to let the rest us feel better?

Amazing, ALL of them.

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

dseidman wrote:

Well, Ron, since this whole series is excellent I'll try to provide critiques on a couple of them.

#1: The vignetting in the upper left corner is distracting

#4: I'm not too fond of the composition with the road and power lines.

#9: I wish you had increased the depth of field to get the foreground tulips in focus.

Seriously, that's all I've got for you. Out of these 17 pictures, I only had issues with three of them. I especially like the last six images.
Good work!

Thanks Danny, I agree with all your comments. I fixed #1. #9 I was worried about the wind as it was a lot more evident on those flowers in the front than the middle, but even so, it probably would have been better with them in focus and blurred than OOF and blurred even more. #4 had some crazy light even if the rest of it wasn't great.

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

Tharhawk wrote:

Nice. Wonderful photos and great eye candy. Way to pick the light and great compositions.

Thanks! Tulips are probably my favorite flowers, for pure aethestic purposes, and for what they represent: the arrival of spring. Only another week or so before they're gone (at least at the Skagit fields).

coscorrosa · April 28, 2009

Thanks for the comments and feedback on these everyone! Well, not everyone, just those who left the comments and feedback.

Nacho · April 29, 2009

Ron, sorry to be coming late here, but better late than never. Great shots, I like those pinks in particular! What neat color and mood. : )

I'll have to visit this valley next time around. I'll have a few other tulips to post later. This is the first year I worry so about Tulips, but your explanation of why you like them, and how they presage the coming of Spring resonates quite well with me. I love their straight, face to the world and sun, look. Then again, I also find tons of beauty in moss, and that's a project I want to pursue here in this area soon.

Your shots are great as always. Thanks!

N

Awais Yaqub · April 29, 2009

huh

clap

Sunnyvalejohn · April 29, 2009

Chiming in late here... I like 1 ,3 5, 6,7, and the last few the most. Really nice set. The macro work really shows the glowing within. Nice use of lighting! 4 has a bit too much dirt road for my taste but nice skies. Nice light breaking through on #5.

Cheers,
John

Abiciriderback · April 29, 2009

Hey Ron

Very nice series really like the Pink fields and kinda of a glow effect very cool. Very nice work as always.

Ray Still

cj99si · April 30, 2009

I like 2 and 5. 9 would be on the list and the favorite if the first tulips were in focus.

annnna8888 · April 30, 2009

Wow. I

#2.
I don't know what to add. Spectacular all around.

Ana

coscorrosa · April 30, 2009

Thanks for the additional round of comments!

Tulips (my turn!)

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