Spring Pictures of Tulips
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 | Flower lovers flock to Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. In the spring, it's such a cheerful, heart warming place to be. Spring bulbs begin to burst through the ground in February while Old Man Winter still has the rest of Canada in its grip. |
 | Make sure you get pictures of tulips as a garden scene. Take in the whole view and see how the garden's been planned out. Once you look through a macro lens, you'll be tempted to spend all your time peering though it! Don't neglect the large picture! |
 | “QE” Park is Vancouver's wedding photo hotspot. Hang out there on a spring or summer weekend and just try to count the brides! The park has wonderful karma and a day there with your camera is the best tonic for your post winter blahs. |
 | Here's a closer view of the red lily flowering tulips sharing space with some violet colored pansies. Gardeners at “QE” Park do a bang-up job of mixing colors and flowers. There's also constant flow of spectacular blooms from spring through fall. |
 | Photography should be about fun and experimenting! I had some fun with these tulips. Like the photo below, there are few colors. My best pictures of tulips are simple and clean. The light is bright but not hard, and I used a reflector to light up shadows. |
 | Life through a macro lens is fascinating! You must use a tripod and timer or a remote. The quiver of your hand plus the movement of camera parts after the shutter release creates a mini earthquake when you take photos with a macro lens. |
 | There's definitely a theme going on here... tulips in a blue sea of forget-me-nots. White petals of these parrot tulips are almost translucent with the sun shining through. It's mid day and the sun is strong. Oops, I broke a light rule! Is that okay? |
 | A crop of the 35 mm slide below... you can get creative with Photoshop or other photo editors. I got rid of the leaves at the bottom and left the nearly black background with the blue “flame”. Just crop away and and delete the ones you don't like! |
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| A perfect single late tulip with fabulous light. Also a “warm-hearted” tulip! Her petals look like they're wrapping around to hug herself. It's a 35 mm slide, Fuji film. This is the original and the next is one way of cropping. | One good result... the light on the coral colored petals makes the tulip really stand out on a black background. Love the extra “flame” of teal blue. The original 35 mm tulip picture turned out better than planned. | Rules of composition say not to place your subject central. This flower looks very graceful on a curving stem. The tulip bloom is in the upper half, not centered. Leaves, stems and petals create interesting angles. |
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| A trio of soft sunshiny yellow lily flowered tulips. We're in QE Park again, just behind Bloedel Conservatory. Great place to settle down for some pictures of tulips. There's a pond and a stone bridge to use as a background. | Drive up the hill in Queen Elizabeth Park to the Seasons Restaurant. At the tall clock look to your left and you'll see spring has sprung! Got your camera ready for the dazzling scene of red, yellow and white blooms? | The Children's Garden is brilliant with tulip blooms in the spring. Double pink tulips swimming in the forget-me-nots look almost like peonies. White and red tulips beside them means more opportunity for your pictures of tulips. |
A few photography tips before your press the shutter-release!
- Size does matter! Make your subject fill the frame. You can...
- Walk up closer (feet are amazing and cheap photographic equipment!)
- Use the “close-up mode” on your camera's automatic settings.
- Use a macro lens (a bunch more money, but a heck of a lotta' fun!).
- Make sure your tulip has no blemishes. And pinch off any dead leaves so they don't detract from your main subject.
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| These pink and yellow tulip buds just had a spring shower. Walking in the garden after it rains gives you a chance to appreciate all the glowing colors that only rain brings out. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Rain creates glorious scents in the garden, too. | A three color combination that makes a beautiful photo! Controlling the number of colors in a scene is one aspect of planning your photo. Always check your background before you snap the photo... change camera angles to get rid of distracting objects. | Even though this is a dainty, lovely tulip, check the difference that the red makes in the last photo. Look at photography magazines to become more sensitive to color, light and composition. Go online and participate in photo clubs or blogs to learn from others. |
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| This frilly pink tulip is in Stanley Park in front of the restaurant. Take a minute here for a lesson in photo composition. There's another photo of the same tulip, but from a different angle. The background is completely different, so is the tulip. What do you think? | The angle of this red lily flowered tulip was slightly off -- it only needed straightening about 2°. After that it was perfect! Use Photoshop or other photo editor. After straightening your pictures of tulips, you'll lose some area around the edges. Fix it by cropping. | An amazing Triumph tulip! No matter how many flower photos I take, this is my favorite of all my pictures of tulips. It's been reproduced in giclee, note cards, mouse pads and t-shirts. Isn't the light spectacular? Also residing in Vancouver at Stanley Park. |
The first thing that comes to your mind when I say “tulips” is Holland, right? Me, too!
Now they're synonymous with the Netherlands, but they didn't originate there. Think much farther East...
Because Tulipa's origins are deeply rooted in Persia. The Turks introduced these flowers to Europe in the middle 1500's during the very interesting times of the Ottoman Empire.
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