Today was a really good day.  I woke up this morning at 7am and drove to Lynnwood where I met with a Shutter Tour bus.  Shutter Tours are a tour company that target photographers and take you to places of interest in the area and provide guidance on capturing great pictures.

The guy who runs the company (Terry) was there to meet us and off we went to the Skagit County Tulip Festival.  Initially there were four of us on the bus, but we had to drive to Stanwood to pick up two more people.  Once we collected everyone we went on to Roozengaarde where they have a garden (big surprise) full of flowers.  When we arrived the sun was shinning and it was really warm, fortunately we were there early enough before the majority of tourists turned up so we could take pictures without lots of people in the way.  Having said that I was repeatedly asked to take pictures of couples with their own camera – kind-a hard to say no when they ask nice!

After Roozengaarde we moved on to Tulip City and then La Conner for lunch.  This small town was the location where I found the old Chevy below.  We were walking through the town and I saw this car and had to take a picture.  I love these classics and thought it looked fantastic.  But hang on I hear you ask, why are you posting a picture of a car when you went to a tulip festival?

Well, I booked this tour over a month ago, and the festival started back at the beginning of the April.  I figured by the second weekend in April the tulips will definitely be in bloom.  Well I was wrong.  Apparently the really cold rain we have been having here recently had set the tulips back a week or two.  So all we saw were a load of green stalks.  Actually I’m being a little unfair, there were some tulips but not the number we were expecting.  Basically Mother Nature did a number on us and we made the best of a bad situation.  Hence the Chevy below.

I felt a bit sorry for the tour company as they were trying really hard to find great locations for us to shoot, and the primary reason for being there (the tulips) hadn’t come through yet.  But at the end of the day there’s nothing you can do about that we we pressed on.  Incidentally if anyone is in the area and want to use Shutter Tours here is a link to their site – I really recommend using them: http://www.shuttertours.com/.

Having said all this I had a great time.  The tour company was really good and took us to Rosario Beach where I got some really great shots and then onto some daffodil fields for some more great pictures.  We even had time to fit in a visit to the Tulip Valley Winery and Snowgoose Produce where they sell the biggest ice creams cones I have ever seen!  By the time I got home I was exhausted – had a little sun burn (how funny is that) and had loads of pictures from the day that I’ll be posting in the days / weeks to come.

I’ll wait a week or two and then head back to Skagit with the family and shoot those tulips, until then you will have to make do with cars, beaches and daffodils.

I think Carter and the other guys think that “sack racing” is an Olympic event!  Well Carter tried too hard I think, look at his feet, he’s a sack race cheater.