Lisa was on the internet last night and visited the facebook site of the tour company that took me to Mount Vernon a couple of weeks ago.  It appeared that the tulips were now out in full bloom and they were posting pictures.  So as I now had proof that the fields were full of color I decided that today I would head back – this time on my own – and get the pictures I wanted.

Initially I thought I’d leave really early and get there as the place opened, but then I remembered that I got up every day this week at 6:30 and it was Saturday and I was totally knackered.  So I convinced myself late last night that I’d either go later in the day or Sunday instead.

So this morning I got up at 10am (how fab is that) made the kids egg and bacon and asked everyone what they were planning on doing today.  Abi had a Girl Scout trip to the movies planned, James was going Skateboarding and Lisa wasn’t doing anything.  I asked them all if they wanted to go to Mount Vernon with me and thankfully they all said “No”.  Now it’s not that I don’t want my family with me, it’s just that when I have a camera in my hand I can become a little, what does Lisa call it?  Oh yeah – BORING.  And they all start to nag me after about 10 shots!  So after breakfast I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed of to Skagit Valley.

It’s only about 70 miles away and it’s pretty much freeway the whole trip, but it still took around 90 minutes.  I went straight to Tulip Town, found a parking place and paid my $5 entrance fee to get in.  It was about now that I remembered why the “get up early and get there as they open” idea was such as good one.  The place was packed!  Literally hundreds of people were there with cameras either stamping over the flowers or walking out into the tulip fields so their partners could take a picture of them surrounded by tulips – you get the idea.

While this was definitely a pain, it didn’t stop me getting some great shots.  I’ve found that if you don’t have patience photography is not the hobby for you.  By taking my time and waiting for people to move, oh and giving the odd person a really nasty stare, I managed to get my pictures.

Today’s posting is of some red tulips which is actually the most popular color – see you learn stuff by coming here too.  The challenge I had here was that they were VERY VERY red, almost too red and dark but they looked fantastic and I wanted to capture that “lost in a sea of red” look.

I took over 380 pictures in all over around 2 hours and then headed home.  Got in with enough time to mow the lawn and post this before going out with Lisa on a date.

Hope you like the first one, there will be more tulips over the coming week (trust me by next week you will be sick of them).

At work we have these really nice coffee machines that grind and brew fresh Starbucks coffee.  But that are quite hard to use when you’re only 4 inches high.  But having found the stationary room Carter get some tape and overcame the challenge.