Dozing polar bear, Indianapolis Zoo

Monday, April 16, 2007

Tulips and a confession

I still shoot transparencies on my SLR. Yes, I know. I might as well have just told you that I own a Betamax or an 8-track player. This is attributable mostly to money, though there are other factors. I anticipate making the leap to digital soon, but for now I use, for the purely documentary purposes of this blog, a tiny little digital point-and-shoot. So the "good" photos from my trips are often not available for several weeks after I shoot them, and in the interim I rely on my point-and-shoot to convey the general idea. It's possible to take a good photograph with it, but I would never rely on it for my "good stuff."

This weekend was the third year I've photographed the tulip fields here in Oregon. I made extensive use of this wonderful tree, shooting it from all angles, with different colors of tulips in the foreground. Here's what I was working with:











I used my long lens and homed in on the tree, an effect I obviously couldn't capture in the digital images above. The place was teeming with visitors, and I stood for thirty minutes waiting for the tree to be clear of people for one of my shots. On average, I waited about fifteen minutes for every image. But that's all right; much of photography is about waiting, and I was nearly out of my senses with pleasure at the colors and lines of this place. This is the third year I've photographed this field, and I believe it may have been the most beautiful this time:



April may be the cruelest month somewhere, but not here.

6 comments:

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

My sister-in-law is an artist and every year she goes to the Valley for the tulips, then again for the vineyards.

Anonymous said...

I love the tree - excellent! What lovely shots - regardless of the camera. I definitely agree - a lot of photography is about patiently waiting... for the right light, the right composition, or the right moment of creative spark!

Really lovely shots TH.

jlb

Trailhead said...

Jennifer: This makes me wonder. There's a watercolor artist out there who has my exact name (excepting the middle initial) who does a great deal with the tulips in the Skagit Valley up in Washington. Does she work up there as well?

jlb: Thanks! I'm looking forward to seeing what my film looks like. Delayed gratification! Argh!

kris said...

Oh, those are beautiful - I want to see them in person!!! We have a great climate for growing tulips in gardens - but we don't have the fields nearby. That would be very fun to see.

Jennifer (ponderosa) said...

No, she does monotypes & lives here in Bend, though she does have some work in a Ptld gallery.

tracyleagjeld.com -- no tulips on the site right now though!

Trailhead said...

Oh, man, I love her work. I don't know how to express it, but there's a kind of subtlety to it that draws you in and traps you. And her technique sounds incredibly precise and difficult. Thanks for the link!