One of my favorite rites of spring is going to see the tulip displays at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  I would love to be able to go to the Kuekenhof in Holland, but that is a little far to travel.  If you ever get a chance to be in the Netherlands between mid March and mid May you should definitely try to get there.  However, the Arboretum in Chanhassen is a great alternative.  They plant a multitude of tulips in several locations and always have a wide variety of plants to look at.

The masses of color are wonderful to see, but I really like to spend time looking within the masses of flowers for unusual pairings, or the juxtaposition of one color into another.  I also look for the wonderful designs of color and shapes within a single flower.  Taking this approach it is easy to spend hours in a single area.

I usually work with my macro lenses for these types of pictures using either a Nikon 105mm/2.8 macro, or a Nikon 200mm/4.0 macro.  On my D300 DX camera this gives me the equivalent of a 150mm/2.8 and a 300mm/4.0 lens . With these lenses I am able to do both blurred backgrounds, as well as, get good depth of field.  I find the best time to take these types of images is when it is overcast, or there is a slight mist or rain.

Below are several pictures of the tulips from this year and one from last year.

(Click on Images Below for Larger View)

Submitted by Dynolights Member Steve Shor