Flowers are starting to bloom in the garden of my dear friend and fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. Yesterday I photographed several varieties of tulips and some cute little grape hyacinths.
As many of you know, I do not have my own garden. However, my photography mentor Cindy Dyer lives nearby and she has amazing gardens in her front, side, and back yards. She generally plants flowers that she knows are photogenic and I know that during the growing season that there will almost always be something to photograph.
Earlier this spring, I was able to photograph a few crocuses and a tiny red tulip, but now a whole lot more flowers are starting to appear. The multi-colored tulip in the first photo, I believe, is a variety known as the Lady Jane tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. ‘Lady Jane’). In the past, this tulip stood much taller—this one was growing close to the ground.
The red tulip in the second photo is a more traditional variety. I deliberately set my camera to have a shallow depth of field to blur out the background that at this time of the year is somewhat patchy and cluttered. As I processed the photos on my computer I noticed that I had inadvertently captured a shot of my first insect of the season, what Cindy likes to call a “bonus bug.” The weather yesterday was cloudy, so I did not have to worry about harsh shadows, which meant that the colors seemed especially vibrant and saturated.
The final photo shows a tiny grape hyacinth (g. Muscari), one of many that have popped up in Cindy’s garden. These colorful little flowers grow really close to the ground, so I was sprawled out a bit to get this low-angle shot that isolated the flower from the background.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Love the red and white tulips. They remind me of the special variety that was developed for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017. My mother-in-law gave me a bag of bulbs but, when they bloomed, they were pink. Looks like someone mixed up the bags. LOL
Thanks, Michelle. I never realized how many different varieties have been developed for many of the common flowers that I see until I started photographing them with Cindy. She has quite a few different irises and lilies and some additional tulips, which will appear later in the season. I think it is especially cool when they are bulbs that you plant months in advance, never knowing for certain, as you noted, what exactly they will look like. 😦
Lovely beginning to the colorful garden season. Very pretty blooms and captures.
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