Skagit Valley Tulips and Daffodils

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Skagit Valley Tulips and Daffodils

Spring, thankfully, brings the colors back.

The winter creates a grayish monochrome of everything that is interesting for about a week.

When the colors come back, things are better. The snow just melted yesterday and we’ll probably see more before the end of the winter.

So I shouldn’t get myself all excited just yet, but I can sense the subtle stirrings of green.

In February the hints of green will become more pronounced and then, finally, the yellows will arrive with Skagit Valley Daffodils.

Rows of Daffodils
Daffodil Sunset

Depending upon the year the daffodils start coming up in late February or early March. Skagit Valley has a rather mild climate, rarely getting snow. Early spring brings almost daily rain. The daffodils emerge slowly, reluctantly.

Once the temp starts rising a bit, tulips start to pop up. The anticipation of the coming color explosion is tantalizing!

Every year the tulips and daffodils are planted in different fields.

You can see their location and bloom status with the Bloom Map.

I usually visit the tulip fields 10 times each season, sunrise is my favorite, because of the light and lack of people. Workers are in the fields then, harvesting and at the end, topping the tulips. I offer guided Photo Tours of Tulip Festival each year, at sunrise and sunset, details and prices can be found here.

Because the fields rotate every year, so do the backdrops, and foregrounds!

Barns, school busses, tractors, irrigation ditches, and puddles all serve well for offsetting the beauty of the flowers.

I teach basic Photography Classes through Parks and Rec in Burlington. Here is the link for more info.
Starting in Jan 2020 I will also be teaching basic Photography Classes through Parks and Rec in Bellingham.

Sometimes a visit can bring good luck in the form of rainbows, long shadows, dirty kids and much more.

Need a 2020 Calendar? There are still copies available of the Night Sky Images of Washington State Calendar! Click here to order your copy.

North Cascades Photography – Skagit Valley Tulips

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North Cascades Photography – Skagit Valley Tulips

Skagit Valley Tulips

The start of spring in Skagit Valley heralds the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Broad swaths of brightly colored tulips spring up all over the flats.

This is one stop along the Cascade Loop that you don’t want to miss!

Photographing them is wonderful fun. The saturation of colors, the often cloudy skies and lots of mud always make the trip an experience.

The Washington Bulb Company is the leading grower of tulip, daffodil, and iris bulbs in North America. They grow bulbs throughout the valley and have a huge display garden, Roozengaarde. There is a store, a windmill and manicured beds of flowers, and in the back, large fields of tulips.

You can read about the history of tulips in Western Washington and Tulip Festival here.

Always stick to sunrise and sunsets, and avoid the “Tulip Area” at all costs between 10am and 6pm on weekends and your experience will be a pleasant one!

Each year the location of the fields change, and so do the backdrops. Barns are sometimes nearby the fields, as well as buses, trees and other cool stuff.  You can see where the tulips are, and when they bloom through the Bloom Map.

Once you have scouted out where the fields are for the new season you can get a good idea of whats best for each location. Some will be better shot at sunset and others at sunrise.

Parking is always an issue. Sometimes the large fields have a parking area nearby and collect fees for visiting. Sometimes the fields are located near no parking at all. Be prepared to walk a while.

I visit the fields often, they are close by. The skies in Skagit Valley can get crazy late in the afternoon. Often the worst, rainiest days are best: the dark, heavy clouds sometimes give way to magnificent sunsets.

Photo Tours are available, I take tours on weekdays, for sunset and on weekends for sunrise. Here is the link.

Here are a few images from Tulip Festivals Past!

 

North Cascades Photography – Skagit Valley Snow Geese

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North Cascades Photography – Skagit Valley Snow Geese

Winter tends to be a bit wet and gray. But then the Snow Geese arrive! If you’re out and about on the Cascade Loop in the winter months, be sure to come for a visit!

They tend to flock together as they move from field to field in search of food. According to this article Snow Geese of the Pacific Flyway “most of the Snow geese wintering in the Skagit were born abroad on Russia’s Wrangel Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the northernmost nesting ground for 100 migratory bird species. The island also has the largest population of Pacific walruses and the highest concentration of polar bear dens in the world.”

There is also a simple map of the locations:

Their size and bright color makes them stand out against any background. Getting a decent shot is harder than it looks, trying to catch both the close up features of an individual Snow goose while also conveying the size of the flock as well as the sky and background…

One great place to go see all sorts of birds is Fir Island. “A major component of the Skagit River Delta, the island is an important habitat for wildlife. Migrating from the northern portion of Wrangel Island in Russia, 30,000 to 70,000 snow geese spend the winter on the Skagit River Delta and the Fraser River Delta of British Columbia.[1] Important internationally, this population and one that winters in California, are the only snow geese that migrate between Eurasia and North America and the only remnant still extant in Eurasia.[2][3]

Other migratory waterfowl include tundra swans, trumpeter swans and the bald eagle. Over the course of a year, 180 species of birds have been recorded at Skagit Wildlife Area, 13,000 acres (53 km2) of mostly tidelands and intertidal marsh, the largest section of which is located on the southern margin of the island.[4]

These image are from Padilla Pay in Feb, 2019.

There is a trail along the shoreline, maintained by the county. Check out the Padilla Bay Foundation, their web site is awesome!

Really its just hit or miss and a lot of driving about the valley to find where they are at any particular time. Last night at sunset there was a huge group at Padilla Bay, but then I went back there for sunrise, I did not see one Snow Goose!

IF you are interested in Photography Tours, check out my web site.

Skagit Valley Tulip Tours, Night Sky Photo Tours and North Cascades Photo Tours are all available.

 

Old Tulip Pics

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There images are all from one days visits to the tulip fields, in 2015.

Every year the location of the tulip fields change. In 2015 there were very large fields of different color flowers, located near a barn, off of Best Road. It was a wonderful location, there were many trees, farm equipment, standing water, and of course the barn!

I visited the tulip fields for photos 18 times in 2015! All of these images are from one trip.

I just love the petals in the mud…

Its right about this time each year that I start to think about things like sunshine and warm, and flowers…not sure why!

Tulip Pictures

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I go to the tulip fields often in the spring. The early and late light with moody clouds can be pretty awesome.

Last year I visited 8 times, and because there are so many images of the same things they tend to blur…

I had occasion to look in  folder from the last years Tulip Festival and found these beauties.

More Tulip Images!

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I went out to the tulip fields before sunrise, managed to get a decent image with the stars, of you look closely you can see the arc of the Milky Way!

Skagit Valley Tulips 2017

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These are from Thursday, April 13th. I took a group of students to RoozenGaarde for Photo Class.

Way in the back across several very muddy fields, there were several lovely fields, actually bordering McClean Road.

I expected rain, and we were blessed with wonderful clouds and a near perfect sky. Anyway, here are a few images.

Next week, April 17 to 23 should see most of the fields go into bloom, but who knows what Mother Nature has in mind…

Tulip Festival 2017 – Day 1

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For me Day 1 means my first tulip festival photo shoot of the year.

And no, there are no tulips quite yet. But the daffodils have started to bloom! Here is the Bloom Map to see where they are.

Last two years, the daffodils were almost done by now. But this has been an unusually wet, cold and dreary winter.

Here are two daffodil images from this morning.

We did espy one lone tulip…

And a few snow geese.

Picture takin’ in Skagit Valley is way beyond cool!

I offer guided Photo Tours of Tulip Festival, here is the link with more info

For anyone interested in more of a wilderness experience, we also do North Cascades Hiking and Photo Tours and for anyone interested in photographing the Milky Way, Night Sky Photo Tours.

 

 

Skagit Valley Tulips and Daffodils- 2017

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Daffodils at sunrise 2Last weeks snow was short lived, the last few days temps have been inching up towards a balmy 50 degrees. Today I did a bit of reconnoitering in the tulip zone.

The daffodils fields have sprouted, the green little shoots about 2 to 3 inches high…

How long until we see flowers? My experience is that on sunny warm day (sunny and temps in the 50’s or 60’s) the flowers speed up by a factor of 5 over a regular day (temps in the 40’s and cloudy).

So, if we get a solid 4 or 5 days of warm, it wont be too long. If the cool temps hang around, maybe we’ll see Daffodils at the end of Feb. That’s what I am betting on.

The La Conner Daffodil Festival web site has a link to the current Bloom Map, and you can see where the various types of dazzling flowers will pop up amongst the tapestry of fields.

The last 4 years have seen the bloom dates get earlier. Last two years have seen the tulip fields getting topped before mid-April!

So, stay informed, as the blooming can change fast, but generally plan for the last week of March or first week of April, latest, to pay a visit!

The Official Site of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival holds the key to all you need for a fantastic visit for Tulip Festival.Skagit_Valley_Tulip_Festival 2015_1

 

If you don’t love lots of traffic, try to avoid Saturday and Sundays between 10am and 5pm. Pretty much any other time will find you a lot more space!

I tend to head over for sunrises, any day for sunrise is good. Even on the weekends there are very few people for sunrises. And the weekdays are wonderful for sunset shooting.

Tulip Festival Photo Tours

I provide Tulip Photo Tours for anyone interested. These half day Photo Tours are a blast, we’ll visit as many of the best fields as we can, and along the way I will offer any advice (if wanted!) about exposure and composition. Here is the link to find out more.