Wellington is a city that likes to party.  Almost every week of the year there is some celebration.  A special event.  Something that for Wellingtonians to jump in an experience.  Wellington Botanic Gardens plays host to many special events in town.  To kick start the Spring party season it hosted a Tulip Festival at the end of September.  Whilst I didn’t make it to the real event my friend Tracy and I ventured there for a photographic shoot just of fun. I’ve always like tulips and to see them en masse only makes me want to visit a tulip farm. Google tells me there is one in the deep South of New Zealand.

The tulips in Wellington were a little past their best but it didn’t stop the crowds from still visiting.  There were heaps of people taking photographs but no-one quite taking it quite as seriously as we were.  There was plenty to challenge us – wind, clouds and people popping up in our view finder when we least expected them.  Nevertheless I was able to try and hone my camera controls in an attempt to get match fit for staring my photography course.

It’s amazing how the changing light makes such a difference – I’m not sure which of these two images I prefer.  Light and bright or something a little moodier.  But then there was so much to choose from it was hard to pick a favourite.  I’ll leave it to you to browse and see which you like the best.

For me the yellow tulips were most certainly the drama queens of the day.

Although the reds were doing their best to show off too.

With all the colour abound it was hard there was a danger that photographically things were becoming a little similar so I decided to shake things up and go for a more creative look. Something that was more painting than photograph.

The more I try different things the more I am turning towards a style that is more subtle than sharp as tack reality photographs.  Not sure my step mother would approve of such tinkering with the look of flowers.

I’ve not yet looked at Tracy’s photographs it will be interesting to see how differently she saw things.  For sure she had more camera’s hanging around her neck than me (her own film camera and my D40 digital camera).

Away from the tulips there were still plenty of other flora to delight.  I was very taken by the beds of daisies.  Better there than in my lawn.

Although there were lots of people milling around I was trying hard to avoid them cluttering up my photographs.  I was however very taken by the creatures hanging around by the fountain.

Looking at this frog I am reminded of the adage that you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.  Learning photography is a little like that.  You have to take a lot of photos until you find your style.  I wanted to improve my photography to make my blog look better.  From there I went to wanting to record daily life and now I’m moving into a period where I want my photography to illustrate what I’m thinking and feeling about a place.  In terms of learning I’m moving into the consciously competent phase and like the obsessive perfectionist I am I won’t be happy until I’m on the road to mastery.  I’m hoping that my photography course will help me get through the next learning barrier with as little pain as possible.  Ever the optimist eh!