[TRAVEL] Seattle[Washington] Day 2

[TRAVEL]
Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Mount Vernon, WA

The song "Dekha Ek Kwaab" from the Bollywood move Silsila  was shot in the Keukenhof tulip gradens in The Netherlands. I had always wanted to see the acres and acres of tulips - Netherlands still remains a dream destination. When my friends in Seattle had posted a few photographs of tulip gardens  a couple of years ago - I decided to visit Seattle in conjunction with the famous Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon.

Day 2 of our travel saw us waking up at 4:15 AM to catch the breaking dawn. We left Seattle at 4:45AM to drive to Mt. Vernon by road. Reached Skagit Valley at 5:45AM. Spent 15 minutes searching for this particular spot below along Bestroad to catch the sun rise.

The sun just broke out and we parked along Bestroad around 6:20AM. Got the sun flare shot below around 6:25AM. Though we missed the sunrise and was late - I got a few good shots.

The 2 flower fields - Rozengarden and Skaget Valley receives hundreds and thousands of people who come to enjoy the celebration of spring. I'm glad we caught the sunrise , the golden light was perfect to shoot. Along within the company of atleast 50 odd photographers, I've never felt this comfortable -  far away from the maddening crowd that thronged along during day time

Carlsbad - the flower fields

Come spring and I have always heard about the famous flower fields at Carlsbad in California. Apart from spending 15 minutes two years ago(then a bachelor!) during a "dead spring" in the flower fields and then hoping off to the shopping outlets nearby - the flower fields were a strict "no-no" and a "disinterested" subject to me.

Come spring 2012 - and here we were waking up early and driving 2 hours to "the flower fields". Crowds of flowers and people greeted us! Definitely once a lifetime visit - says the married man! :D I also quite forgot the fact that as a photographer - I started off by shooting flowers to death :)

I am also grateful to what was once a boring subject - shooting the flower fields turned out rewarding monetarily as well. The pink flowers photograph above went for a "$85" sale!!!! Of all the photographs I have shot...gosh!!! Lessons learnt - do not forget your  roots and spend time to shoot the mundane :)