Spring Flower Show part 1

Shortly after going for a hanami at the Japanese garden, attended another terrific outdoor event, the Spring Flower Show.

Held at the castle of Grand-Bigard, the Spring Flower Show transformed the castle’s vast gardens into a sheer flower festival as the grounds were rife with hundreds of colorful, blooming flowers.

In contrast to the cold and overcast weather for the hanami, the day I visited the Spring Flower Show the sun was out with no clouds to be seen in the clear blue skies. It was a positively gorgeous day!

Perfect weather to enjoy watching and photographing bright, colorful flowers.

Adore how was able to zoom in and not only capture their lively colors and unique shapes, but also the intricate details of the stigma and stamens.

Made so many photos, had to trim out quite a bit but still ended up with too many for a single post without overwhelming it with images.

Decided to split up the photos and make several separate posts, of which this is the first part.

The fact the sun was near its highest apex as I attended in early afternoon creates bright lighting to take photos full of punch with the flowers’ lively colors.

Although I had brought my tripod, opted to leave it in the car as the large crowd of visitors would have made it difficult to handily drag a tripod around, and would have also inconvenienced the other visitors with it.

Without the tripod didn’t dare to mount my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro USM lens and risk coming home to discover my shots are blurred due to movement or the depth of field being off.

Opting to forgo using the macro lens, so mounted the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens which quickly became my primary lens since I bought it as am quite pleased with its performance.

Of course being out under the sun, had a lens hood and polarizing filter equipped.

Haven’t used my macro lens all that much lately, wonder if I might better not sell it?

Perhaps just need to overcome my fear of using it freehand and hone those skills.

Although among the flowers present, many varieties of tulips were the main types, there were other flower species which created a lovely atmosphere as each flower bed could be vastly different from the next.

Was amazed at how different the flowers could be in shape, color, style,…

Some flower beds were focused on a specific variety while others showcased a wondrous mix of different varieties creating a striking color palette.

You can see more photography here or on the Flickr photo set for the Spring Flower Show.

Or you can jump to the second part of the Spring Flower Show photos.