Vermont tulips in spring time

One of the sure signs of spring in Vermont is tulips popping up. They are beautiful to see and fun to photograph.

I decided to do something a little different this year and got some cut tulips at The Farmer's Market. I wanted to photograph them against a pure white background so the color and shape of the tulips would stand out. We have some space on the gallery's second floor so I got a large piece of while foam core that we use for matting photos and used it as the background. I shined a couple of bright lights on it to make sure it would be absolute white.

Then I started playing with the flowers. I wanted a couple of different things from them. Of course they had to be pretty and colorful but I also paid a lot of attention to the bend in the stem. From the start I was thinking of making a set of three photos to be framed and hung together. I liked the idea of having one bending from the left and one bending from the right to be the bookends. I found the right ones for that rather quickly.

Now I had to find the right one for the middle photo. I wanted the flower to be larger than the outside two and have lots of impact. Some of my tulips were the fringed variety and I found the perfect one to be the centerpiece of the set. I like that the fringe makes it a different type of tulip and the color is splendid.

Together the three tulips make a wonderful set.

-- Loren Fisher