Tulipmannia

Tulipmannia comes to Pier 39 in San Francisco during a two-week period in February.  Planters and half wine barrels are full of colorful blooms.

This year our camera club had a field trip to the location. This is not a spot I usually visit.  It tends to be a popular tourist location and I had skipped it for years for that reason.  But this weekend was great fun, both for the tulips and for the people watching.   

Here are some samples from the excursion:

Kids of all ages were out enjoying the sunshine, the flowers, and activities.

San Francisco skyline in the background.  

This girl's family was visiting the U.S. from China for 3 weeks.  The large bubble making gadget was a big hit with her and with the children further down the street.

Chris and I rode over on BART.  It was a short trolley ride down to the wharf area where we met several other club members.  Besides photographing, we enjoyed lunch out together.

Remember that you can go back and click on the first photograph and view them all in a slide show at a much larger size.    Using spot metering and underexposing a bit I could get the dramatic light on the flowers and darken the backgrounds to almost total black.  The early morning moisture from the watering misters was still in evidence.  And, at least when we first arrived, there was no breeze.  Made for ideal flower close up photography.