As a travel and landscape photographer being lots of time on the road is nice, but I always try to be home during the Tulip season. This isn’t always easy as the exact timing of the blooming is always quite random. Sometimes the Tulips will show itself during April and sometimes you have to wait a bit till May. They’re usually here for a period of 2-3 weeks depending on the weather. A safe bet to visit is usually the end of April.
Most of the tourists go to our famous Tulip garden named ‘the Keukenhof’. It’s beautiful for a visit but always very crowded. Seeing the flowers outside the Keukenhof on the farmers lands is on another level. You will see endless tulips that stretch all the way to the horizon. As a Dutch landscape photographer I have taken my fair share of tulip shots over the years. But I always keep going. I love the season again and again, every year. I always have new ideas how to photograph them and always aim for different weather conditions.
This is a series of photographs I captured over the years. I have always loved capturing the flowers from ground level. I love shooting with a very wide angle and love to get up close to the tulips to get a beautiful perspective. This year I decided to complete these series with not only drone footage, but also shots taken from a small airplane from an open window.
Seeing the flowers from the sky looks like a videogame. This is mainly because of the Dutch landscape in general which consists of perfect straight lines.
The individual lines in the tulip fields are great to use as leading lines in a photo. And from the ground, these fields look endless!
By flying the drone over these fields we see visuals that are almost abstract. They look like a carpet.
We have tulips in lots of different colours.
I had wanted to capture tulips in the morning with some mist on the field for years. This year I finally managed to do it and I consider it one of my best tulip shots to date.
That particular morning did also give me the possibility of capturing this almost monotone photo that gives a great feeling of mystery.
This was captured by a drone. A very wide tulip field leading into the distance, almost like an arrow.
As I live in Amersfoort, the most convenient location for me to capture the tulips is the ‘Flevopolder’. This shot is the Flevopolder captured from an airplane.
As I live in Amersfoort, the most convenient location for me to capture the tulips is the ‘Flevopolder’. This shot is the Flevopolder captured from an airplane.
I love capturing these tulips with dark skies. The sunset colours complement the tulip colours here. I like to experiment with that. Lots of tulip fields have different rows of tulips with different colours. In general, it’s possible to match them with the sky.
It’s great to experiment with top-down shots with a drone above the tulips. Some rows give the possibility to try abstract things. Here you see rows of red tulips with 1 row ending earlier, and a lonely red tulip in front of the ending one, almost like he’s saying ‘stop’.
Another shot of flying over the Flevopolder with a drone.
By getting very low and up close to the tulips we can play with the sun peeking through the flowers with just the right timing and positioning.
This shot shows how straight and flat the Dutch landscape is.
Does this make you think of the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian?
There are a lot of windmills and wind turbines in the Netherlands, because it’s always windy! Therefore it is not easy to capture the tulips as they move through the wind. However, the wind usually dies down during the evening and early morning.
Dark skies with stormy weather makes the flowers really pop.
I love photographing the tulips with dark skies. Especially red vs deep blue is a great color combination.
And as you can see in this shot: the tulips not only have lots of different colours. They also have different sizes and shapes.
Shooting top down gives an abstract feeling. It looks like a videogame.
Here’s a top down shot of myself controlling the drone above the flowers.
These pink tulips were very short in comparison with the rest. There are lots of different sizes.
After a few weeks, the tulips get ‘beheaded’. The bulbs in the soil grow on to be used for selling.
A top down shot of one half of the tulip lines still in tact with the other half beheaded. I really like this shot as its very abstract. It’s like the 2 sides are inverted.
Here’s another top down shot from beheaded tulips. The colour just moves from the lines itself to in-between.
Red tulips during that misty morning. Look up close to the tulips in front and you can see the dew drops on them. I love being out early to see the flowers like this.
Pink tulips and blue skies with patchy clouds. The Flevopolder at its best!
Ever played Sim City? Then this might look familiar. This top down shot totally reminded me of that videogame. This was taken high up from a plane.
Getting up closer with top down photography with a drone allows me to get a bit more abstract by playing with lines and colours.
Another photo with the drone, playing with lines and colours. These look like racetracks.
Getting up close with bad weather again. I shot this super wide at 12mm. These shots are challenging as you have to focus stack to get everything in focus.
I captured this unique shot when I was about to leave when I was done photographing in the evening. A deer suddenly came out of the trees and jumped into the tulip field. It looked at me and then ran away. I quickly managed to get this shot of it in between the red tulips.
Gear used in these series:
Drone shots:
DJI Mavic Pro, Buy on Amazon
Ground & Plane camera body:
Sony A7RIII, Buy on Amazon
Ground lens:
Sony 12-24 G Lens, Buy on Amazon
Airplane lens:
Sony 24-105 G Lens, Buy on Amazon