One of my favourite photos from the Tulip Festival on Monbulk Road in Silvan, Melbourne. This is the third time in four years I’ve been here.

My photo styling has evolved over the last few years, and I feel that I’m taking more interesting photos, as well as improving on my post processing skills. I still don’t think I’m handling the camera enough, so the learning is start stop during the weekends when I do have a chance to photograph something of interest.

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Was busy over the weekend, bringing Vyanne’s friend around Melbourne to have a look see. Yesterday was the Tulip Festival as mentioned while on Saturday we went to South Melbourne Market, then heading eastwards and having lunch in Brighton, before having a stroll on the beach.

Sunday was a simple affair. We lost an hour due to daylight savings (not sure if it’s starting or ending) and got up to make breakfast before picking up a few friends and driving off to the tulip farm. Heh, it started raining a little just before we arrived, so it messed up our plans to picnic on the grass, but it did give me water droplets for taking photos, giving the tulips a freshness about it.

As I have photographed these tulips twice now, decided to bring my exotic prime lenses to take photos. Brought my 85mm f1.8 but that did not come out of the bag at all. Instead, the 50mm f1.2 and 105mm f2.8 Macro saw plenty of action. You could see me half stooping, half bending in an awkward position just to get the shot. I even had my flash unit attached with the bounce card sticking out just to give a little fill light on the flowers.

It was overall an enjoyable experience, with friends bringing different types of food. I made some tuna sandwiches, while Vyanne prepared madeleines. Another friend brought pita bread, with salami, cheese and sundried tomato to be assembled on the spot. Even managed to pack some tea into flasks and the oddest thing at this picnic was a bag of longans. Heh, it seemed a little out of place amongst the other food we brought.

Anyway, the weekend went by too quickly and I don’t think I rested quite enough over this weekend.

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The tulips are quite beautiful, so here are some of the photos I took from this day trip.