A Celebration of Tulips, Part 2

It's been rainy and wet, but that didn't deter me from stopping in the morning to visit the tulip beds at the Arboretum. It was still drizzling when I arrived, and I walked through the gardens under my bright red umbrella. Several people were near the solar clock: a man and a woman, arranging a tiny photo shoot that featured a young woman in a white dress in various poses among the tulips.

I found a spot where I could get some shots without them in, and knelt down in the wet grass, taking many tulip pictures from a worm's-eye view. And then I looked up and was surprised to see that the other photographer was taking pictures of me, crouched beneath my red umbrella with my camera. And then I realized why: with my bright red flower umbrella, I must have looked like an unlikely bloom among all those tulips. I hope it was a funny shot!

One of the sad things about tulips is that they don't last very long; in fact, in some parts of the tulip beds, the blooms are starting to turn brown, the petals falling off. And with big rains coming, I knew that this morning would be my last chance to enjoy the tulips during the peak of their show. As the moments passed, the mist began to rise and the light began to break. You might be surprised how often I am present for such moments. I am always standing at the edges, waiting and watching for the light.

So I took many, many pictures. And thought to myself: this is one of the ways that I try to stop time, this photography thing. Trying to make it last: this moment here and now, the morning mist with breaking light, me with my camera and my red umbrella, just another bloom amid this paradise of tulips.

The song: Mike Reno of Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart perform a song from the Footloose soundtrack: Almost Paradise.