LaConner - Been There, Done That

We were having a hard time deciding what to do this weekend. Last weekend we got rained out on Saturday so we wanted to go somewhere, maybe even overnight, this weekend. I offered a few suggestions to Rick and he just wouldn't make a decision. He finally asked me what my choice was and I chose the Tulip Festival because it was something you can't just go any time of year and see.

They topped the tulip fields last week.

Oh well, I knew they had gardens you could peruse in spite of the now all-green fields and I had something I wanted to buy for someone. The only place I knew to buy it was at the Roozengarde gift shop. Besides, there was the hamlet of LaConner that we could also visit.

I think it was because they had topped the fields already that the garden we chose to visit was rather inundated with people. It was difficult to get good shots without at least a half dozen people in it, but not impossible, just frame the shot right and/or wait for the people to move outta the way.

We enjoyed the garden and took lots of shots. Then we just hit the country roads. The area up there is different from our area here in the south as it has broader expanses of flat valley with the mountains further off in the distance. Lots of farm land, big old farmhouses and barns. Chickens, cows, huge, ancient trees, and, being spring, plenty of blooms.

There were more than a couple times that I simply yelled "STOP! Back up!" (he's getting better at it) when I would spot something down in a recessed area like an irrigation ditch.

I say "LaConner - Been There, Done That" because we've seen the town, it's small and having seen it in spring we probably saw it in it's glory. It's small enough that we won't really need to return, the only thing that will change will be the merchants in the shops, the buildings won't change.

We were nearly finished shooting and heading out when Rick spotted a sign to the cemetery. As we headed up a hill we found an old schoolhouse off the road, right in someone's mowed yard. It was pretty well preserved, only some broken windows and a fallen chimney were visible from our vantage point on the outside of the fence. We decided to hit it on the way back out. The cemetery was just another cemetery, nothing outstanding. A few interesting comments and decorations on the headstones.  

A little further down the road we ended up near a small grassy hillside with about 30 half-grown steers in it.  Rick went across the street to shoot a falling-down shed in a field and when he came back to the car he decided to visit the cows.  They seemed a little wary but eventually one or two finally warmed up to our presence and came to the fence.  That started all them flocking to see us.  It was hilarious!  They ended up just streaming to the fence and crowding together to simply stare at us.

We have discovered the the success or failure of one of these photo days leans heavily on the sky. We have lots of all grey days here when the sky comes out just white in pictures and is way too bright and ruins our shots. Those days we have to shoot low, keep the sky out of the picture if possible. Then there are days when the sky is all blue without any clouds. That sky is also not the best for a photo day. This was a perfect day - stormy. Sometimes it almost seemed like we should see a twister or at least some lightning. If you look at a beautiful landscape usually it has a very interesting sky.

So if we decide to revisit some of the spring photo venues next year we have to swap our timing - first the tulip fields (we were too late) then the Japanese Garden (we were too early)