Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

Yesterday, Ryan and I went to the annual Tulip Festival held every year at Thanksgiving Point. We love to go walk around the Gardens there and see all of the amazing flowers--and I pretend I'm a photographer. Last time we went, Kallie was almost a year old and we had a little point and shoot camera. This year, we left the kids at home with my sister, Carissa, (thank goodness for Spring Break!), and took our digital SLR to try for some decent shots.

To begin with, we went to lunch at the little cafe at the Gardens. They have great food--and I LOVED the sweet potato fries! Best I've ever had by a mile. While we were eating, one of the servers emerged from the kitchen balancing a huge tray with 6 bowls of tomato-basil soup perched on top. I was fascinated by her ability to keep the soup in the bowls as she walked to the table of seven ladies across the room. A few seconds later, we heard a crash and the clattering and shattering of soup bowls. Apparently, she clipped a chair while bringing the tray down to the little stand they use--and there was tomato basil soup everywhere. Poor girl! The ladies at the table were SO nice about it--but the server was so embarrassed and definitely upset about it. The staff was amazing about getting the seven ladies settled at a different table and cleaning up the room so quickly. It was quite impressive!

Anyway--on to the rest of our day...we walked around taking pictures for about and hour and a half. I didn't think there were THAT many, but Ryan commented that I was snapping photos like a japanese tourist. When I got home, I realized he was right! I took 423 pictures in that time. In my defense, I'm still learning how to use this camera and was trying different angles, settings, and effects on the same shot. Out of those 423, most were blah, some were OK, and a few were, (at least in my opinion), really great! I'll spare you the 99% of blah and OK pictures and share the ones that I felt were pretty good. Let me know what you think! (BTW--I'm thinking about entering the top 2 into the Tulip Festival photo contest. They're my favorites! You think I have a chance?)