April 6 April 7 April 8 April 9 April 10 April 11 April 12 April 13 April 14 April 15 April 16 April 17 April 18 April 19	Tuesday, April 11, 2017 Wow, that was a good night's sleep! I got up at 5 am, breakfast was at 6, and we were in the vans at 7. We stopped for an early morning shoot at the edge of a field of hyacinths with the Keukenhof windmill in the background. This is the same windmill that I shot from and around yesterday. Sunrise was just blah. . . We were back in the Keukenhof Gardens for the morning. Some of us had compared notes on the way and pointed out areas where each had found promising spots the day before. The three photos above was one such promising spot that one of the Carols pointed out to me. I had avoided the area the previous day due to the presence of a very loud steam organ. However, it wasn't open yet, so this area was peacefully quiet. The photo on the left shows the fountain in this area backlit by the early sun with a bed of mixed bulbs in the foreground. The center photo is shot through the center of this fountain. The photo on the right shows the view through the fountain in the opposite direction as the photo on the left, with the flower beds and some benches in the background. Most of my morning was wandering around looking for things I had missed yesterday. The three photos above were taken during these wanderings. The photo on the left shows an expanse of flower beds containing just about every spring bulb you could imagine. It also shows some of the expansiveness of these beds and the nice paths that wander through them. The center photo shows that the rivers of blue can also be made up of pansies, not just grape hyacinths. This was a much smaller "river", but the blues were still impressive. The photo on the right shows one of the late daffodils just making it's presence known. We broke at 9:30 for a short macro lesson. Lunch was at the Gardens at a restaurant inside the large greenhouse, then we went back to the hotel for a rest. After taking care of the usual photo related business, I finished my novel and just lazed around for a while. On the way downstairs for another short lesson, one of the others pointed out that there was an ice cream shop just a couple of doors down from the front door of the hotel. And they serve the good stuff - gelato!!! We walked into the meeting room with our cones and a couple of the others promptly left to get their own... We had a short lesson on focus stacking in a conference room at the hotel before reloading the vans and heading for the Gardens for the evening. There was a short discussion about skipping the Gardens tomorrow and heading for Amsterdam instead, but the head office nixed the idea, so it's back to the Gardens tomorrow per itinerary. I stopped in one of the bulb booths and placed an order for spring bulbs that will be delivered next October in time for planting. I still have a couple of varieties that I'd like to keep an eye out for... We saw a photo shoot in the Gardens involving two models – one dressed as a princess and the other dressed as a male butterfly or fairy. You could tell looking at them that they couldn't stand each other. As soon as the photographers took a break, the models sprang apart and the smiles disappeared.... The photo on the left shows a mixed bed of spring bulbs, including tulips, daffodils, and fritillarias. The second photo is the tulip Fly Away, which was in the demonstration greenhouse. The remaining two photos in this group are some white tulips I found outside and got down on my knees to shoot. The photo on the left shows a backlit set of daffodils. The center and right photo are a bed of red tulips. This photo shows some tulips kissed by the late afternoon sun and were the last I would shoot in the Gardens today. We left the Gardens at 7:30 again and went back to the same field with the windmill in the background to see if there was a sunset shot there. Nope. We soon abandoned that site and headed back to the hotel. Dinner was at the hotel. Tonight I had a delicious fish dish – thin filets of sole wrapped around a piece of shrimp served over some noodle concoction with a nice sauce. Delicious! It didn't take long to crash for the night.... Next...