Beautiful Tulips

Beautiful Tulips! Captured during the tulip seaon in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn, New York this is one of my most delightful photographic subjects. Tulips seem designed purely for our enjoyment and are a welcome sight ushering in the spring.

This image was captured with one of may favorite lenses, a thirty-year-old Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm F3.5. This old lens is fully manual, and built like a battleship. While it is sharp enough (there are sharper lenses), it has a unique quality that makes it especially suitable for close-up flower photography. That is the quality of the bokeh. Bokeh is the blurred, out-of-focus portions of the photo. This lens renders them with a very smooth and pleasing look. I shot this image at the widest aperture so that I could have the smooth, ‘creamy,’ background that adds that extra bit of appeal to this photo. Generally, more expensive new telephoto lenses render beautiful bokeh characteristics when designed properly. However, the old Vivitar Series 1 70-210mm can usually be found for less than $100 used and is a great way to get great bokeh without breaking the bank!

Photo by Donald Peterson, Newark1.com Web Design.