I'm a Dutch photographer and have been capturing tulips in my homeland from every possible angle for more than a decade. So I asked myself: What's next?
Recently, the Dutch Tulip Society, an international network of tulip parks and festivals, contacted me with the direct answer to that question: They asked me if I wanted to photograph tulips outside of the Netherlands, all around the world!
The first stop was Yancheng, China, to the Holland Flower Park in Dafeng. I didn't really know what to expect. But once I arrived, I was amazed! Not only did they have a crazy amount of tulips, they also had many Dutch buildings. In fact, they have a whole Dutch-themed village called Holland Village. The backstory to this is that 100 years ago, a Dutch water engineer supported the local community in creating arable lands, on which nowadays millions of tulips are showcased for the public to enjoy!
In this photo series, you can see this incredible place, complete with many flowers, windmills, and even a spectacular church building!
More info: albertdros.com | Instagram | twitter.com | Facebook | flickr.com | youtube.com | behance.net
#1 Top Down 1
Top-down view of the park taken with my drone. The park looked absolutely stunning from above.
23points
#2 Foggy Atmosphere
20points
#3 Flower Combination
I found so many little places in the park that caught my eye. Here we see a beautiful combination of flowers and tulips!
18points
#4 Pink Tulip
From high up in the sky to close-ups, I spent days capturing all kinds of different angles. The variety of tulips impressed me. There were so many different kinds of tulips, often mixed with other flowers.
17points
#5 The Locals
Locals come from all around to dress up and take photos with the flowers.
17points
#6 Curves & Lines
Lines of tulips carefully planted in combination with interesting landmarks.
16points
#7 Evening Church Building
16points
#8 The Windmill
Part of the park as seen by drone. You can see the Dutch buildings as a backdrop and the windmill in the foreground. All the lines of flowers are carefully planted in beautiful patterns, which look really spectacular from the sky!
14points
#9 The Hobbit
When you spend a long time in such a park, you start to notice all the little details and 'hidden' corners, like the photos above. They kind of remind me of movies like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, which they are probably inspired by.
13points
#10 Little Tulip World
Of course, I took the macro lens and sometimes went extremely close. Here we see a dew drop on the bottom of a tulip reflecting the tulips around. The photo was flipped upside down, making it look like a glass ball.
13points
#11 Top Down 4
13points
#12 Endless Tulips
The long, curvy rows of tulips look spectacular from the ground. When I visited, most of the park was at its best regarding the tulip bloom, with very similar timing to that in the Netherlands. The climate around Dafeng is quite similar to that of the Netherlands in spring. It can get a little bit warmer, but the tulips come out around the same time: mid-April.
12points
#13 A Movie Set
Your text looks great! It effectively communicates your observations about the park's details and their resemblance to settings from movies like "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings."
12points
#14 Blossom & Tulips
Tulips in combination with blossoming trees. A true explosion of colour!
12points
#15 Holland Village
Not just inside the park, but outside of it, they built a whole Dutch village called Holland Village, including shops, restaurants, church towers, and even a cinema. Super impressive!
11points
#16 Happy People
Every day the park was extremely crowded with people enjoying the blooming tulips. It’s always so nice to see how (dutch) flowers around the world spread happiness.
11points
#17 The Park
11points
#18 Color Palettes 2
11points
#19 Other Flowers
While most of the park was covered by tulips, there were also quite some other flowers. I went out during early mornings a few times to capture the dew drops on the little ones.
11points
#20 Happiness
It's always so beautiful to see how these flower parks create this 'ball' of happiness!
11points