Tulips are in bloom in April and I wanted to capture the morning sunlight as it rose over the tulip field so I packed my gear and hit the road.

It’s about 4:00 a.m. and sunrise is at 6:30, I have approximately 40 miles to drive and even though I’m not sure exactly where this place is I should have plenty of time to get there and setup. I start heading south on I-5 and after a few miles I run into my first obstacle, I-5 south is closed up ahead. The detour goes through downtown Portland and that adds 15 minutes to the trip. I take the off-ramp and to my surprise the bridge I was getting ready to cross goes up. That’s going to add another 15 minutes. Now I’m starting to rethink this and wonder if I should just head back home and go back to bed. As I’m waiting for the bridge to open back up I do the math and figure that I will arrive by 5:30 so I decide to power on.

At roughly 5:40 a.m. I arrive, grab my gear and start looking for a few places to photograph. With all the varieties and colors to choose from I know my work is cut out for me. For the next hour I move from one location to another taking advantage of the light. I made the right choice this morning. It was a beautiful morning and the sunrise over the tulips was incredible.