7 Tips for Cell Phone Camera Pics at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
Now is the time to come an experience the best of the Skagit Valley Tulip Fest! The tulip blooms are bursting with vivid reds, yellows, pinks and orange colors, creating an immersive and sensory experience for all who visit.
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is an event professional photographers flock to every year, but you don’t need professional equipment to capture the beauty of the blooming tulips. Here are seven tips to keep in mind to help you take gallery-worthy photos with your cell phone!
7 Cell Phone Camera Tips
- Before visiting, we recommend getting to know the phone’s camera settings and experimenting with them to get comfortable with the technology. Take some test photos and adjust the settings so there is nothing to worry with when those once-in-a-lifetime photo ops present themselves in a field or garden.
- When visitors are planning their visit to the Tulip Festival, it’s a good idea to pack a back-up power source to keep their batteries charged. There is so much to see, one could spend an entire weekend just visiting our four tulip farms & gardens.
- Always bring a microfiber cloth to gently wipe away any finger prints on the camera lenses. Don’t forget to clean the “selfie lens” on the front of the phone too!
- Use the rule of thirds for a well-composed shot. Just about every phone camera has a grid setting you can turn on, look for it when you’re exploring your phone’s features. Review the frame carefully to make sure the main subject fits within one-third of the grid and assess the other two-thirds to get the shot.
- The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is the perfect location to capture macro photos (A.K.A. zoomed in, up-close photos of a subject). Newer iPhones have a macro setting, which is fittingly labeled with a yellow tulip symbol that will appear in the corner of the screen.
Many Android phones with high pixel counts have a macro setting that can be manually turned on if the phone doesn’t automatically adjust. Macro photos are an amazing way to capture dew on a tulip, or to get a unique perspective of interesting varieties like our Parrot tulips or Double Ruffle tulips.
- Need a way to get closer to the subject? Turn the phone upside down so the lenses are on the bottom. This trick can also provide a new opportunity to discover a unique and stunning angle.
- One final tip that we can’t stress enough: shoot with the light facing the subject. Sunrises and sunsets are some of the most awe-inspiring times to visit the tulip farms and gardens. The dynamic lighting can perfectly capture the vast fields of color— no filter required! Place the subject in the light and stand to avoid casting a shadow on the subject (or in the frame, unless you’re going for an artistic look)
Note: photo is of a RoozenGaarde field taken on April 11.
