As a real Dutchman, I am a big fan of our flowers. And as a landscape photographer, I enjoy our beautiful spring each year in which I always find time to photograph the flowers and show the beauty of the Dutch flowers to the whole world.
Many of you probably know the world-famous Keukenhof, the most beautiful tulip garden in the world. Every year millions of tourists visit this garden. That’s a huge lot considering the garden is only open in spring! Every year, a hard-working crew makes sure the garden looks as good as ever, including this year!
This year is ‘special’. Keukenhof is closed for the first time in 71 years. But that doesn’t mean there are no flowers. On the contrary, the flowers look incredible and get as much attention and care as always. All the passionate gardeners do their work as they’re used to. Because even without people, nature and the show of the garden goes on.
I’ve been photographing the tulips since forever, mostly in the countryside. I photographed them from all angles you can possibly imagine, but there was one thing that I still wanted to capture one time in my life: Keukenhof without any other people. This seemed impossible… until April 2020. With the COVID-19 virus keeping everyone at home and tourists away, I knew this was my only chance of making this happen. I contacted Keukenhof explaining what I had in mind and they were so kind as to let me photograph the garden for a day.
When I visited the park it looked at its best. Interestingly enough, we have experienced the sunniest April ever in the Netherlands, making all the flowers pop very fast. Photographing in broad daylight with the strong sun was a challenge.
But forget about the photography for a moment: walking around there all alone, with only the sounds of birds and the incredible smell of all these flowers, is an experience by itself. I sometimes just sat next to the flowers and the water, enjoying nature for 30 minutes long. It was just a magical experience. Having no people in the park allowed me to photograph paths and angles in a certain way that you normally don’t get to see because of the crowds.
This photo series is an initiative by myself in collaboration with Keukenhof. We aim to show the beauty of the park through these images. Too bad there’s no smell captured.
The famous Keukenhof windmill. The miller was so kind as to move it to the correct position for pictures.A rare species of tulips that I had not seen before.The world-famous ‘Blue River.’ A road of blue grape hyacinths zigzagging through the trees.In Keukenhof, you can find a bunch of classic Dutch bridges. This is one of them right at the entrance, surrounded by a sea of colorful tulips.Did I mention attention to detail? From the ground I didn’t even see this, but when I flew my drone a few meters up it appeared that these were planted in the shape of a tulip flower!Lines and lines of tulips, hyacinths, and narcissus flowers in between the trees.I love to photograph dreamy portraits of flowers, and the Keukenhof is perfect for that with its many different kinds of flowers.My favorite places in the Keukenhof are the pools. Seeing the water reflecting the trees and flowers gives such a calm feeling. If you look closely you can see a gardener do his work. Because even with no people visiting the garden, the work goes on.In some parts of the park, you can find endless seas of different colored tulips that together make a beautiful abstract color palette.The empty square in front of the famous Keukenhof windmill looks so serene.The little paths make harmony with the trees and different flowers all around them.An image of the white bridge near the entrance of the park showing the scale of a hill with thousands of tulips that can be seen in front of it.A low angle perspective in the part of the park that I’d like to call ‘cherry blossom garden’ where you can find dozens of cherry blossoms combined with tulips.A high key portrait of the Fritillaria Imperialis flower. One of my favorite flowers of the park.Zigzag lines of flowers, water, and paths almost make these scenes look like they’re dancing.Attention to great detail of lines and shapes in which the flowers are planted is the signature design of The Keukenhof. I love how they combine these flowers with beautiful trees. And they all blossom at the same time.Dare to be different. A white tulip with a red leaf standing out in the lot, with a viewpoint on the tulip fields in the background.A portrait image of a grape hyacinth.Real summer vibes with green trees, blue sky, and circular shapes of tulips. It’s only spring, but this image already reminds me of summer.I love how you can see these lines and shapes of tulips in the park.Sun peeking through the trees in the afternoon, with the lines and paths of flowers making harmony with each other.All the different flowers are perfect for doing macro images in the park.One of my favorite little scenes in the park: A Japanese cherry blossom tree with a beautiful shape with a path through flowers leading up to it. It looks like a scene out of a fairytale.My favorite area with part of the big pool on the right. Lines and shapes of tulips all pointing towards the middle.Seas of tulips around my favorite area of the park: The pool with the fountain in the middle.It’s in the details with these small patches of different colored hyacinth flowers carefully places on the grass between the trees.The red and yellow carpet of tulips as seen from a drone perspective from about 10 meters up.A portrait of an interesting Breed of a narcissus flower.I really couldn’t get enough of these patches of different kinds of flowers with different colors along the paths and the trees everywhere in the park.See through along the walking bridges in the park with cherry blossoms on top.Water reflecting the beauty of the trees and flowers.
About the author: Albert Dros is an award-winning Dutch photographer. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. His work has been published by some of the world’s biggest media channels, including TIME, The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail, and National Geographic. You can find more of his work on his website, or by following him on Facebook and Instagram.
