lightandshadowjourney wrote:
Hope to be there in Amsterdam during blossoming time and would like to hear suggestions on shots that are not the same as everyone else's. I tend to shoot a wide shot, landscape and portrait, then find items of interest and finally go for shots as close up as I can get. Shooting a Sony A65 with Tamron 18-270. We'll do a river cruise after on the Rhine with lots and lots and lots of photo ops, ending in Basel and Zurich.
You've got good advice already - wear comfortable shoes, get a map of the gardens and use it, look for interesting people to include in compositions. There are opportunities for great closeups of the flowers, and also shots that include the myriad of flowers that are planted in colorful masses. Include the workers in shots, there's plenty of them. Don't miss the windmill, it borders on the tulip fields. Look for the swans and include them in shots of the flowers near wherever you find them. The indoor settings, especially the orchid one, were pretty wonderful for me, and I didn't use a flash, there was enough light to work with. If you aren't taking a macro lens, take advantage of a long focal length on your zoom to isolate blooms. Some squatting down is in order, but I didn't find anyone objecting, and I was there on what they claimed was the busiest day of the year.