Pink is a beautiful color for photography. It often really jumps out. For this Photo-Essay challenge I really had to dig deep into my photo archive. Not that I don't have a lot of photographs with the color pink, because I really have loads of them. The problem is. 99% of these photos are flowers 🩷🌷

Flowers

So, let's get it over with and share a couple of those flower pictures first.

Obviously I had to add some tulips to my blog. I'm living near the 'Flower Bulb Region' in The Netherlands, so I can visit the flower fields every year. And they still keep attracting me year after year. Even though I recently learned that the industry is actually very polluting because the farmers use so many pesticides and fertilizers that it effects nature. It pollutes the soil and water which harms local wildlife and reduces biodiversity.

Another one of my favorite flowers are pink roses. I seldom buy my wife roses anymore. Not that I'm not a gentlemen, but for the same reason as for the tulip fields; they are bad for the environment. Most roses are grown abroad in countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Ecuador, and Colombia because they have a perfect climate for that. The roses are then shipped all over the world by airplanes. They are transported to local flower shops where I would buy them to make my wife happy. The flowers would then last about a week.
This got me thinking and we decided not to buy any roses anymore and hardly any other flowers as well.
We now have more plants in the living room. A lot less colorful, but they last way longer and I even multiply them to give away to friends.

Where I do like my flowers is in the backyard. I often seed bees and butterflies seed mix and sprinkle it on a couple of spots in my backyard. It's always a guess what will grow out of it, but there's always some pink flowers among them. They always attract a lot of insects which I then can photograph again.

Trees

Yes, the blossom on the trees are actually also flowers, but I just ignore that and place them in a different category 🤣
We have a Japanese Crabapple tree in our backyard. We already had it when we bought the house. When we bought the house a couple of years ago the tree was already there. It was autumn and the tree was barren. In the first spring the tree started to grow some leaves, but suddenly in May it started to blossom. We were really astonished the first time. The tree turned into a see of pink; a wonderful sight!

When the tree is blossoming it attracts hundreds, maybe thousands of bees. The first time I walked under the tree when it was blossoming I heard a collective humming of the giant amount of bees. They aren't aggressively swarming around as you sometimes see in video's, but rather friendly flying from flower to flower.

The sky

I don't see it a lot, but the sky can actually also turn pink. Most of the times it turns red, orange and after that more blueish, but sometimes it also turns into more pink and purple shades. I took this shot when cycling back home from work where this beautiful purple/pink sky formed over the meadows during sunset. Such a present!

WONDR Experience

And now something completely different. This photo came up when I searched my archive with the subject pink. This shot was taken in the WONDR Experience. A 'museum' for 'Instagrammers'. We went there with our teenage daughters on a rainy day. In the museum you have a couple of sets where you can shoot photo's for Instagram. You're not very unique, because everyone in the museum shoots the same photos, but the effect is nice. The kids had their photos taken while they were 'swimming' with only their heads sticking out. A very funny sight.
But since I'm not a fan of sharing personal photos you have to do it with this one 😊

Concert

Another photo that came up during my search was this concert photo. It's quite a bad quality since I took it in a dark concert hall with my smartphone. From the picture I couldn't remember which concert it was, so I had to check out the video. And luckily I had a short video too. I normally don't film during concerts since I rather want to enjoy it live, but this time I did made a short clip to send to a friend. It was a concert of Sting by the way. I can really recommend going to one of his concerts if you have the time.

Bike cleaner

The laet photo isn't photographically the most interesting, but it does play an important role in my life. It is a yerrycan of bicycle cleaner.
As many of you might know I like to ride my bicycle. And when you ride a lot and especially all year round in all weather conditions, you regularly have to clean your bicycle.
And that is a part of the hobby that I dislike. But when I get backnafter a wet and muddy ride and hang my bicycle in the garage, I feel the pink fluid staring at me from the jerrycan 😅

And strangely, when you are busy cleaning it is quite satifying. Making your bicycle nice and shiny again and knowing it will run smooth when you jump on it next time. And the bicycle cleaner smells very nice too. When I'm finished the whole garage smells like it 😃

So, this was my entry form the photo-essay contest. I hope I followed all rules correctly and delivered a post that is interesting to read.
Thanks @stresskiller for (re)organising this!

FriendlyMoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together.
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