Traditionally, I’ve always considered the annual Pacific Northwest “photography season” to begin with the first daffodils appearing in the flower farms of the Skagit Valley (whose much better-known tulip season begins about a month or so thereafter).

Last year, after the notorious 2008-09 winter, the daffodils didn’t make their first appearance until mid-March, and weren’t really photograph-worthy until the very end of the month…which meant that the tulip fields didn’t really come into bloom until the final weekend of the April-long Skagit Tulip Festival.

And now, for something completely different…while the rest of the nation has been socked in with mammoth blizzards, the El Niño year brought a surprisingly-mild winter to the Northwest, with only a trace of snow in the Seattle area, and highs in the 60s in mid-February.  This, needless to say, has given us an early spring, and, on a business trip to the Skagit Valley last week, I noticed the first daffodil blooms already appearing, and one of the southern fields at full color.  At this rate, local photographers should be counting on being able to shoot the fields within a week or two, with a correspondingly early opportunity for tulips as well.  With luck, some of the fields will come into bloom before the Tulip Festival begins this year, giving us some photo opportunities in the days before bumper-to-bumper gridlock and repeatedly being charged $10 to park along the side of the road by a photogenic field.

On that subject, I am starting work on an article about “the Pacific Northwest photographer’s year”; hopefully, I’ll have it ready soon.  In any event, let the 2010 Pacific Northwest Photography Season begin!