All posts tagged: Wildflower

Just in Time

May 17, 2020
by Michael Scandling
comments 51
California / Flower / Hummingbirds / Photo Log / Photography

May 14, 2020 — The Back Yard, Silicon Valley, California Every April/May I engage in the Hummingbird Ritual. It’s a simple ritual, mostly involving standing around with a heavy camera/lens combo waiting for hummingbirds to feed on echium blooms. This requires four ingredients: Me, Heavy camera/lens, Purple echium blooms, and a Hummingbird. Thing is, despite shelter-in-place, my schedule has been less than accommodating, which has effectively removed the “me” ingredient for several weeks. When I […]

Day Three — Poppy Paradise

April 19, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 45
California / California Poppy / Floral Photography / Flower / Landscape / Nature / Photo Log / Photography

And on the third day, The Land of Oz. Or was it The Sound of Music? In the southwest corner of the Mojave Desert is a hill that for about a month every spring turns retina-burning orange. The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and the surrounding countryside. No wizard. No Julie Andrews. But lots of poppies. Other wildflowers, too. But mostly poppies. (And thirty mile-per-hour winds, so no florascapes.) And an occasional cloud. (Nikon D500, […]

Carrizo Plain: Day One

April 17, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 50
California / Carrizo Plian / Floral Photography / Flower / Landscape / Nature / Photography

On the first day, clouds marked the sky. And it was good. And we were wet with rain and frozen by wind and pelted by hail and splattered in mud, and we did not care. For the Earth was carpeted with yellow and red and purple and blue and we were soar amazed. Tomorrow: Poppy Paradise. (Nikon D500, Tamron 100–400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD. Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing […]

Carrizo Plain: Day Two

April 17, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 29
California / Carrizo Plian / Floral Photography / Landscape / Nature / Photography

Day Two? What happened to Day One? Day One has been postponed in order to save the best for last. The Carrizo Plain is known for many things. In the Spring, it’s known for wildflowers — especially this year, when it is the site of a super bloom. Super blooms happen in years that have had a far greater that average rainfall, and we certainly had that in California this year. When we arrived on […]

Concentrated Essence of Poppy

March 29, 2019
by Michael Scandling
comments 30
California / California Poppy / Floral Photography / Flower / Nature / Photography

For an all-too-brief period in the spring, California poppies proliferate. They’re just starting to appear here in the Bay Area. In a few weeks — maybe just a few days — there will be more patches, fields, entire hillsides of intense golden blooms shimmering in the breeze. There will be more in this space too. Here’s a preview of this year’s bounty. (Nikon D850; AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab […]