California Wildflower Season Is Getting Started!

Went out scouting for wildflowers yesterday with a friend. The weather was variable ranging from sunny and windy to overcast and moody. We found this area near Arvin, close to the junction of Rte 223 and Rte 58 (not too far from the Grapevine). Fiddlenecks and pygmy Lupine were up, some lonely poppies here and there (too early for them). My guess is that this season will give us patches of good color, but it will take a bit of hunting around over a period of a few weeks to get some good shots.

Click on the image for a larger version. Have a great weekend!

David Saffir

Photography Quote of the Day – February 3

Poppy Fields © David Saffir

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 There are always flowers for those who want to see them. ~ Henri Matisse

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one. – Edna St. Vincent Millay

Join us in our upcoming workshop in the Palouse!

Tips for Photographing Wildflowers

Tips for Photographing Wildflowers
Posted on the Pro Photo Blog by HP – written by David Saffir

Every spring, photographers eagerly await the start of wildflower season. Although the wildflower turnout is nearly impossible to predict, photographers always have high hopes for a good bloom. From the desert to the sea, the possibilities are almost endless.

Finding the Right Time and Place

Wildflowers can be found almost anywhere during the spring. A good place to start looking is by taking your camera to popular local hiking trails. But if you would like to shoot different varieties of wildflowers than those found locally, you’ll need to do some research before you plan a trip.

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California Wildflower Explosion!

It’s Wildflower Season In California! Here’s some tips to help you get the images you want:

1. Do a little research: check in with other photographers, wildflower web sites, weather reports, and the like.

Owl's Clover and Lupine

2. Weather reports can be helpful, but… real-time field reports are even better. Yesterday several of my friends were out shooting, and from time to time one of us would text the others, “this spot is too windy”, “this place is good today, and tomorrow will be even better”.

3. Online sources can be very helpful. Carol Leigh’s California wildflower site is a real winner.  The California State Parks sites, such as the Antelope Valley Poppy reserve, are also very good.

4. Take along a tripod – you’ll need it in many cases for your wide shots, and macro.

5. Take along a small light diffuser, like one of those round, translucent nylon gadgets that fold up.

6. Shoot in Aperture priority for depth of focus/depth of field, or Shutter priority if it is windy – moving flowers can make for blurry images. If the flowers are moving even a little, you’ll want to use shutter speeds of 1/100 and up.

7. Think about the direction of the light. Try to shoot into the shadows, when your subject is side-lit, or even back-lit. Front lighting (with the sun behind you) usually looks flat and uninspiring.

8. Use a lens shade, particularly if you are shooting toward the sun. Light coming into the lens will kill the contrast of your image.

9. If you are shooting multi-frame panoramas of wildflower-covered scenes, consider leaveing your polarizing filter in your camera bag. Those filters make merging blue skies difficult.

10. Consider using a photo tour company. Your Photo Travel Guide is running tours for the next few weekends, through May 1.

Places to consider include the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, Carizzo Plain, Death Valley, Wind Wolves Reserve, Sacramento River Bend area, Little Panoche Valley. Remember to check things out ahead of time – things change day by day, sometimes hour by hour!