Anza Borrego Wildflowers

agunther

I drove all the way to Anza Borrego to photograph the wildflowers this weekend (It's a loooooong drive from the bay area).
Although the flowers were out, the spectacle wasn't quite what I had hoped for. I was looking for meadows and more color.
There are tons of single flowers and small patches out there, but I am not a macro shooter, so that doesn't excite me too much.
I took this picture at the badlands overview.
It's a f/9 0.5s exposure with a Tokina 12-24mm @ 20mm.

CWSkopec

WOW! That's quite a distance to travel just to find something less than you were expecting! Sorry to hear it wasn't as fruitful as you would have liked.

I think you've captured the scene well here though! Good amount of color in the foreground and a gorgeous sky to go with it! Well done!

I was over in Anza the weekend before last and found the wildflowers to be underwhelming just like you. I tried some macro shots, but not being much of a macro shooter I only got a couple that are worth much!

DavidTO

You can track the flowers here. They're rating only a 6/10 right now.

dbd

All the way from St Louis

agunther wrote:

A friend and I went through there earlier in the week and earlier in the day:

Your choice of timing captured beautiful soft light and great color. The window in the panorama above shows how effective your timing was at softening the light compared to the mid-afternoon view. Nice shooting.
My friend (under the arrow at right) came from St Louis to see the flowers. But she cheated by flying as far as San Diego first. (And boy were her arms tired!)

Dale B. Dalrymple

agunther

Thx

DavidTO wrote:

You can track the flowers here. They're rating only a 6/10 right now.

Yeah, same as last week, or was it 7/10. I don't recall. My wife and I used to joke about this a lot. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful out there, but upon close inspection, I have mostly seen colorful macro shots. No wonder I got deceived. I had a great trip and a couple of keepers like this one, so overall I rate the trip a full success

EDIT: I just noticed that I photographed the same cactus that is on the second photograph on that page. I guess it's because it was the only one blooming in a 20 mile radius. Kind of funny to see that someone else found the same one /EDIT

dbd wrote:

Nice shooting.

Thanks Dale. I appreciate the feedback! I considered flying, but I hate the hassle and I love road trips, so I decided against it.

coscorrosa

I really like this shot, even if it's not at peak bloom.

Remember, the key to happiness is low expectations

agunther

coscorrosa wrote:

I really like this shot, even if it's not at peak bloom.

Remember, the key to happiness is low expectations

Thanks. This is one of the two or three keepers I mentioned.
I think the key to success is high expectations .
To me the key to happiness is to be in the present and not to wonder what might have been, could have been or should have been. Good thought, thanks for posting.

Tee Why

We're planning an outing on 4/18/9, I read that the peak of the bloom is in mid April.

Sorry about the lack of the blooms.

agunther

Tee Why wrote:

We're planning an outing on 4/18/9, I read that the peak of the bloom is in mid April.

Sorry about the lack of the blooms.

Read where? I think this depends a lot on the prevailing weather conditions and on the amount of rain that fell during the winter months.
You can get an up to date wildflower map here:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638
but I found most of the claims wildly exaggerated. For instance they claim that the cacti on the trail at Tamarisk Grove are "blooming in clusters" when in fact I hardly found a single one.