AV Poppy Reserve

Seefutlung

Antelope Valley, on the edge of the desert in northern Los Angeles County, is the Poppy Reserve.

#1

(over processed for a different look)

#2


#3


#4


#5


Full galley is here:

http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/4802601_kDQha#285329611_L3Qaz

Gary

wfeller

I can appreciate the alternative treatment on the poppies. At least to me it's hard to get a fresh view point in a place that gets photographed as much as the reserve.

I was hoping to make it by there earlier in the week to do some shooting in the moonlight. I was stupid tired from a workshop wrapping it up with a full day of touring, visiting museums and eating strange foods and a long drive through city freeways, so I didn't make it.

I like the last shot the most. The 4th one though reminds me of how flowers are named. "Lupine", was named after the wolf by the Romans- I've heard it also means, "robber." A lot of times flowers are named after people.

Poppies for instance, are named after a Russian surgeon, Friedrich Eschscholtz, during a Russian scientific expedition conducted in 1816. Fremont, the explorer we discussed in an earlier poppies thread, had many plants named after him. Fremont's pincushion, phacelia and even the cottonwood tree to name a few. Botanists named Bigelow and Parry were others who have had many plants named after them (Bigelow's coreopsis, Parry's Nolina, ...)

Anyhow, the flower in your fourth shot is a "blue dick." The blue dick's scientific name is Dichelostemma capitatum (toothed crown?). I can't seem to find a reference to who the blue dick was named after, but following the logic in the the above examples, I can only surmise that the blue dick was named after some guy named,... "Blue."

Good ol' Blue.

Seefutlung

... possible a cowboy named Richard ... and we all know cowboys get the short end of every deal ... hence he was blue ... okay, that was a stretch.

Why would you want to shoot poppies at night ... the blooms would be closed (cool air = low water pressure) ... I would think the yellow, golds and oranges would look white and gray by moonlight. The one advantage would be less people as the Reserve closes at 6pm I believe and potentially still air...

Gary

PS- I have an appreciation of strange foods ... just how strange were they?
G

wfeller

Seefutlung wrote:

... possible a cowboy named Richard ... and we all know cowboys get the short end of every deal ... hence he was blue ... okay, that was a stretch.

Why would you want to shoot poppies at night ... the blooms would be closed (cool air = low water pressure) ... I would think the yellow, golds and oranges would look white and gray by moonlight. The one advantage would be less people as the Reserve closes at 6pm I believe and potentially still air...

Gary

PS- I have an appreciation of strange foods ... just how strange were they?
G

I suppose the food wasn't too strange. I consider 'shrimp' to be the 'bacon' of the sea. Creme Brule was about as wierd as it got actually. Sort of. I had dinner one night at a place called the Elephant Bar. Good food, mostly shrimp for me. Nothing with eyes or a discernable head. I was kind of hoping to try elephant. Reminds me of a little joke-- heheheh.

But anyway, speaking of ol' Blue, cowboys and bacon I thought my wife ordering tri-tip at the Elephant Bar was kind of out-of-place. But maybe not. Seems that tri-tip was invented, or at least the cut was developed up the coastline in Santa Maria. Something about round-ups and what-not and cowboy shindigs(?). This was told to me by a 'hippie chick', a very nice girl from Santa Maria. Now I thought it was all smooth food-talk, until my wife told me that she had bought Santa Maria tri-tip at the store many times because she liked the seasoning. Possibly tri-tip is the steak of the desert because there's a heck of a lot of places that serve tri-tip sandwiches.

The plan was to drive up the coast to Santa Maria, buy a tri-tip sandwich from a roadside vendor and head to the poppy reserve for a romantic, moonlight photo shoot. At least after sunset. I remember way back in the 1900s, driving by the reserve in the moonlight during a spring right after an El Nino year, the reserve was effervescent. It seemed to glow in the dark! I was hoping to catch that on electrons. Even with the poppies rolling up for the night, there seemed to be enough color in the closed blossoms. I've done stupider things. I also had a tip on where the blossoms were exceptionally thick outside the reserve.

So, no exotic food (with the exception of some weird salad), no elephant, no tri-tip, no night photos and best of all, no long night drive. We car-pool-laned it all the way back to the outskirts and scourages of humanity home. I did drink a beer made from hemp seeds. It made my lips numb. Pretty cool.

Seefutlung

wfeller wrote:

I suppose the food wasn't too strange. I consider 'shrimp' to be the 'bacon' of the sea. Creme Brule was about as wierd as it got actually. Sort of. I had dinner one night at a place called the Elephant Bar. Good food, mostly shrimp for me. Nothing with eyes or a discernable head. I was kind of hoping to try elephant. Reminds me of a little joke-- heheheh.

But anyway, speaking of ol' Blue, cowboys and bacon I thought my wife ordering tri-tip at the Elephant Bar was kind of out-of-place. But maybe not. Seems that tri-tip was invented, or at least the cut was developed up the coastline in Santa Maria. Something about round-ups and what-not and cowboy shindigs(?). This was told to me by a 'hippie chick', a very nice girl from Santa Maria. Now I thought it was all smooth food-talk, until my wife told me that she had bought Santa Maria tri-tip at the store many times because she liked the seasoning. Possibly tri-tip is the steak of the desert because there's a heck of a lot of places that serve tri-tip sandwiches.

The plan was to drive up the coast to Santa Maria, buy a tri-tip sandwich from a roadside vendor and head to the poppy reserve for a romantic, moonlight photo shoot. At least after sunset. I remember way back in the 1900s, driving by the reserve in the moonlight during a spring right after an El Nino year, the reserve was effervescent. It seemed to glow in the dark! I was hoping to catch that on electrons. Even with the poppies rolling up for the night, there seemed to be enough color in the closed blossoms. I've done stupider things. I also had a tip on where the blossoms were exceptionally thick outside the reserve.

So, no exotic food (with the exception of some weird salad), no elephant, no tri-tip, no night photos and best of all, no long night drive. We car-pool-laned it all the way back to the outskirts and scourages of humanity home. I did drink a beer made from hemp seeds. It made my lips numb. Pretty cool.

Elephant Bar is a chain ... so how exotic can a chain eatery be .... there is one a block away from work ... which I frequent on ocassion. Which Elephant Bar did you hit ... I've had elephant ... once you've had elephant you'll never forget it (joking about the elephant, to the best of my memory I've never had elephant).

Actually, not a bad plan if the moon was accomodating. There are poppy fields outside the Reserve which you can stroll amongst our state flower and not be restricted to the paths.

I shoot nearly every weekend, last weekend we hit the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, if you want some company on a shoot,lewt me know. seefutlung@yahoo.com.

Gary

PS- Did that hemp beer increase your desire for munchies?
G

wfeller

Seefutlung wrote:

Elephant Bar is a chain ... so how exotic can a chain eatery be .... there is one a block away from work ... which I frequent on ocassion. Which Elephant Bar did you hit ... I've had elephant ... once you've had elephant you'll never forget it (joking about the elephant, to the best of my memory I've never had elephant).

Actually, not a bad plan if the moon was accomodating. ...

PS- Did that hemp beer increase your desire for munchies?
G

I get it- an elephant never forgets!

How about this?

Q. What's gray and has chunks in it?
A. Cream of Elephant Soup.

Well, and so on,... the Elephant Bar is exotic to us here in the desert where life is cheap. But, eeewww, you work?

I suppose we'll get an Elephant Bar soon. We have an Olive Garden and a Red Lobster. I don't eat at either one. I'd rather get a hotdog and jalapenos at one of our many public hangings.

I thought I had a pretty good plan going on the moonlit poppies. At worst it would have been a good place to do a little deep kissin' and petting on the old lady. Just tired I guess. I did end up going on a wildflower sortie Thursday. Got some fair pictures of Mojave Aster and some other landscapes. Left too early and was out of the flower zone for sunset. Still exhausted. I suppose a good excuse is that I lost my glasses crawling through the sand like a sniper getting the small view. Driving without them is hard enough, but at night without them is too strange.

Better run. I've been trying to update my desert wildflower guide. Scrawling BS is more fun, but I've been working on a 'quick update,' since February.