California Golden Poppies. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Late-winter California golden poppies in the hills of Santa Clara Valley.
Many California “spring” wildflowers begin to appear near the end of solar winter, at least in the lower elevation areas of the state. Of all of the characteristic blooming harbingers of spring, the California Golden Poppy may be the most recognized and one of the most prolific. I began to see a few individual flowers here and there way back in early February, but on a hike in a local park near the beginning of March we saw that the main bloom was now underway.
There are a lot of ways to photograph this type of flower, but many of them turn out to be a bit trickier than you might expect. That orange color is very intense in the red channel, which means that it is quite easy to blow out the flower details on digital cameras. In addition, the flower likes to open up in full sun — not the easiest light to photograph — and close up during the popular early and late hours. And even a bit of wind can make it difficult to photograph them… during this season that is often windy.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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