Springtime Joy

One of the things I really look forward to in spring is the blooming of the Californian Poppies. Growing up in Colorado I waited for them to them bloom in a rock garden we had in our backyard. My Dad had brought poppy seeds from California so we had a little bit of California with us. Here are two poppies one from the Brooktrails Community Garden and the other from the Little Lake Valley of Northern California. All photographed with my Canon EOS 7D MkII camera and a Canon EF-S60mm macro lens. Happy Easter to all, chris #TeamCanon

Poppin' Out All Over

There has been a wonderful California Poppy bloom this spring. I went out a couple of times to photograph them this last week. Both in Ukiah and Willits. As beautiful as they are it takes some work to get a beautiful image of them. Part of the reason for that the grasses have grown up faster than the poppies pretty much burying them in the grass. You have to look for poppies that stand out or are isolated from the grasses in some way. I created a lot of images but here are three of my favorites. All of these images were created with a Canon T1i camera and a variety of different lenses. #TeamCanon

Perfect for Poppies

Today is overcast and looking like it really wants to rain. It's perfect diffuse lighting for photographing poppies. I had a medical appointment at the local hospital this morning and it was a quick visit.(Good job Melissa!) Afterwards I went out and photographed poppies in the field by the hospital. I was really happy to find one with a spider on it and a group of four that looked like they were ascending to the heavens. God's love and blessings upon your day, chris All of the poppy images were created with a handheld Canon 7D MkIIwith a Tamron 18-200mm lens. #TeamCanon, #tamron

Spring Has Sprung

This morning I had an appointment in Ukiah. On the return trip I decided to swing through the Little Lake Valley and check out the wildflowers. This year looks to be a tough one as the grasses are up and are really tall. This makes it much harder to spot the low lying wildflowers. As I drove along I could see beautiful patches of one of the first harbingers of spring the California Poppies. They are so bold and bright. I pulled off into a gate access on the side of the road and walked back to a patch of them. I got down low and framed a scene of the valley with the flowers as a foreground anchor. I was quite pleased with how the image looked when I uploaded it to my computer when I got home. I'd say it's a keeper. God's blessings upon your week, chris This image was created with a hand held Canon 7D and an EF-S17-85mm lens at 26mm. The camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 100, F 16.0 at 1/100th of a sec. #teamcanon

Selective Isolation

Yesterday afternoon I had to run to the big city of Ukiah for an errand. That's one of the disadvantages of living in a smaller town. Sometimes there are just some things you can't get here unless you want to go online and wait for them. I threw my camera in the car just in case I spotted something that I wanted to photograph. On the return trip I spotted a small field of California Poppies that were easily accessible from the frontage road and just begging to be photographed! I knew exactly what I wanted to do as I had brought my camera with a 400mm telephoto lens mounted on it. I walked around the edge of the poppies looking for the tallest ones that stood far and above the rest of them. That way I could selectively isolate them from the ones around them and allow the ones further back to blur out into orange blobs of color. If you photograph with the lens wide open and from fairly close up that is the effect that you will get. It can be quite dramatic and beautiful. Here are a few samples. I included one group just because i love the composition. May you have a blessed weekend, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens. AV mode, ISO 200, F 5.6, shutter speeds varied.

Wonderful Wildflowers

Yesterday afternoon after a fantastic morning of bird photography I settled down to the computer and did some editing. I got some excellent bird images! Later on in the afternoon I went with Annika to her American Sign Language Class at Mendocino Junior College. After I dropped her off I went to one of my favorite places to photograph Lupines and California Poppies. The Northwestern Railroad tracks run right through Downtown Ukiah and are abandoned. Some stretches have large swaths of wildflowers that you can photograph without being worried about being disturbed by traffic or people.I spent close to an hour photographing flowers before I had to pack up and go pick up Annika for the drive home. She is getting to be a pretty good driver.

God's love and blessings to everyone,

chris