Winter Rains Bring Spring Flowers to Southern California – Lensbaby Blog Circle
Our family moved to Southern California in June of 2012. Since that time we only experienced the wilderness in shades of green decorated with blooming wildflowers once, two years ago. The only time this happens in the spring is when we get enough rain during the winter months. To my delight, it is happening again this spring, after a very wet winter.
I discovered a nearby area two years ago with beautiful California Poppies; last Sunday I visited the same area hoping to find similar poppy fields. I headed to the park early, I was there not long after sunrise; the park was pretty empty, I only saw one person in the parking area. I started hiking, but after a few short minutes I noticed something from the corner of my eyes. I stopped and turned my head to discover that a coyote was standing about 50-60 yards away from me.
After staring at each other for a few seconds I started walking on the path, but kept my eyes on her. She then moved, and I noticed that poor animal was limping. I really felt sorry for her and I knew that she wouldn’t be able to hurt me. She hopped away and I continued my hike to the poppy field.
During my visit to the area I used my Lensbaby Burnside 35 lens and the Velvet 56. For the close up images I also placed a +10 macro filter on the lens. Here are some pictures of the beautiful poppies:
In addition to the poppies I found some other wildflowers as well. Here is a selection of photos I took of those:
I only post-processed the above images in Lightroom, but I did play a bit more with the next two. They were focus-stacked in Photoshop, and I finished them in Topaz Impressions.
My visit to this Orange County park was delightful, I thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures of the beautiful flowers. I hope you’ve also enjoyed the virtual tour with me.
This post is part of a group of posts about Lensbaby related topics. At the beginning of each month we feature images and stories taken with our Lensbaby lenses and link to each other. Next up in the blog circle is Carol Vipperman, please click this link to see her post and keep following the circle!
Deal Gizella,
very nice flower pictures. Enjoy this view and make a lot of pictures of them.
regards
Bernhard
Dear Bernhard, thank you very much for visiting and looking at my wildflower images.
Beautiful flowers Gizella, and how wonderful to have had a Coyote so near, what a shame she/he was in pain but a lovely moment to capture.
Thank you, Melita. We have lots of coyotes where we live, but I had never met one in the wild while I was alone.
Beautiful images Gizella! What a contrast to have spring flowers when we are just recovering from snow.
I lived in 4-season areas for most of my life, and I remember waiting for the first crocus to show up. Interestingly, in SoCal I know that spring is coming, when a certain bird starts singing in the morning. It winters south of us, but comes back in the spring.
I love the colours here Gisela, beautiful images!
Yes, the colors of the wildflowers are stunning. And we don’t get to experience them every year.
I love orange and I love your wildflowers. Especially No. 7/8/10/12/16 – is 7 the Velvet and 8 the Burnside? I also love the pictures you stacked and did things with Topaz.
In your area the nature is already very far. We have still to wait a little bit, but I am sure colors will come 🙂
Herzliche Grüße
Birgit
Hi Birgit, #7 is with the Velvet, and #8 is with the Burnside. I live in an area where we only have a wet season and a dry season (some people would argue with me on this, but I lived in 4-season places and it was totally different from here). Unfortunately, our wet season (winter) is not wet most years. But is was this winter, and this is why the wildflowers are blooming. In dry years they don’t come up.
Beautiful pictures!
Thank you Pamela for visiting!
Gizella, you continue to capture so much beauty in the world around us through your images. Thanks for continuing to share with photos and storylines.
Thank you Annie!