Just crudely flatbed scanned with my old Epson 2450, the first 4x5 transparency this year of 2012 that is good enough to break into my Gallery B web page. Exposed this sheet of Provia 100F a bit after 11am PDT Friday March 30, 2012 in the Merced River Canyon. At the time the fact poppies were nearly duplicating the epic 2009 bloom considered the best in the canyon during our lifetime. But amusingly to this person that had not yet been reported on the web anywhere.
Oh there were lots of Yosemite bound folks driving along state route 140 stopping and gawking across the river at the blistering orange slopes. Wondering how the guy on the other side of the water got there no doubt as it required several miles hiking. I wasn't alone though and they were probably thinking how did a human manage to climb up a scary steep billy goat slope?
I had guessed our solid late January rains after two months of drought were enough to stage the poppies for a possible show IF more precip occurred later in our rainy season. I received a vague report early March that poppies were begining to show in this particular area I've worked in the past despite the fact it had been bone dry since. But then over 3 inches fell mid March, so I suspected a big bloom might suddenly sprout up a week to two later. Thus drove to check it out on Friday March 23 just before a big weekend storm was due on my way up for a day of skiing at my pass area of Kirkwood and it looked about a week away from a peak. So knew the weather would have prevented any weekend photographers from going up and noticing. When I saw the following weekend weather would also be foul, I set up another Friday PTO day off.
California poppies open notoriously late during mornings only if weather is nice and then begin closing up mid afternoon. Nice clouds were streaming over the headwall so waited a while for an optimal cloud. Besides poppies are white hued popcorn flower, orange-yellow hued fiddleneck, and fillaree. Canyon live oak trees left and a digger pine right. High upper right is greasewood chaparral. Easily the most intense poppy image in my body of work. My 90mm Nikor at EV14.6 1/15 second F41. Matched the hue and saturation of jpg reasonably closely to the slide on my lightbox for tonight's Photoshop session. The 900 pixel wide version in my Gallery B:
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Oh, I also spent 3 days in the canyon elsewhere last weekend and would highly recommend the Hite Cove Trail. The area of my pic is however well past peak with most petals on the way off.
