Johnny Chien
Well-Known Member
I was skunked at Carrizo Plains for the 2017 superbloom as I got there a few weeks too late on May 2nd when everything was dead. I couldn't go earlier because I played on a tennis league which sapped all my weekends. This year, I skipped the league which freed up my weekends in the spring, so I wasn't about to miss the bloom in Carrizo again!
I left on Friday around noon from Santa Cruz and it rained the whole time I was driving there. I was worried about the dirt roads because I only have front wheel drive and low clearance in my Toyota Avalon, but I was going to make the best of it. I got there around 5pm and it was raining off and on, but not enough rain to make the roads muddy. At sunset I captured some beautiful light, and with the clouds, so much drama!! This is a 6 vertical pic pano
#1
These are before the golden hour:
#2
#3
After I took the pics above, I was driving around looking for more compositions as the sun was setting but I couldn't find any. What a waste, because it was a beautiful sunset and I didn't want to take a picture of a sunset for the sake of taking a picture without a good foreground. The thing about Carrizo is that there are fields of beautiful flowers, but there are also many places where you can drive awhile without seeing much either. I slept in my car to await dawn.
The next morning, I was driving around in the valley on Soda Lake Rd before sunrise an everything was fogged over because of the rain from the previous day. Cloud Inversion!!! I tried to get to a higher elevation asap, but the roads are not easy going to get anywhere fast. The light was amazing, but again, I did not find a good foreground. I stopped the car and the road was going to be my foreground interest, because the color was too good not to take a picture:
#4
#5
The sky was beautiful over the Caliente Mountains on the west side of Carrizo, but again, I couldn't find a foreground with flowers, except this patch
#6
I decided to take a pano of the mountains instead. I couldn't get high enough to see the cloud inversion, but you can see the layer of fog in the valley.
#7
The morning sky faded and I decided to drive down to Soda Lake. Luckily, the misty fog was still around which added a lot of mood to the pics around Soda Lake, this one was with a wide lens:
#8
This with a telephoto:
#9
I like this one because it reminded me of the yellow brick road paved with yellow flowers instead:
#10
I hiked up a small hill for this pic:
#11
Soda Lake has water, so I tried to get a wide angle reflection pic, but the edge of the lake is too soft to walk on, like walking on sinking marshmallows really, so I went for a telephoto shot.
#12
Driving around Soda Lake Rd, there are a few spots with big yellow fields:
#13
Drove through the higher elevation Temblor Mountains in the east for these following pics, and then headed to Antelope Valley...
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
I left on Friday around noon from Santa Cruz and it rained the whole time I was driving there. I was worried about the dirt roads because I only have front wheel drive and low clearance in my Toyota Avalon, but I was going to make the best of it. I got there around 5pm and it was raining off and on, but not enough rain to make the roads muddy. At sunset I captured some beautiful light, and with the clouds, so much drama!! This is a 6 vertical pic pano
#1
These are before the golden hour:
#2
#3
After I took the pics above, I was driving around looking for more compositions as the sun was setting but I couldn't find any. What a waste, because it was a beautiful sunset and I didn't want to take a picture of a sunset for the sake of taking a picture without a good foreground. The thing about Carrizo is that there are fields of beautiful flowers, but there are also many places where you can drive awhile without seeing much either. I slept in my car to await dawn.
The next morning, I was driving around in the valley on Soda Lake Rd before sunrise an everything was fogged over because of the rain from the previous day. Cloud Inversion!!! I tried to get to a higher elevation asap, but the roads are not easy going to get anywhere fast. The light was amazing, but again, I did not find a good foreground. I stopped the car and the road was going to be my foreground interest, because the color was too good not to take a picture:
#4
#5
The sky was beautiful over the Caliente Mountains on the west side of Carrizo, but again, I couldn't find a foreground with flowers, except this patch
#6
I decided to take a pano of the mountains instead. I couldn't get high enough to see the cloud inversion, but you can see the layer of fog in the valley.
#7
The morning sky faded and I decided to drive down to Soda Lake. Luckily, the misty fog was still around which added a lot of mood to the pics around Soda Lake, this one was with a wide lens:
#8
This with a telephoto:
#9
I like this one because it reminded me of the yellow brick road paved with yellow flowers instead:
#10
I hiked up a small hill for this pic:
#11
Soda Lake has water, so I tried to get a wide angle reflection pic, but the edge of the lake is too soft to walk on, like walking on sinking marshmallows really, so I went for a telephoto shot.
#12
Driving around Soda Lake Rd, there are a few spots with big yellow fields:
#13
Drove through the higher elevation Temblor Mountains in the east for these following pics, and then headed to Antelope Valley...
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
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