Wildflowers in the Temblor Range, with desert candles, blazing stars, tansy phacelia, and hillside daisies, Carrizo Plain National Monument. I used a wide-angle lens (20mm) to be able to look down into the stand of flowers in the foreground and show more of the orange color (the blazing stars), while also including part of the colorful hillside in the background. 1/6 second at f/16, 800 ISO.
Many years ago – perhaps around 2005 – I saw a striking photograph of flowers in the Temblor Range, bordering the Carrizo Plain. I wanted to go there, and in April of 2006 I did, finding a route up the steep ridges of these mountains to a colorful hillside. The flowers weren’t as abundant that year as they were in the photo I saw, but it was still beautiful, and I was able to make a couple of images I liked.
In 2010, after seeing reports of a great flower bloom in the Carrizo Plain, I returned to the area and hiked up into the Temblors again. It was spectacular – the most amazing flower display I had ever seen. I could only spend one afternoon and one morning there, but it was a wonderful 24 hours. The hills were enveloped in thick fog on my one morning there, and spots of sunlight breaking through the fog created some beautiful light. I could see, however, that the flowers wouldn’t last long, and I wasn’t able to go back that spring, but ever since then I’ve wanted to return.
2011 wasn’t a great flower year in the Carrizo Plain, and then we had five years of drought. Finally, this year, that area received above-average rainfall, and the flowers took off. In my last post I showed some photographs I made of the plain, which was incredibly beautiful. But I was also finally able to return to the Temblors in a good flower year.
In some places, as in 2010, it looked like someone had spilled buckets of yellow, purple, and orange paint over the hills. People often think the orange flowers in these hills are poppies, but they’re actually blazing stars (Mentzelia pectinata). (Well, there are some poppies in the Temblors, but not many, and the blazing stars are much more common.) The splashes of yellow are created by hillside daisies (Monolopia lanceola), and the purple is from tansy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia). And what you can’t see from a distance, but discover once you get up there, is that there are acres and acres of desert candles – one of my favorite flowers.
Claudia, Robert and I had a wonderful time in these hills. The climbs were steep, the footing sometimes difficult, and we were always on the lookout for rattlesnakes, but it was all worth it. Alas, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to go back this year, but I’m already looking forward to the next good spring.
— Michael Frye
Flower patterns in the Temblor Range. I loved the zigzag. 50mm, 1/6 second at f/16, 200 ISO.
Flower-covered hills, Carrizo Plain National Monument. The same hillside shown in the previous two photos, but taken from across a canyon. 160mm, 1/45 second at f/11, 100 ISO.
The Carrizo Plain from the Temblor Range, with Soda Lake in the distance and desert candles in the foreground. A wonderful spot, with acres of desert candles. I liked the sun reflecting off of Soda Lake in the distance, and used a very wide lens (16mm) to include the sweep from foreground to background. The sun was just above the frame, so I stuck my hand out to shade the lens and prevent flare. 1/90 second, f/16, 100 ISO.
Setting sun from the Temblor Range, with desert candles, tansy phacelia, and hillside daisies in the foreground. We had one afternoon with a few clouds, and one cloud positioned itself nicely for this view. A five-shot bracketed sequence, each frame two stops apart, blended with Lightroom’s HDR Merge. 16mm, various shutter speeds, f/16, 200 ISO.
Desert candles, Temblor Range. Backlit with a dark background, these candles were irresistible. 135mm, 1/15th second at f/22, 100 ISO.
California poppies, desert candles, hillside daisies, and tansy phacelia, Carrizo Plain National Monument. There are a few poppies in the Temblors. Here we found a beautiful mix of flowers, and a passing cloud helped soften the light. 33mm, 1/90 second at f/16, 200 ISO.
Desert candles and phacelia, Carrizo Plain National Monument. More backlit candles, this time surrounded by phacelia. This and the previous photo are good examples of intimate landscapes with wide-angle lenses. 33mm, 1/90 second at f/16, 100 ISO.
Flower-covered folds in the Temblor Range. While exploring a new area we stumbled upon this scene, with a beautiful zigzag pattern created by backlight on the daisy-covered ridges. 138mm, 1/125 second at f/11, 800 ISO.
Poppies and hillside daisies in the Temblor Range. The largest patch of poppies we found, complemented by acres and acres of hillside daisies. A late-morning photograph, so the sun was high, but that high backlight worked for the poppies, which only open in sunlight. 35mm, 1/125 second at f/16, 200 ISO.
Related Posts: The Floweriest Piece of the World; Hunting Wildflowers
Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
Breathtaking work, Michael. Wish I could have been there myself.
Thank you Rob – wish you could have been there too!
Wonderful compositions and colors! Thank-you for all you share, both by way of art and the technical!
Question: Have you ever used or have an opinion on Singh-Ray’s LB Color Intensifier or the LB ColorCombo Polarizer filters? Some folks love them for taking photos of flowers.
Thank you!
Thank you Hillel! I have not used either of the filters you mentioned. In general I avoid filters that “enhance” colors, as I prefer the natural colors.
Stunning, Michael. The flowers are gorgeous, but I’m really impressed by your creativity in using the light and finding compositions that take advantage of the material you had. I was at Carrizo Monday, and was mostly overwhelmed by trying to make photographic sense of it. Great stuff.
Thanks so much Eric! I think a lot of people felt the same way – overwhelmed. It’s understandable when faced with such spectacles. For me it helped to have been there before, under equally good conditions, so I had a better idea of what to look for based on what worked or didn’t work last time. And it’s not just my experience in that particular place, it’s experience photographing wildflowers on many occasions in many different places over the years.
How fortunate you were to see this striking scenery. Like Eric in the previous post, I would probably have been overstimulated. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Anna!
These images are breathtaking–possibly the best I’ve ever seen of this area. I’m heading up on Saturday, and REALLY hoping there are still some nice colors!
Thank you so much Robin! I hear that the flowers in the plain are fading fast, but still good at higher elevations, so off-trail hiking would be required.
Stunning pics! And thanks for providing tips on the lenses.
Thanks Abhi!
Your photos are outstanding. Thanks for sharing them. You are my favorite Professional Photographer~
Thanks so much Patsy!
We were at Carrlzo Plain NM on a day trip last week too (lots of Mariposans headed that way) and loved loved loved it. We took lots of pictures (cell phone) but none look like yours. We had so much fun we are going back to camp. Also visited the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve and Red Rock Canyon SP before heading up 395 and over 88-loved seeing all of the snow on the east side and over Carson Pass. Great pictures from there too. Several times your fantastic pictures have inspired trips for us. Thank you!
Glad you got out there to see the flowers Kathy!
Thanks Michael for sharing your past trips into the Temblor Range. Your flower photos are beautiful. I do wish I was younger and did not have a bad back – I would love to have made these hikes as you did. Hope you can do it again for all of us.
Thank you Gary!
Absolutely drool worthy, Michael! The backlit desert candles are by far my favorite. I have to wait 3 more months for the wildflowers here!
Thanks Monica! One of these summers we want to get out to Colorado for the summer wildflowers. Maybe this summer… ?
Some photographer left his/her tripod with ballhead there. You can retrieve it by contacting: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.c.evans?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf
Yikes! Hope they see this.
Can anybody provide an address on how to get there? Are there existing trailheads or do you have to just hike and hope to get lucky?
There are no street numbers in that part of the world! And no trails, much less trailheads. Elkhorn Road runs along the east side of the Carrizo Plain, and provides the best access to the Temblors. From there you just have to drive and look until you find a particularly colorful place, pick a route, and climb up. Not something anyone should attempt without plenty of experience with route-finding and off-trail hiking in steep terrain.
Oooh, those backlit desert candles are gorgeous, Michael! It’s a wonderful abstract look. It must’ve been just incredible seeing that in person.
Thanks so much Vivienne! I do love the candles.
Ah! The heart smiles. Thank you.
The hits just keep on comin’! Another great series in a wonderful year of great series!
I agree, those backlit desert candles are an A++. The rest are just A+ 🙂
I just got back from Carrizo yesterday and took some (what I thought were pretty but were just fine with an iPhone) photos on the backside of Caliente Mountain of the desert candles, but these are just absolutely stunning. You are so talented. Thank you for sharing them. I look forward to poring over the rest of your photos soon.
Michael, you have such a great eye. I appreciate you including some of your thoughts in the captions. Your angles and light have created images that are so much more than just wildflowers. And I do like your HDR images these days that look so natural.
Hi Michael,
Fantastic photographs, as always!
Cheers,
Alyn
Beautiful photographs as usual Michael. Were these taken thus year? It wasn’t clear to me from the writeup. I took some aerials April 14, 2017 buy did not see as much purple. I may have missed the peak by a week.
Been going to Anza Borrego 22 years in a row, Carrizo since 2010, Joshua Tree since 95, This year, in some places, it was absolute LA traffic crazy with flower chasers. Never seen backed up and dead stop freeway type traffic in Borrego Springs before 2017. Or 8-10 van caravans of Asians all driving in at once to a quiet location, launching drones, and intent on capturing it all. I asked several caravans if they were all friends. They were. Your comments are appreciated since they do not generally point out exact locations.
Any place named with precision becomes people polluted, flower trampled, private property fences jumped, all garnished with buzzing drones. The MINUS of the internet and Social Media is the insta-circus…
At Carizzo we were sitting in a beautiful spot, a car drove up and a Gen-X asked “where are the flowers?” My friends and I looked at each other in some shock and said “Right in front of you” Gen-X replied “No, No the pictures on the internet” Enough said…
Finally have some days off to head out to Carrizo Plains beginning of next week, hope it’s not too late. Was there last year beginning of April and it was quite stunning.
Wow!! Thank you for these beautiful, stunning photos of flowers. I don’t even know how I would react witnessing this in person. It’s just beautiful.
Thank you Paula!
My son and I made it out for the first time this year. It was a stunning display. I have to say that your photos are about 1000 times better than what I was able to capture. I particularly like the backlit desert candles. Looks like you were hiking a good bit South of where we were. You’ve definitely inspired me to try harder next time!
Glad you made it out there Joshua! It was a great year.
Very nice sir,all the picture… In a word awesome..& Also very helpful to a novice about camera expo…thank u sir…
Thanks Bappa!