Poppy River

Here’s another from the recent visit to Arizona. The folks and I ran down to Organ Pipe National Monument for a day, and one portion of the Ajo Mountain Loop had nice sections of Mexican Poppies.

Unfortunately the day we visited was quite windy (in fact the poppies didn’t open until around noon) and hazy, which was limiting. We had been told that the flowers were also good in a different section of the monument and headed there for the late sweet light, but unfortunately the flowers were nowhere near as nice and we didn’t have enough time to make it back to the nice sections. Regardless, I took a few photos of the poppies when the light was a bit harsh and the one advantage is that the poppies glow a bit with bright lighting.

Nikon D80
Tokina 12-24mm f/4.0

12mm, 1/60sec at f/22

John,
I almost went down to OP Natl Park instead of Joshua Tree. I heard it was gret, as your image shows. The top of this shot is a tad dark for my tastes ( nit picking). Comp and leading lines make this work for me. NICE!
JG

John: I'm originally from California and have fond memories of the state flower of CA. Nice capture of this carpet, which is sooo typical of them. The back lit Cholla is a nice touch. The Ocotillo (?) in the R sky is slightly annoying, but not too much. Thanks for posting.

This is a nice comp. The shadows are a bit dark here, but I like it overall. Wonderful bright poppies where you didn't blow the yellows. Nice detail there.

John, I think it would be stronger to remove the clear sky or clone out the branches in the URC. The colorful FG is very nice though.

Nice one John. A desert bloom. I am with some others on cloning out the small branches? in the right sky. I like the desert background. Cliff

John, this is a wonderful show of poppies! I also like the variety of cactus in the bg. Too bad the Ocotillo wasn't blooming, as there would be bright red blooms up in the urc... Alas, it would be better without those scraggly branches. I'll bet the processing could be tickled a bit more to open up the dark greens and the shadow side of the hill? Then I think this would be a real hit! What fun to be at the bloom in good timing!

I really need to get down to that area of the country. I’ve only visited the northern part of the state. I echo what has previously been said, the lighting is a bit harsh and the twigs are a bit distracting. However, the backlight on the cactus is great and the poppies certainly “pop”.

Thanks all! Funny thing is, I actually purposefully included that ocotillo to balance the cholla on the other side . I can see now that it didn't translate well to the actual photo.