In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong

Photography field reports by Richard Wong. Richard’s work has been published in magazines, books, advertising, and offers fine art prints of his work. Images may be licensed as rights-managed stock photos by contacting Richard directly at Richard@rwongphoto.com or (626) 422-6151. California stock photography, fine art prints, photo blog: www.rwongphoto.com

Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

Posted on | April 6, 2008 | 4 Comments

Goldfields and Golden Poppies, Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, California Goldfields and Golden Poppies, Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, California

This is a good year to visit the poppy reserve. I also went in 2002 and 2005, but it is definitely better this year than those other years. Most of the flowers are located inside of the reserve, on the road just to the east of the reserve, and a large carpet along the northern boundary. There wasn’t a lot of diversity of flowers, mainly I saw goldfields and poppies but there were a lot of those.

The weather was less than ideal though because it was extremely windy. Antelope Valley is one of the windiest locations in California so that was not a surprise. Surprisingly though, I was able to get sharp photos and it looked kinda cool to have my poppies flopping off to the side. The flowers are so colorful and so abundant that it is nearly impossible to take bad pictures here no matter what the weather is like.

The drawback is that there were a lot of people there. People trampling the flowers by stepping off the trails and kids running into people like it was an arcade pinball machine at Barnum & Bailey’s. I overheard one lady complaining to a ranger that the reserve is located in the middle of nowhere. The ranger responded, “yes, and that’s the best part about it!” If people want Disneyland then go to Disneyland. There’s nothing wrong with that, but leave the state parks to people who want to experience nature without interference from housing developments, corporate interests and power lines. As is, a few miles away there is a state prison and housing developments starting to pop up around the perimeter of the reserve. :-(

See more of my Antelope Valley pictures.

Category: Antelope Valley
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Comments

4 Responses to “Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve”

  1. Sherri Meyer
    April 7th, 2008 @ 6:19 am

    WOW – what a nice wildflower shot! How many photos did you take?

    We are starting to see quite a bit of color locally now (we are at 1600 feet). I’m going to give it another couple of weeks, before I get serious about photographing wildflowers. I figure they will be at their prime by then.

  2. Ron Niebrugge
    April 7th, 2008 @ 9:39 am

    It does look like a great year!

    They really should move some of our better state and national parks closer to the cities so they are move convienent for visitors. Yeah right!

    I always have a tough time watching all the visitors in a place like that trampling the flowers.

    Nice photo!

    Ron

  3. Richard Wong
    April 7th, 2008 @ 3:17 pm

    Thanks Ron. Yeah it would be pretty cool to have costumed characters dressed up as wind farms and flower seeds posing for pictures w/ all the tourists at the reserve. :-)

  4. Richard Wong
    April 7th, 2008 @ 3:18 pm

    hey Sherri. I think I took 2.5 gigs worth of images at the reserve. sounds like you’ve got a good start in your area.

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