Washburn Trail, Joseph D. Grant County Park, Santa Clara County, CA, 3/22/2016 - 3/23/2016
Sometimes the best things in life are in our backyard. Here’s what I found a few miles from home right after a big wildflower photography road trip to Death Valley. I visited Joseph Grant County Park, by San Jose, California, planning to photograph a small waterfall. On my drive into the park, I did a double take at the Washburn Trail trailhead; I caught a glimpse of thousands of brilliant California poppies growing in a grassy meadow. I had visited this park for years but never before encountered a wildflower display anywhere near as bold and beautiful as this: a bloom of poppies so near to my home, and every bit as lovely as anything I had found in Death Valley! This is the first photo I’ve made that spans two days. On Tuesday, I set up my tripod and compact digital camera and made dozens of partial exposures of this scene. In the end, the sky looked fantastic, but I realized the flowers had all closed because of the cold, intermittent shade, and strong breezes. I returned Wednesday, set up in the same spot, and did it all over again. The breezes were gentle, the flowers were open, but the sky was a drab blue with ugly contrails. The final photograph is Tuesday in the hills and above, and Wednesday in the meadow: a scene I witnessed upon arrival that took two days to capture. I was greatly relieved when I had completed this project because anything could have gone wrong between Tuesday and Wednesday; herds of cows graze in this park, and might have come along and eaten all the flowers!
