Winton Park, Piedra, Fresno County, CA, 3/1/2016
In late winter at the beginning of a wildflower photography road trip to the Western Sierra foothills, I encountered a beautiful garden of silver lupine (Lupinus albifrons) growing near the shore of the Kings River in Fresno County’s Winton Park. The day had been breezy, which makes photographing flowers difficult; even a light wind will set these plants in motion, creating a blur. At sunset when I arrived at this location, I was greeted by these lovely blossoms and delighted to discover the air had become perfectly still! To capture the scene sharply with high resolution, I built this photograph from several exposures, each lasting four seconds. A month later, I returned to this spot, and all the blossoms were gone. Silver lupine is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies and forest clearings. The 26-acre Winton Park is located on the Kings River, 27 miles east of Fresno, CA.
