California Golden Poppies – Antelope Valley, California

Posted on 17 May 2008

California golden poppy flowers at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. It was extremely windy on the morning of my visit to the extremely popular Poppy Preserve – which seems to have assumed a significant place on the tourist circuit judging by the number of international visitors and the line of cars waiting to enter as I left. (I got there early and pretty much beat the crowd.)

Nothing is quite as much “fun” as trying to photograph flowers in a 40 mph wind. Eventually I found a few sheltered patches of poppies in small hollows and behind ridges and then waited patiently for the rare moments when the gale briefly diminished.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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Category: Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California
Tags: antelope, california, flower, golden, nature, orange, park, photo, photography, plants, poppies, poppy, preserve, scenic, spring, state, stock, tourism, travel, usa, valley

2 comments to California Golden Poppies – Antelope Valley, California

ifernau

says:

May 20, 2008 at 9:30 am

Hi Dan,

Love those poppies. I know how windy it was, because I was there too on April 5th, but I came in the late afternoon, because I was having fun at the Cottowood canyon Road. It was still windy the next day….

G Dan Mitchell

says:

May 20, 2008 at 11:13 am

Thanks, Inge. Amazing that we almost were there at the same time.

The wind was tremendous, but I guess this is often the case at this location. My brother tried to shoot there a week earlier and, if the range is to be believed, encountered some of the strongest winds ever seen there by her. And I thought that _I_ had it bad!

Dan