matilija poppy

The Olive Tree

I see this olive tree year round during some of my walks, but this is the first time I caught it encircled by the poppies.

Matilija (pronounced muh-till-i-hah) poppies are amazing flowers. They bloom all at once, have flowers about 5″ in diameter, and can stand over 6 feet tall. Impressive when you have vast swaths of them. This year’s crop is magnificent!.

Poppy, Revisited

Matilija Poppy (1 of 1)

The original of this image had the poppies in the background burnt out against the sky. In LR, I created 5 virtual copies, each with a + or – value of 1 or 2, creating virtual bracketing. I exported them as tiffs. In Photomatix, I blended them to create a single image. The last move was into LR6, creating a slightly warmer cast, creating a gradient from the upper left to lower right (about half way). In the gradient, I adjusted the temp and tint sliders to adjust the sky. Final touch was a bit of clarification and dodging of the poppy in the foreground.

A Walk in the Garden

The weather this spring is so incredible this year. There are breezes in off the ocean, the skies are blue, we have cool weather. And we have had rain. The result is that flowers are in bloom everywhere, and a few miles down the road, we are blessed with 33 acres of an ever-changing and evolving botanical garden, the Conejo Valley Botanic Garden. I believe all the plants are native to California, and most are drought tolerant – perfect for the xeriscape garden – and incredibly beautiful.