Tag: spring

The Last Narcissus

I took my Nikon N90s, Nikon 28-85 f2.8 Macro, and a roll of the new Kodak Ektachrome E100 to the botanical garden – always a favorite place! Springtime is the best, too, as trees and bulbs and plants are all in bloom. This was taken as the last of the narcissus bloomed and were fading away. At the gardens, the narcissus are the first up and first to fade.

I am pleased with the new Ektachrome E100. Yes, it’s a positive film, needing E6 chemistry to process, and it costs more than B&W or color. However, positive film has so much going for it, and here is more than ample proof. Film, camera, and lens all came together quite nicely.

New Growth

Yesterday it was over 80F. Today it is a cool 69F. Little rain. Still, life continues. New growth on a pine at the local garden, where flowers are in bloom everywhere. A walk in the open space nearby found mockingbirds singing away, looking for wives, and staking out their territory. It’s a stunning time of year.

Ceanothus

Ceanothus is also known as California Lilac. it is a shrub with glossy green leaves (as you can see in the photo!). It comes in other colors, too, but the blue is the original color. To me, it is always the sign that spring is on the way – and today I found it, along with a lot of other plants in bloom. I was as busy as a bee!

I used my Nikon V3 and 70-300mm lens, which, with a 2.8 crop factor, makes the 300mm closer to 810mm. It allows for great shots and I totally forget, until I use it, what a wonderful system it is.

View from the Hills

The miracle of green always happens in the last of the year and the first of the next when the rains come and new growth begins to emerge in the hills of California.  After months of dry weather and fading landscapes. color erupts almost overnight.  Soon, wildflowers will begin to tinge the hills from green to orange and purple and yellow.  Here, a view from the hills toward the Pacific, with the Channel Islands in view, lost in the coastal fog.

California Back Country

Even though summer is moving through July, soon into August, the rains we had over the spring are still leaving waves of color in the hills of the California back country.  Usually at this time of year beige is the predominant color, and in really dry years, a dark dirty brown.  This summer is a delight of colors – pale compared to spring – with wildflowers still hidden amongst the grasses.