Exceptional Bloom
Upper Bidwell Park, Chico, CA
A Brilliant Winter, Spring and Wildflowers 2023:
After an incredibly wet Winter and Spring, lots of wildflowers felt inevitable. It’s one thing to anticipate it, and a totally different thing to experience it. I had picked out an oak tree with lots of potential when flowers first started appearing. On this day I was full of anticipation as I started my hike to it. Upon arriving, grass had completely overtaken all the flowers. Today was going to be one of those, “Make a good plan and when it doesn’t work out, keep your eyes open and good things might just surprise you.”
With color just about everywhere and clouds in the sky, if nothing else, this was going to be a great day for hiking. Walking quickly turned into standing, staring and composing lots of potential shots. I visited this section of flowers several different times. Finally, the sun moved out of the frame and the clouds got interesting. I was able to compose the shot, but….. Wind!
If I couldn’t get motionless flowers, I would basically have a blurry field of amazing color resembling an impressionistic painting. My patient workout began. To avoid crushing any flowers I got into a really low contorted position and waited. Every time the wind gusts briefly paused; I would take pictures. After checking and rechecking, I finally felt confident that I had it. Now I could enjoy a hike with the simple joy of knowing what I had in my camera!