California Desert In Bloom - "Desert Dandelions" (#1 In A Series)
"As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen." - Winnie the Pooh
I'm setting out on a new adventure here on Steemit:
High-resolution photography.
I am not a photographer in any "classic" sense. I am a "camera hacker," and I have a new (to me) camera that I want to learn how to use.
Last weekend, I went with a friend out to the Anza Borrego Desert to check out reports of a strong bloom of wildflowers. We've had plenty of rain here in southern California lately, and I'm sure that has contributed to ideal conditions for a blooming desert.
I think the image below came out fairly well, an interesting cluster of flowers against a backdrop of desert sand.
Desert Wild Flowers #1
Original Work by @creatr
I believe these are "Desert Dandelions."
I identified them with the help of this website. Investigating further, I discovered that their proper botanical name is Malacothrix glabrata, an annual plant in the sunflower family.
These particular yellow flowers seem to be the predominant variety in the area of the lower canyon where we walked.
Here's a zoomed-in closer look.
Nice as the new image uploader may be, Steemit unfortunately does not appear to preserve the full image size. It is possible to "right click" and "open in new window," but you still won't see the full original image. I will share that with you a little later.
Desert Wild Flowers #1
Original Work by @creatr
I still have a lot to learn about using my camera.
It is a Canon EOS M mirrorless camera with an interchangeable lens system that I bought used at last year's RTMC swap meet. My hope is to use it as I develop a new kind of low-cost mount for astro photography. Presently I only have one 40mm lens.
Here's another close-up.
In this portion of the photo, you can see an unopened flower bud in the upper left hand corner.
Desert Wild Flowers #1
Original Work by @creatr
And here's a final zoom-in.
You may notice that the blossoms are in focus but the background is not.
I have my Canon set on "Scene Intelligent Auto" which has apparently left the f-stop quite wide. It is an interesting, and somewhat aesthetic effect, but I clearly need to learn how to tighten up the f-stop to get a greater depth of field.
Desert Wild Flowers #1
Original Work by @creatr
For the ultimate closeup,
you may want to click on the link below. That will take you to http://unsplash.com where you can then click the "Download" button and get the full-resolution image.
By the way, I have found Unsplash to be a very useful resource for my articles here on Steemit. Everything on Unsplash is licensed CC0, meaning that you may use and reuse it in any way you choose without restriction.
https://unsplash.com/@creator?photo=GzHAj3lBCIE
Stay tuned for further adventures with my "new" camera. Initially, I'll be posting more desert wildflower photos as I am able to identify them.
You can check out other posts in this series here:
Brittle Bush
Bigelow’s Monkeyflower
The Ocotillo
Purple Tansy
~FIN~
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
⬇️To Check Out @creatr's World⬇️CLICK Each Image Below⬇️
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As usual, thanks for noticing! ;)
Lovely images. Such delicate yellow flowers.
looking forward to seeing more of your shots.. with all of these great shots coming across steemit regularly it's inspiring me to want to get out there and take some too! haha but i need to get a good camera first :)
This may well be the best camera I've ever yet owned. A friend of mine tells me that I can load some aftermarket firmware upgrades into it, which I have not as yet attempted. I need to get my sky tracking platform finished, get out there, and fiddle with it some more.
Thanks for visiting and commenting! :) ;)