Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Wildflowers Are Starting To Bloom...

My Backyard (literally) testing the 180mm macro: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7839601_8AcyT





Southern Sierra Motorcycle Ride (Heller Rocks area): http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7839892_uLGEV






I think these are ravens (matter of a pinion?) circling the moon.

Owens Peak After Work #3: http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7835138_LL8q6





I did take a ruler out, so I'll post a link to an album that shows the scale of most of these flowers as soon as I get them uploaded.

Too punny, Richard (matter of a pinion). You might have to explain to some what a pinion is? Great pics.

That was stolen from a Bob R post explaining the difference between a crow and a raven. (The thread about Jake at the Portal.) My weak attempt at humor.

What 180MM Macro lens are you using?

I really want to get the Canon EF 180mm f3.5L, it's costly at 1300$ but the reviews of quality make it sound worth it.

Steve, here's a link to a hidden album that has the ruler next to the flowers (many out of focus): http://piotrowski.smugmug.com/gallery/7847460_UyjEh

I bought the Sigma because I thought it would get me off the ground (the 60mm Canon needs to be REAL CLOSE), but the macro rail, tripod combo is almost as much of a PITA. And you can't shoot with the thing hand-held if you want decent pics. I got the Sigma (which also gets rave reviews) because for the best deal I could find on the Canon 180mm (slightly used) it would have still kept the price in the four figure range. I got the Sigma (slighly used) for well under half that. I don't think the Canon is worth over twice the price.

Man, some of those are tiny. Thanks for the ruler. ...now if I were a botanist.

Well, I got the first book and it was a bust! The only thing (other than California Poppies and Indain Paintbrush, which I already knew) I think I recognize is the Wooly Sunflower.

Three books and I'm still not able to ID many of the flowers. I sent an e-mail to a woman who runs a Wildflower website and got some feedback from her. Her comments, so far, are listed in the first post above.

The Maturango Museum had a wildflower show last weekend, focusing on the wildflowers out here around Ridgecrest. I'm bummed I missed it, but did find out that they have some publications for sale, so one of these days, when I leave work early, I'll stop by and see what I can find.

I think I need to pull back and get a longer range photo of the plant/flower to help in the IDs. The close crop, with only the flower, seems to make it more difficult to ID.

Figured we could use something to smile about:


A natural bouquet on the east slope of John Backus Peak.

Ordered the Blackwell book based on the recommendation of MT. Maybe then, I'll be able to ID more of these.

They're everywhere!

South Yuba River State Park:

I was out with my boy scouts this weekend in the local mountains around San Diego and the flowers were EVERYWHERE!!! I finally figured out how the heck to use the macro setting on my new camera...

I was able to identify most of the flowers, or already knew what they were, but there were a couple I wasn't sure of. Can any of you help?

Vining plant, draping itself over larger bushes, flowers evenly spaced on the same side of the vine much like christmas tree lights... white is the only color I saw on any of these particular growths... and it seems to favor laural sumac to grow on...


This one grew on a bush. Massive profusion of flowers and I saw bushes with red flowers on them and bushes with orange. The flowers were about an inch long maybe...



More flowery pictures here... along with the rest of the scout stuff...

SoCalGirl, I think the white ones are morning glories; the 'vining' description fits, and they look about right in size and shape.

Richard, as you said above, one of the keys to being able to get a good ID is getting pics of the leaves and stems, as there are a lot of similar-looking flowers with the plants very similar; sometimes it matters if the leaves are opposite, flat, hairy, and even the smell. And more than one book can be helpful, as often the photos of the same variety are way different.

Thanks Gary

I'm glad this thread has staying power... very beautiful!


Mid-elevations of Owens Peak.
Wallflower - Erysimum capitatum.

Indian Paintbrush.



Wallflower.






BIGELOW'S MONKEYFLOWER - Mumulus bigeovii (?)






Wallflower.


BIGELOW'S MONKEYFLOWER - Mumulus bigeovii (?)

The season is not quite dead yet!

All taken in Kings Canyon:

Could I ask you people posting pictures to limit them to 800 pixels. Otherwise, anyone viewing a post in the same thread will have to scroll left and right to see all the text. The wide pictures screw up the word-wrapping.

To set the width to 800, either select a picture from your album that is the correct width, or use the html img method:
1. First, set the "markup" below the posting window to "using HTML and UBBCode" (Don't forget this step -- you cannot change the setting via the edit.)
2. Post the picture using this format:
<img src=http://aaa.jpg width=800>

Thanks! It will save me the trouble of changing your posts.

Sorry, I didn' even think about those running lower resolution having to side scroll, I run 1920x1200 so even the larger shots were well within the frame.

Might as well add a couple from Joshua Tree NP taken in April:
Apricot mallow (and happy bee):


Chinese houses:


Taken with my trusty and easy-to-carry ultrazoom 8^).

Bump for another interesting photography thread...

For some reason, I just like this photo (from the TZ5, not my 50D):




Some more from the 50D: