No Poppies

I was headed out to Arastradero park to see if I could find some poppies. I’ve seen them by the freeway a number of times this spring in good color. The park usually has some good flowers to photograph this time of year. I had the afternoon free, so I figured it was a good option to see what color was out there. Parking however, is very much a challenge unless you get there early (poppies sleep in) or late (poppies go to bed early) as they need full sun to be fully extended. When they are in their prime, the clean, conical shape of the flower is great to photograph. I also has a strong orange color that works well against a green backdrop when photographed in a macro setting.

The plan really was to just wander the park. I didn’t have a set destination so I figured just start walking until I find something that was inspiring…be it flowers or some other flora.

While hiking up the main trail (Deanza Trail) a deer was having a mid afternoon snack!

About ten years ago a good buddy of mine had a thing for photographing dead trees. Every so often one will catch my eye and I try to capture it in a photograph. Sometimes it works, other times no. I’ll let you be the judge here.

Once I got up to the top of the hill it was a nice view to the east.

As I got back to the road there was this one hill that was clearly razed by a large mower. As I got closer, there was a sign noting “non native species” in the area that they were trying to eradicate.