Desert Bluebells – Different Isn't Wrong, It's Just Different

My Desert Bluebells (Phacelia campanularia) are blooming early as they usually do and below is a gallery of 6 images (click on each image to see a larger view). An overcast day with the hopes of rain, I chose to shoot at home and go back to my passion, macro photography and wildflowers. The sun tried peeking through the clouds creating some beautiful light. The image above, the light was coming from above and behind the wildflowers, but not harsh light thanks to the wonderful cloud cover. And the background? Well, our dark olive/army green trash container came in handy. With exposure and a slight adjustment to the tone curve in post processing, I was able to darken the background.

The bees have found my wildflowers as seen in a couple of the images in the gallery below. I have never been stung when shooting my wildflowers with the bees. Sometimes I miss great shots as I so enjoy watching them work. At times they land on the anthers, but on this day they were interested in crawling down into the wildflowers. The last image in the gallery is a textured image that was done during post processing. The background was originally my dull gray driveway and it seemed perfect to add multiple layers of different textures.

It won’t be long before the desert is in full bloom! For now, I’ll keep shooting my Desert Bluebells.

Wildflower season is almost here! A few documentary images from my front yard of wildflowers and lots of grasses (which need to be pulled). There are more wildflowers sprouting this year than I have seen in many years. I even found Desert Bluebells, Lupine and Mexican Gold Poppies all sprouting together this morning! It’s been 10 years since Arizona has had a spectacular wildflower season and the forecast for this year looks promising. My fingers are already antsy to be pushing the shutter button! On a few recent outings in the desert I have seen the grasses sprouting, but no wildflowers. My yard always seems to sprout and bloom early which is good as my fingers can get warmed up before the desert is in full bloom. If you have been following me for a while, you know that wildflowers are my favorite photography subject.