Back to the Ranch

Balsam Root and Lupine are blooming this week at the Dalles Mountain Ranch in the Columbia Gorge. And this year, the wildflower season happened to coincide with a warm spell and almost no wind. Last year I visited several times, and was nearly blown off my feet by gale force winds each time...so sunny, mild, and 75 was a real treat!  I walked a loop near Eightmile Creek that wound through some of the thicker patches of blooms. The flowers are fickle, tending to cover some hills and leave others bare, and that has caused me some trouble with wide-angle landscape photos in previous years. I decided to really focus on landscape shots during my trip.  And maybe I overdid it a bit, because I realized once I got home that I actually don't have a single close-up photo to show for my shoot. I do like this scene though, because it shows the rolling hills and patches of flowers, and the beautiful weather.

Dalles Mountain Ranch

Sunrise

First light on the balsam root flowers last week at the Dalles Mountain Ranch.

It took surprisingly long from the actual sunrise to the time the sun finally hit these hills. 

Here Comes the Sun

A beautiful sunny day last weekend at Dalles Mountain Ranch, where the lupine and balsam root are blooming on the hillside along the Columbia Gorge.  It's finally starting to feel like spring.
 Very glad to finally warm up at bit and feel the sun on my face!

Windswept

My attempt at photographing the wind.
Balsam Root and Lupine whipping around in the 30mph wind gusts at Dalles Mountain Ranch.

Happy 3rd Birthday, 45journal!

What started as a one year project back in 2010 is now beginning year number four!  I had some pretty strict rules for myself when I started the blog:  each photo had to be taken the day I posted it, and I could only post one photo a day.  It took me six months to completely burn out, and another six months to recover.  Around that time I started connecting with other daily photo bloggers, and realized that no one was taking each photo the day it was posted.  It was so hard!  Some days I would get many good shots and could only post one.  Other days the light was awful and I was embarrassed with everything I took.  Some days I just wasn't in the mood or feeling creative.  Thankfully those rules are long gone, but I do still try to only post one photo a day.  At this point though, I would have to say that the best thing about the blog has been all the different daily photo bloggers I've gotten to know.  I never realized I would make such great connections with people all over the US and the world.  So many different personalities and interests, but all drawn together by this quirky desire to post a photo a day!  I'm not sure how much longer I'll keep up the blog, but I'm not intending to stop this year.  For today's photo, a close-up of what I think is a miniature Lupine variation.  This was the most common flower I saw on my trip to Table Mountain on Thursday. 

Lupine and Poppies

 I'm still working on my wildflower shot.  I think this was a pretty scene at Mt. Diablo last week:  a lone lupine blooming in a field of California Poppies.  I like the idea of having more than one type of wildflower in the shot, but I'm thinking that maybe more lupines would have been better.  Just thinking about it for now...

Lupine, version 2

Same flower as yesterday and same location, but in a very different light.  I have issues with both these photos.  Flowers are so difficult for me to photograph.  There's just so much to think about.  There's a lupine patch in town near campus.  I'm going to practice on it this week.

Lupine

Also from South Yuba River State Park, but Lupine is growing all over the place right now.  I've got one more version I'll post tomorrow.