California’s spring wildflower season is one of nature’s great spectacles that we have witnessed up close for years. From the intimate detail of a single poppy backlit by morning sun to a sunflower field stretching all the way to the Sierra Nevada, these are the blooms we found across the Bay Area, Central Valley, and beyond.
California Poppies
California’s state flower at its spring peak. These were shot at ground level and close as well as wide range to capture what the eye actually sees standing in a field of them.
Three California poppies photographed from ground level against a clear blue sky.
A closed poppy bud after rain, one large drop hanging from the base.
A hillside blanketed in California poppies at peak superbloom.
Inside a California poppy: stamens in close detail, with a tiny beetle on the petal.
A single backlit California poppy glows against a sweeping blue sky.
California poppies and wild grasses, low angle, spring hillside.
A single poppy backlit from below, petals translucent against green and blue bokeh.
Close Up
Flower photography at its most intimate. These were shot with macro lenses to reveal structure and detail invisible to the naked eye.
Succulent flower buds, fuzzy stem, a few days from opening.
Pink and white rose, DSLR macro against pure black.
Looking straight down into the center of a red Oriental poppy.
The true flower of a bougainvillea, tiny against its bold magenta bract.
Bottlebrush flower spike in extreme macro: crimson stamens, tightly coiled buds.
Top-down macro of a variegated succulent rosette, each leaf streaked with pink and purple.
Purple Brodiaea with a tiny red mite on one petal. Spotted only in post.
Two white bougainvillea true flowers side by side on a magenta bract.
Wildflowers and Pollinators
Native wildflowers and the insects that depend on them. Spring in California is as much about the bees and hoverflies as the blooms themselves.
Single Brodiaea, veined petals, buds below, DSLR.
A single yellow Oxalis, backlit from below, petals glowing.
Brodiaea cluster, open blooms and buds, warm golden bokeh, DSLR.
Two pollen-covered native bees working the stamens of a California poppy.
Yellow Goldfields from ground level, blue sky and sunburst above.
Bird of Paradise in full bloom, blue tongue, orange petals, green bokeh.
Yellow fiddleneck wildflower, bristly stem, curled blooms, spring meadow.
Purple Brodiaea on a slender stem, soft green meadow behind.
Honeybee on Spanish lavender, nectar run in progress.
Hoverfly caught mid-flight, wings blurred, approaching a purple star flower.
Garden and Cultivated
Garden blooms from across the Bay Area, shot during the same spring season. Bougainvillea, lavender, lilies, delphiniums, and a few surprises.
Purple star flower, yellow stamens, face-on, green bokeh.
Almond blossoms on a bare branch, early spring.
A delphinium spike packed with ruffled lavender-blue blooms.
Spanish lavender in full bloom, dark cones, lilac bracts, soft purple background.
Red Grevillea spider flower with rain drops, curling stamens.
Bottlebrush tree in full bloom, red spikes against blue sky.
White cherry blossoms, dark branch, deep blue sky.
California Buckeye in full bloom, white catkins reaching skyward.
Two pink Asiatic lilies on one stem, one open, one just starting.
Magenta bougainvillea cascading over a garden courtyard arch.
Speckled pink geranium blooms above tightly packed green buds.
Yellow African daisies with deep purple centers in full sun.
Sunflowers
Shot at golden hour in inland California. The field runs all the way to a distant mountain range on the horizon.
A California sunflower field at sunset, mountains on the horizon.
One sunflower from ground level, head raised above the rest.
Nirmal at work in the sunflower field, golden hour.
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