Photo Blog - Niebrugge Images

California Poppies.

O my gosh, these hills are amazing!  These incredible hills are a result of the San Diego wildfires this past fall.  The burnt hills around San Diego are very colorful right now, and will probably get better in the days and weeks to come.  I was fortunate enough to visit the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve in 2003 which was a peak year - frankly, these are better, partly because of the shear numbers of poppies, but in addition, these hills are much more photogenic full of rocks and other cool subject matter.

I have two people who I owe a big thanks. (more…)

Palm Springs area at sunrise.

I have spent the last couple of days in the Palm Springs area doing an assignment for Ritz-Carlton - they are building a beautiful new resort on the hills above  Rancho Mirage, California.  This is actually the amazing view from one of the rooms!  Right now this room consists metal studs as construction is in full swing, but by the fall of 2008, the resort should be open with guests enjoying this wonderful view.

My photo posts from the two previous days are also from this site.  This location provides views of the surrounding mountains that our equally as nice, I look forward to seeing the finished product!

San Jacinto Mountains from yesterday morning, Palm Springs, California.

Palm Springs, California. 

 I’m in Palm Springs area for a couple of nights for an assignment - this was from last night as I scouted in the hills above Rancho Mirage.

Wildflowers in Joshua Tree National Park, California.

I had been hearing wonderful things about the Southern Entrance to Joshua Tree NP, and I must say they were accurate.  The fields of flowers in this couple mile stretch are every bit as good as 2005 in my opinion; there are wonderful fields with a beautiful variety of color!  I wish I had gone a little sooner as many are a little past prime.

I liked how the last light of day was just hitting the top of the flowers - it almost made them glow.  On the downside, by this time of day the poppies had all closed up - 2 hours earlier, this filed had lots of bright yellow poppies far more visible.

 It is interesting to compare this year with the famous bloom of 2005.  This year there is lots of California Sage and Poppies.  In 2005, this area had lots of lupine and Brittlebush.  Here is the same location from 2005:  Joshua Tree Wildflowers.  Of course in both years there were dozens of other wildflowers mixed in.

Desert Lily

The Desert Lily is a popular wildflower that can be hard to find, but not this year in Anza-Borrego, they are numerous.  I have seen the flower, or at least the plant throughout the Park - there are even some growing in the Pumpkin Patch!

Hellhole Canyon, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.

The desert floor along the mountains is getting some wonderful carpets of flowers right now.  The Purplemat seen here along with the Yellow Woolly-Daisy are extremely colorful right now.

Wildflowers at sunset in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California.  This is a few miles East of Borrego Springs on Highway S22.

For this photo, I used a 3 stop hard-edge graduated neutral density filter on a Canon tilt / shift lens.