by Ron on February 19, 2010
Farmer's Market, Borrego Springs, California.
With the weekend just about upon us, I know lots of people are looking for an update to the desert wildflower bloom. Posting a photo of the wonderful Friday Farmer’s Market probably speaks volumes. 
There is a vary wide variety of small wildflowers blooming in this area right now, and “pedal peepers” who are on the hunt for unique and pretty desert wildflowers won’t be disappointed. The large carpets of wildflowers that have made this area famous, and that are preferred by most photographers haven’t developed yet. This, coupled with foretasted winds is why I really can’t recommend visiting this weekend. I found some wonderful fields of Purplemat this morning, so there are opportunities, but I really think next weekend and the following will be far better. Stayed tuned here for more updates.
Hey speaking of the next two weekends, I have just one spot remaining for the first weekend of my Anza-Borrego desert photo tour / workshop. The second one is full.
by Ron on February 17, 2010
Greater Roadrunner, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
I photographed this guy this morning at first light. I watched him catch a kill a small bird – it was a bit gruesome, but at the same time a bit fascinating, these birds are some hunters. You can see the residual feather on the end of his bill.
by Ron on February 13, 2010
Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
We spotted and photographed these guys yesterday afternoon in Borrego Palm Canyon. I have read some estimates that place the population of the subspecies of Desert Bighorn at only 280 animals. I look forward to photographing these guys amongst the desert wildflowers.
by Ron on February 11, 2010
Sand Verbena, yesterday in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
These are the first wildflower blooms of the season in a year that should soon have a bountiful display of flowers! Don’t rush down here yet, they are still a couple of weeks out – I found this little spot a few years ago, and it is always the first area to bloom around here, and this year is no exception.
This is looking like it will be a great year for wildflowers as this region has seen lots of rain! The nearby Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area had the wettest month in recorded history this past January. The local wildflower experts were saying the final ingredient for an excellent wildflower year would be February rains – well we received a fair amount of rain Tuesday night – the second such storm this month. So in short, it is safe to say this will be an excellent year for desert wildflowers! The only thing that could get in the way now would be the over growth of an invasive species like mustard.
Despite the rain and the predictions, I had to see for myself – and of course do a little photography. Well things are very green! Lots of shoots just starting to rise in many places – thick patches of Lupine and Desert Gold were the most obvious, but there is a wide variety of plant-life that just further confirms my anticipation.
I believe the desert wildflower bloom won’t be limited to Anza-Borrego, the hills North of Palm Springs are also very green. I went for a run in the back-country East of Joshua Tree and had to deal with a number of small stream crossings – in places I have never seen water flowing before. It is pretty exciting.
We will be based in Borrego Springs for the next month or so, but I hope to chase the bloom around the area as it progresses, and will provide updates here on the photo blog. The California Wildflower Hotsheet, along with its corresponding Yahoo forum is another great resource for wildflower updates during a good year like this one.
Finally, this might be a good time to mention that I only have two spots left for my two Anza-Borrego photography workshops.
This photo: Canon 1Ds III, 100 macro lens with 25mm extension tube, f/25 at 1/25 a second.
by Ron on February 8, 2010
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
I scheduled this in advance as right now we are in the middle of flying and driving between Alaska and Anza-Borrego, our base for the first month of this trip. After Anza-Borrego we have a few options, but most of them involve Arizona. I’m hoping it will be a good wildflower year. It sounds promising! I will report on the conditions once we are there.
by Ron on January 29, 2010
Wildflowers, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
I have been hearing lots of great reports from the Southern California deserts especially Anza-Borrego – the area has received a lot of rain and it is sounding like it could be a good to great wildflower year! I’m excited, and will start posting updates on the current conditions in Borrego in a couple of weeks.
I prefer the soft, gentle marketing approach and hate to resort to the hard sell car dealer like approach by saying you better sign up now before it’s too late, but – you better sign up now before it’s too late. Actually, the second weekend is now full, and I only have a few spots left for the first weekend. The permitting process will prevent me from offering any more, and will likely prevent other photographers from throwing together last minute tour / workshops. To learn more, check out: Anza-Borrego Photo Workshop.
With summer a ways off, there is a little less time urgency with my Alaska Photo Tours, although I only have one spot left for the private boat Kenai Fjords photo tour, and only two spots left for the Bear and Puffin photo tour – and recently, I received a number of inquires on the bear tour. And space is available for our private boat Prince William Sound tour.
If you have any questions about any of the tours, drop me a quick email, or give me a call.
This commercial break was sponsored by Niebrugge Image, now back to our regularly scheduled blog entries.
by Ron on January 19, 2010
Wildflowers, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
This winter I’m going to offer two weekend photo workshops in the beautiful Anza-Borrego Desert in Southern California. You can read about all the details here: Anza-Borrego Photo Tour / Workshop.
The timing of the announcement is perfect because over the last two days Borrego Springs has received almost an inch of rain, with more forecasted for the rest of this week. An inch of rain my not sound like much, but that is a huge amount for this area. This, coupled with some earlier storms all but assures us that there will be some wildflowers. Even without wildflowers this is a wonderful area, but wildflowers can completely transform the desert.
Right after uploading the page, and before I had a chance to announce this workshop, someone spotted it on our website and has already signed up. I only have permits for two weekends, and only for 5 people at a time, so these could fill quickly – and when they do, that will be it. So check out the page and let me know if you have any questions!
In addition to this workshop, we also offer a number of Alaska photo tours.
Slot Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
Janine has updated our website with new photos of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California from our travels last winter. Anza-Borrego definitely isn’t the most popular of destinations, but we sure enjoy spending time there, especially in the winter!
It is interesting, the three places that I have the most in depth coverage of include Anza-Borrego, Kenai Fjords National Park, and the Chugach National Forest are all fairly unknown, with relatively few visitors. I bet the combined annual visitation numbers of all three parks doesn’t total the number of people who visit a moderately popular Lower 48 Park like Bryce in just an average summer month.
The businessman in me says I should be concentrating on more popular destinations, but we decided long ago that maximizing personal satisfaction was far more important then maximizing profits. I suppose if maximizing profits was the goal, I wouldn’t choose to be an outdoor photographer.
Dry Lake Bed, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
I have been a long time user of Singh-Ray filters, particularly their graduated neutral density filters. So I must say I was honored when they approached me recently and asked me to contribute to their blog. In fact, I already had the first post written in my head, as it was a tip I thought I would post here. Instead, I shared my discovery of the usefulness of using live-view in the positioning of graduated neutral density filters. Well I don’t want to spoil the whole post, you can check out the whole story at the Singh-Ray blog.
As far as my own blog goes, I still may do some fine tuning of the header, photo size etc., so if things look a bit funky from time to time, you will understand.
A park in Borrego Springs, California.
It seems a bit strange to be inside adjusting sunny warm looking desert photos from our last trip – then taking a break to shovel snow out of the driveway. At least the cross-country skiing has been awesome!
Here are more Borrego photos.
by Ron on February 13, 2009
A closeup of a Dune Evening Primrose, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
When it comes to macro close-ups of flowers, I’m no Michael Brown, but it is still a lot of fun – one could get lost for hours experimenting with the different lines, colors and textures found in just a single flower. Add to that, the different combinations of focal length and depth of field and the composition possibilities are nearly endless. I tend to prefer the broad landscapes, but it is kind of fun to enter the little macro world found at your feet.
by Ron on February 12, 2009
Desert Sand Verbena, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
This was captured at sunset last night.
To follow up on my Anza-Borrego wildflower forecast post from yesterday – the more I hike around, the more convinced I am that it will be an excellent wildflower year here. I found numerous desert lily plants and big patches of lupine plants both of which should be blooming within the next few weeks.
by Ron on February 11, 2009
Desert Sand Verbena, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
Well between Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Vancouver – our last month has involved a lot of city photography. The final couple of weeks of this trip will be based in Las Vegas – with all this city time, we had to make a few days and return to our favorite quiet little desert location; Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
This did give us a good chance to see how the wildflowers are progressing, and to share my finding here. In a word, it is shaping up to be a very good year for wildflowers! I guess that is more then a word, but you get the idea. If I had to pick one word, with due respect to Tony the Tiger, I would say they are going to be great!
We spent a month here last year beginning just about now, and it turned out to be a pretty good year. This year, most places are much greener then even last year, and as you can see by the above photo from this morning, there are areas already beginning to bloom. But don’t take my word for it, according to the Borrego Sun, naturalist Paul Johnson is predicting this years bloom to be better then last with the peak hitting around the end of the month of February. In addition, the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park website is predicting a “good to excellent bloom in the near future”.
We arrived here on Sunday just in time for another inch of rain – this most recent storm should help extend the season. We have commitments in Vegas, but I gotta admit, it is going to be really tough to not be here for this years peak. I may have to grab my tent and sneak back over here for a night!
The above photo was captured with a 100 mm macro lens. I added a 25 mm extension tube which allowed me to focus and move even closer to the small flowers. I then parked my truck in such a way to shade the flowers, and used a gold reflector to add a touch of warm light – not unlike what you might find at sunrise, although this was a couple hours after first light.
by Ron on January 10, 2009
Anza-Borrego Slot Canyon, California.
To continue on yesterday’s post on the Kiboko Bag - this was our final destination. This slot canyon is off of Butte Pass Road in the central portion of the park, and is listed in most visitor guides. It may not have the rich reds of a Utah or Arizona slot canyon, but it still has interesting geographic formations, and wonderful indirect reflected light.
by Ron on January 9, 2009
A self portrait of me in a slot canyon sporting my Kiboko camera bag by Gura Gear, Anza-Borrego State Park, California.
I have been using this new bag since the beginning of this trip. I wanted to give it a complete workout in many conditions before I commented on it, but I can’t wait any longer because I love this bag! It rocks! I never thought I would be excited about a camera bag, but I am.
[click to continue…]
by Ron on December 29, 2008
American Kestrel
I think this is a beautiful falcon. He has been hunting around our campsite in Borrego at least once a day since we arrived here. Friday, I was finally able to photograph him! I noticed he often returned to this specific cactus, so Friday I set up on it and waited. It worked! I also have some full frame closeups, but kind of prefer this version which shows more cactus.
I have seen these guys in Denali on numerous occasions, but have been unable to get close enough for a descent image. It is fun to watch a bird like this up close.
by Ron on December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Californian desert!
by Ron on December 18, 2008
It was pretty amazing to see snow down this low into Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California. There was snow on the ground, and branches broken off the trees at the Tamarisk Grove Campground, just a bit over 1,500 feet above sea-level! It was beautiful!
We tried to drive up to Julian to get photos of this popular tourist destination in snow, but the CHP had the road closed. If they closed roads in Alaska every time a foot of snow feel on the ground, we wouldn’t get much done. I was a bit frustrated at first, but then after seeing people (at least some) driving like maniacs, in vehicles totally unprepared for snow - I realized that it was a good thing the state government made decisions for people down here, otherwise it would be chaos! We will try to get to Jullian again tomorrow – I would like to get there before the snow melts off the trees.
For those familiar with this area, this was a mile or two up the Plum Canyon Trail.
by Ron on December 16, 2008
Snow on the mountains rising above Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
Between a multi hour road closure leaving Seward, below zero temperatures in Alaska, snow and ice in Seattle, and almost an inch of rain in Palm Springs – our travels were interesting, but all in all, went very smoothly.
It seems strange to see palm trees and snow in the mountains surrounding the desert, and it sounds like much more is in store for this area tomorrow.
Font’s Point, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
We have been working our way through the adjusting, key-wording and finally adding our photos from our last trip to our website. We just updated our section of Anza-Borrego photos from our time spent there this spring.
We now have a lot of coverage of this beautiful desert, too bad few people outside of Southern California have heard of the place. Heck, I come across people in So Cal who haven’t heard of it – but then again, the relatively low visitors numbers is one of the things I like about the place.
This plant seems to have many names and uses. Some call it Thorn-Apple, or Sacred Datura, or even Jimson Weed. The entire plant is poisonous, but portions of the plant are used in modern pharmaceuticals for things like motion sickness medication and to counteract muscle spasms. Not surprisingly, Native Americans were also aware of the many medicinal benefits of this plant.
It is about the only thing blooming in Anza-Borrego right now, this plant will bloom most the summer. We should be back in Alaska Saturday night, it will be a little while before flowers begin blooming there. [click to continue…]
Actually this is a jackrabbit, so maybe I should have titled this Silly Wack-wabbit.
Seems like at the end of a trip we start evaluating our travel plans and methods. Our trips outside Alaska to the Lower 48 have typically been fairly long trips for a couple of reasons. [click to continue…]
These cool elephant looking animals are actually metal sculptures of gomphotherium. These guys actually used to roam in the Anza-Borrego area 3.7 million yeas ago - the gomphotherium, not the sculptures. [click to continue…]
Borrego Palm Canyon, Anza-Borrego.
This was from a beautiful Monday morning – it was completely calm! Nice treat after the weekend storm that ironically originated in Alaska.
We had a great month in Anza-Borrego, it was fascinating watching the transformation of the desert as the wildflowers bloomed. We were very fortunate to visit during one of Borrego’s famous wildflower years.
Right now we are in Tucson, Arizona for a couple of days to take care of some business, then we are spending a month outside of Phoenix, Arizona for more photography.
Brittlebush wildflowers in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California.
This was from a couple of hours ago. It may not be obvious in this small size, but that is fresh snow on the tops of the mountains! Hard to believe, but just a few days ago, it was in the upper 80′s!
Here you can see additional photos of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
