Poppy apocalypse

Tom Mackie heads out to Southern California to shoot a beautiful explosion of colourful poppies at one of their most impressive blooms yet

We live in strange times. I’ve just seen a small town in Southern California brought to a grinding halt by wildflowers. Well, it was actually 50,000 selfie stickwielding tourists that descended upon the area to see the superbloom that brought the chaos. With a population of only 66,000, Lake Elsinore is just off Interstate 15 and the hills on the other side of the motorway are covered this year with orange, yellow and purple flowers after one of the heaviest winter rainfalls in years – ending a five-year drought. When I shot this area two years ago I thought it was great, but this is off the scale. It’s so intense it can be seen from space! Before, only the canyons were covered in carpets of California poppies, but as you approach by motorway you can see splashes of orange and yellow flowers on the hills. During the weekend, travellers passing through to San Diego or Los Angeles parked on the motorway, as traffic stopped to look at the flowers.

I always avoid shooting situations like this on weekends, so when I turned up Monday morning the experience was more placid. Before starting my hike, I spoke to a ranger who pointed me in the right direction for the best blooms. As this was three to four miles in, it put off most people, so I practically had the place to myself. This is the most amazing display of wildflowers I’ve ever seen. As midday approached, all the California

poppies began to open up. They’re very sensitive to light and wind, so capturing the carpets of flowers at sunset with more dramatic light just doesn’t work as they close up late in the afternoon. Clouds play an important role in creating more interesting images as a boring blue sky limits the possibilities. I found a composition that I liked with layering of the foreground, mid-ground and background, but with the sun high in the sky, this created a flat scene. I could see some cumulus clouds moving towards the hills in the distance, so I waited until they drifted over to create a dappled effect on the hills. Within a short time the sky was cloudless again so I decided to come back later in the week.

Friday I’m in love

Friday’s forecast was perfect, with partly cloudy skies, but after the 90-minute drive I was confronted with Disneylandsize crowds as I exited the motorway. So I got right back on it and drove back to the next exit a few miles down the road. I spotted a great spot with only a few cars as I drove in. As I scouted around for compositions, fantastic cirrus clouds appeared over the hills. Coming in close to the poppies with my new 16-35mm f/4 lens, I decided to use the focus shift feature on the D850 to create a critically sharp image from the bottom of the frame to infinity using different focus points. This is useful if the flowers are moving in a breeze as shooting with a wider, optimal aperture of f/8 or f/11 results in a faster shutter speed.

As the wildflower season continued, locations north of Los Angeles burst into bloom. When I lived here in the early ’80s, I would often go to Antelope Valley, so I was looking forward to taking a group of my regular clients there to shoot the flowers. However, the valley is renowned for wind, so it was challenging to get good images between the gusts. I checked the wind conditions for the next few days and, wouldn’t you know it, the day I was scheduled to fly out would be the best chance. It was so tempting to go back as I didn’t know when I would ever see wildflowers like this again. Timing is critical; too early and the flowers won’t be open, too late and I would miss my

flight. After driving for an hour, I arrived just as the poppies were opening up. Conditions were good, though I could have used some clouds, but at this point I’m happy not to be working in gale force winds. As I was packing up to head to the airport, a truck pulls up and a local woman told me about an even better area of flowers just up the road. I had to go and check it out, as I would always wonder ‘what if’. I’m glad I did, as it was incredible. I captured a variety of images and headed to the airport with minutes to spare, delighted to have experienced one of the best superblooms on record.

It was so tempting to go back as I didn’t know when I would ever see wildflowers like this again

The windy conditions did not lend themselves to a shoot of these gorgeous flowers.

Tom followed a lead to get an opportunity to capture even better looking-flowers, but he was on a very strict time limit – he could not miss his flight… or the flowers!