Floral Arrangment at Filoli

I am heading down south to LA for 4 days. I am driving down on I-5 so I do not know if I will see any wildflowers along the way. Through the magic of Typepad, I should be having daily posts of my Yosemite and Filoli images while I am gone.

Tulips and Birdbath

Filoli has a tough policy for photographers. They are only open from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm. Plus, no tripods or monopods allowed. They do offer a special evening for photographers one nite a month but this month is already filled. So, I had fun playing with the fisheye lens. Again, I used the Photomatix HDR tool to do tonal mapping which it really needed.

Tulips and Blue Forget Me Nots

Another from Filoli. These gorgeous plantings were from the sunken gardens.

Wildcat Falls

A small second of Wildcat Falls in Yosemite. Another HDR image.

Tulip Basket at Poolside

Another flower shot from Filoli. These tulips were is baskets around the pool area.

Tulip Explosion

There were literally thousands of tulips in full bloom at Filoli during my last visit.

Upper Yosemite Falls

This is a classic Yosemite shot taken from the Swinging Bridge. You cannot see the lower falls because they are obscured by trees. If you look closely, you can see a block of ice below the upper falls.

Tree Peony

I will break my Yosemite posting streak for a Filoli posting. This is an American Castle donated to the Historical Trust. There are acres after acres of incredible formal gardens. It is mind-boggling to see how the super-rich lived. As a midwestern transplant to California, I missed peonies. Turns out that tree peonies due fine here. This bloom is about the size of a tea saucer!

Unnamed Waterfall at Turnout

Every day driving to and from the park, I would see tucked into a turnout along Highway 140. On my last afternoon, I decided to stop and take a picture. To my surprise, there was another photographer just stowing her large format camera. As she left, I walked around for the best vantage point. I could see her footsteps in the grass and where she placed her tripod. I selected the same spot. I wonder if our images are the same?

Since this was my first visit to Yosemite, I had a hard time not taking the grand landscapes and look for the details. This is one of those (few) detail shots that I took.