Fuji GX617 Panoramic Photography

Color Within the Carrizo Bloom

Fuji GX617 panorama of a predominantly yellow Carrizo Plain wildflower bloom with lavender Byron larkspur and other colors visible throughout the field. — A predominantly yellow wildflower landscape reveals lavender Byron larkspur and a surprising mixture of other flowers under soft early-morning light · Carrizo Plain National Monument · California · 2017.

About the Photograph

At first glance, this part of the 2017 Carrizo Plain bloom appeared almost entirely yellow. Within the panoramic frame, however, the field contained a surprising range of color. Lavender Byron larkspur (Delphinium recurvatum) rose above the lower-growing flowers in unusually large numbers, creating scattered accents of purple across the broader yellow landscape.

Look Closer

Inside the Carrizo Bloom

From a distance, yellow dominates the panorama. A closer view reveals a much more intricate wildflower community, with lavender Byron larkspur rising above a dense mixture of smaller flowers scattered throughout the field.

Close-up detail from the Carrizo Plain panorama showing lavender Byron larkspur among dense yellow and multicolored wildflowers. — Detail from the Fuji GX617 panorama showing Byron larkspur rising above the surrounding wildflowers.

Technical Details

Location:

Carrizo Plain National Monument, California

Year:

2017

Camera:

Fuji GX617

Aperture:

f/45

Film:

Fuji Velvia 100 transparency film

Filter:

Center neutral-density filter

Field Notes

This photograph was made during the same cloudy early morning as the preceding panorama. The flat, low-contrast light was very different from the bright sun of the previous day and allowed subtle colors within the field to remain visible. From a distance the bloom looked overwhelmingly yellow, but looking more carefully through the landscape revealed a surprisingly complex mixture of color and species.

Phacelia, tidy tips, coreopsis, monolopia, fiddlenecks, Byron larkspur and goldfields were all growing through the field. Some blended into the dominant yellow from a distance while others became much more apparent when viewed more closely.

The Byron larkspur was the standout. Seeing individual plants was not unusual, but finding them rising through the bloom in this quantity was. Their lavender-purple flowers and taller stems created distinct accents across the field and gave this part of the bloom a character that was easy to miss when first looking across the plain.

The panoramic composition was made to include that botanical diversity rather than simply emphasize the immense yellow field. What initially appeared to be a nearly uniform sweep of color became, on closer inspection, a much more intricate wildflower landscape.