Grass Mountain, Santa Barbara County, California

One of the best displays this spring was at Grass Mountain outside Los Olivos in Santa Barbara County. The entire top of the mountain was covered in poppies, and was visible for many miles. The trail up to the poppy fields is quite steep and a bit slippery in places, so hiking in with camera and tripod was a bit of an effort. I set up in a field of lupines and poppies, which provided a glorious contrast of colors. The fields were so vast that, taken with a wide angle lens, it is almost impossible to see the people hiking on the trail along the ridgeline unless you examine it at full zoom. There were even larger fields higher up on the mountain. I liked this composition for its diagonal sweep and rolling lines. Taken with a tilt-shift lens to obtain maximum focus near and far.