My lenses are usually pointed at birds but I can’t resist taking images of the wildflowers I see on my photographic journeys either.
Silvery Lupine in the Centennial Valley of Montana – Nikon CoolPix S550, f3.5, 1/906, ISO 64, 6mm, natural light
This photograph was taken in July of 2010 in the Centennial Valley of Montana using my Nikon Point & Shoot camera. I wish I had been using one of my D200 with a wide angle lens on it instead because I would have liked the ability to work on this image in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) but the point & shoot I have doesn’t take RAW images. On my last trip to the Centennial Valley the Lupines hadn’t yet carpeted the slopes as shown in the photo above.
Silvery Lupine – Centennial Valley, Montana – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/40, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light
I believe these are Silvery Lupine (Lupinus argenteus), taken on my recent trip to southwestern Montana using my bird setup to do a close up image. I love the dark greens combined with the varying shades of blue and purple. I am sure by now these beautiful wildflowers are covering the gentle slopes in the Centennial Valley like they are in the first image.
Life is good.
Mia
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Such a beautiful field of lupines! I can just imagine the fragrance.
Thank you Debbie, they are such beautiful wildlflowers.
Awesome, Mia!
Thank you Jim!
Splendid photos!!
Thanks!
Lupines are one of my favorite wildflowers too. I notice that there was snow on the mountains in your 2010 image. Was it all gone this year? With the drought in the west, as well as across the country, the wildflower show has been diminished. I was in the Gunnison Valley of Colorado a couple of weeks ago. In some parts it did not look too bad, and there were some nice flower shows at the higher elevations.
Julie, there was still a small amount of snow up high on some of the mountains last month, we had an early spring and it has been warmer than normal this summer, even in Montana. Last month’s trip was the warmest it has ever been while I was up in Montana.
One of my favorite flowers and to see so many, what a lovely scene.
Thank you Dan, they are lovely wildflowers.
Something about clouds juxtaposed against vivid blue always gets my heart beating. So unbelievably lovely, with the lupines as foreground.
Ingrid, I always love to have clouds in my landscape images, they add drama, some times whimsy and sometimes a great mood. The lupines are wonderful to see mixed in with the grasses and sagebrush, a natural tapestry.
What a beautiful sight, love the photos Mia:)
Thank you Susan!
Gorgeous… just gorgeous… Your scenery isn’t magnificent enough…. it has to embelish everything with fields of lupine! Amazing.
Thanks Merrill, the lupines are beautiful and the ‘carpets’ of them are fantastic.
I gasped when viewing these gorgeous images. Such a beautiful scene. Lovely photographs, Mia!
Thanks you so much Julie, they are beautiful flowers.
I would love to see Montana. It must be breathtaking Mia. Carol
Carol, Montana is breathtaking!
It’s so great to see they were still on bloom in July. I was once a whole summer in Florida and they stopped blooming in June for some reason. Thanks for sharing these.
Maria, I never saw Lupines in Florida but they probably stop blooming early because of the heat. Thanks for commenting.
Mia, you’re right, Lupines do bloom in Florida but just don’t make it further than late April/early May. Also, an April shower can shake the flowers off too!