A picture from farther back
Yesterday’s post focused on an individual bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis, so I thought I should balance that with a view showing the way this wildflower can form large (and fragrant, which I can’t show) colonies. The prominently vertical plants coming up in the bluebonnet colony are poverty weed, Baccharis neglecta. The trees beyond them on the ridge are mostly Ashe junipers, Juniperus ashei. Above the trees, filling half the frame, are the wispy clouds that dictated the photograph’s vertical format (although I did horizontal takes too).
This photograph is from March 31 at Gloster Bend Park in the Texas Hill Country about an hour northwest of my home in Austin.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
The hills are alive with the blooms of bluebonnets. Nice layers and diagonals.
Steve Gingold
April 3, 2015 at 5:35 AM
And with bluebonnets that have sprung [up] for a thousand years (although that’s selling them short by aeons).
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:02 AM
Just lovely with the clouds in the background.
Emily Scott
April 3, 2015 at 6:02 AM
When those clouds came on the scene I knew I had to incorporate them into some of my pictures, and that’s what I did.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:03 AM
An absolutely beautiful view!
Isabel F. Bernaldo de Quirós
April 3, 2015 at 6:25 AM
I wish you could have been there, Isabel. Let’s hope you can have a spring in the Texas Hill Country one of these years.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:05 AM
Lovely layers, colours, textures. The word gateau comes to my mind. A gateau landscape?
Gallivanta
April 3, 2015 at 7:34 AM
And what came into my mind is that the gâteau is gâté in the sense of ‘cherished’ but not gâté in the sense of ‘ruined’. Or maybe we can grant some poetic license to the Texas Hill Country and call this a gâteau on the plateau.
(Let me add, for readers who aren’t into French, that the layers in this landscape led Gallivanta to the thought of a gâteau, which is to say a cake.)
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:01 AM
‘gateau on the plateau’ , it is. Pardon my laziness about leaving out accents etc. I must remedy this.
Gallivanta
April 3, 2015 at 7:29 PM
If I can put in another plug for the Macintosh, accents are built into the operating system and are easy to type.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 10:22 PM
I did see a second hand Mac for $800, but, happily for my bank balance, my laptop was fixed for $90.
Gallivanta
April 3, 2015 at 10:34 PM
An inexpensive fix
Is nothing we should nix.
Steve Schwartzman
April 4, 2015 at 12:10 AM
Indeed.
Gallivanta
April 4, 2015 at 1:06 AM
Nice combination of clouds and flowers!
Lavinia Ross
April 3, 2015 at 7:45 AM
A combination for a springtime nation, of which I’m a citizen photographer.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:15 AM
I really like how you have strong diagonals contrasting with verticals here~it gives a strong frame for the flowers which are beautiful en masse.
melissabluefineart
April 3, 2015 at 8:25 AM
We were talking the other day about what I could do to render a familiar subject in a new way, and this is one answer when it comes to bluebonnets. They’re beautiful (and fragrant) en masse, but I find them more appealing in a photograph that plays them off against things of other colors and shapes.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:21 AM
Beautiful shot!
angelawolffdesigns
April 3, 2015 at 9:38 AM
I’m glad it impresses you that way.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Lovely to see such a field of blue.
Raewyn's Photos
April 3, 2015 at 3:22 PM
And the scent when the flowers are this dense is heady.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 3:26 PM
Ah, I do love those flowers!
montucky
April 3, 2015 at 9:27 PM
It’s turned into a good year for bluebonnets, with plenty of colonies for parents to pose their kids in on Easter Sunday.
Steve Schwartzman
April 3, 2015 at 10:24 PM
Beautiful composition – wish I could smell them, too.
Birder's Journey
April 5, 2015 at 8:23 PM
Ah, I just said something similar in my reply to your comment about the close-up of a bluebonnet. I think you’ll have to do some reverse engineering and visit your children in Texas next spring.
Steve Schwartzman
April 5, 2015 at 8:45 PM
Everyone’s talking about how gorgeous the flowers are this year, and this certainly is evidence. It’s taking all the discipline I have not to hit the road to see these for myself. What’s holding me back of course, is knowing I can see them better in your photos than I would in the wild!
shoreacres
April 6, 2015 at 7:42 AM
Thanks for the kind words. I’ll still put in a plug for going out to see some floral bounty in person, although I can’t recommend breathing all that pollen and dust (in fact I began sneezing as I started to write this sentence).
Steve Schwartzman
April 6, 2015 at 8:13 AM
Very fine composed image 🙂
Truels
April 9, 2015 at 3:47 PM
Thanks for your appreciation.
Steve Schwartzman
April 9, 2015 at 3:55 PM