Best Time to Photograph Wildflowers

Every year around this time, I start getting ready for the wildflowers. Though wildflower photos don't sell much, I just enjoy their beauty and use photography as an excuse to get out and see them (don't tell anyone I said that).

And every year around this time, I start trying to remember when the peak of the wildflower bloom is in and around the Sacramento Valley.

I have hundreds of photos on my website of wildflowers, from the Sacramento Valley. So I went though my image database, and grouped all the images of wildflowers by the day of the year they were taken. I then grouped the images by the week of the year and came up with the following chart, showing that the peak of the wildflower bloom (or at least of me photographing the wildflower bloom) occurs at the end of March and very beginning of April.

That explains why I'll be in the field almost the entire time from March 26th through April 4th this year.

Here are a few of my favorite wildflower photos from around the Sacramento Valley:

Owl Clover on Table Mountain

Wild Poppy in Upper Bidwell Park

Wildflower Panorama near Chico

Tidy Tips at Vina Plains Preserve