California Blues Tank Top

This is a beautiful blue lupine, taken on Figueroa Mountain near Los Olivos, California. This species closely resembles the Texas bluebonnet and is very different from the most common purple lupine that I typically find in California.
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Lupines are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3�1.5 m (0.98�4.9 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall with one species (Lupinus jaimehintoniana from the Mexican state of Oaxaca) up to 8 m (26 ft) high with a trunk 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter. They have a characteristic and easily recognized leaf shape, with soft green to grey-green leaves which in many species bear silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into 5�28 leaflets or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower 1�2 cm long, wit...

I have spent most of my life living in Southern California where I have developed an appreciation for all the beauty provided by nature. I've been blessed to be able to visit gorgeous mountains, like the High Sierra, which is home to some of the most majestic sights on earth, such as Yosemite National Park, as well as making quick trips to the beaches of the Pacific Coast, if I want to spend an evening shooting a sunset. One of my favorite past times has been to spend the spring season hunting down amazing wildflower blooms...including two years of "Superbloom" seasons in 2017 and 2019. These times have been beyond description, so I am thrilled to have many images to look back on! Also, for many years, the Texas Hill Country has been a...