WILDFLOWERS 2014

Tim Fitzharris
Hometown: Santa Fe, New Mexico
Professional experience: 30 years
Résumé: Fitzharris is the author and photographer of 30 books, including several photography guides for the National Audubon Society. His photographs have appeared on the covers of Life, Audubon, Outdoor Photographer and other magazines, and in 2010, he produced and directed A Far Away Life, a feature film set in the Philippines.
 

The best wildflower photograph he’s ever made: “In Arizona, I found a small cluster of Mexican goldpoppies. I placed my camera nearly flat on its back, nestling it among the bouquet of poppies. Beside it, I placed a white paper plate to reflect light from below and retain the intense hues of the petals. Then it was a matter of carefully angling the camera to frame a dynamic combination of blue sky and orange shapes. I used a special right-angle viewfinder so I could see what I was doing.”

One thing you need to know about shooting wildflowers: “Get close enough to show the pistils and stamens in detail, and avoid including white overcast sky in the frame.”

George Stocking
Hometown: Phoenix
Professional experience: 18 years
Résumé: In addition to his regular contributions to Arizona Highways, Stocking’s work has been featured on Sierra Club calendars and in Nature’s Best, Backpacker, Sunset and other magazines.
 

The best wildflower photograph he’s ever made: “One March, I arrived in the Kofa Mountains, which are known for their prolific stands of chollas and ocotillos. It had just rained, so the ocotillos were covered with red leaves. The wildflowers were plentiful, too, making it the most amazing scene I’ve ever witnessed in the desert. I shot many scenes that day that I count among my best. I spent two days there before a huge storm blew the leaves off the ocotillos overnight.”

One thing you need to know about shooting wildflowers: “Watch the wildflower hotlines on the Internet to find where the flowers are prolific. These websites are updated by users and are very accurate.” (Editor’s note: Desert Botanical Garden’s website, www.dbg.org, features one such guide every March and April.)
 

Jack Dykinga
Hometown: Tucson
Professional experience: 50 years
Résumé: A Chicago native, Dykinga won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography as a Chicago Sun-Times photographer in 1971. In addition to his work for Arizona Highways, Dykinga is a contract photographer for National Geographic and the author of 10 coffee-table books. His latest, Capture the Magic, was released in December 2013. In it, Dykinga teaches photographic design and composition.
 

The best wildflower photograph he’s ever made: “I spent a week in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, immersed in the perfume and sea of color that appeared after winter rains poured down on a small patch of desert. Each day, I hiked into the mass of flowers at sunrise and sunset. To me, it looked like a cornucopia of flowers pouring forth.”

One thing you need to know about shooting wildflowers: “The highest-quality images often require long shutter speeds, sometimes several seconds long. That entails waiting for those quiet moments when there’s no wind and nature holds its breath.”
 

Tom Danielsen
Hometown: Phoenix
Professional experience: 30 years
Résumé: Danielsen’s photographs have appeared in books by National Geographic, Smithsonian, Time-Life and other publishers; on Sierra Club and Brown Trout calendars; and in Natural History, Plateau and other magazines.
 

The best wildflower photograph he’s ever made: “Using a 4x5 view camera, I made a horizontal image of Mexican goldpoppies and chollas in Hewitt Canyon, in the Superstition Mountains, on a sunny spring morning. The poppies were open, and cumulus clouds crept by an unnamed peak. The poppies were scattered around the bases of the chollas, which were arranged in such a way that they drew my eye toward the peak.”

One thing you need to know about shooting wildflowers: “Use a tripod, take your time composing the image, be patient and make sure the flowers are not moving from a breeze.”