Mexican Poppies

Visited Catalina State Park just north of Tucson yesterday hoping the wildflowers would be blooming. They were. More than anything I just wanted to see how these winters of above average precipitation can transform the desert. I was impressed. I've not photographed these events before, but can say that the spectacle is sufficiently moving to make one want to find a picture.

It was pretty sunny but also with some high clouds filtering the light for this late-morning image. This is essentially a backlit scene with light coming through the flower petals and with the greens being shot from the shadowed side.

I wanted a shallow depth-of-field image, but ended up combining two different exposures to get the depth I thought worked best.

My biggest surprise was that I liked the foreground greens as much as the flowers. They seem to add some context to the scene.

Your thoughts and suggestions are always appreciated.

5D2, 28-300 @ 259mm, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/2000