Arboretum, Santa cruz

The Palo Alto Camera Club arranged a spring trip to the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum . The Arboretum is a great place to shoot a variety of flowers, especially in the spring. It is about an hour and a half drive through the Santa Cruz mountains to get to Santa Cruz from the South Bay. The Arboretum has several sections - New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Redwoods, and California native. The garden is open 9 am - 5 pm every day. However, I think the gate does open a little earlier, so you can get in earlier and start shooting when the light is better.

We started around 9 am and spent a little bit of time in each of the different sections. I started in the South Africa section and worked my way towards the California natives. The variety of flowers (colors and shapes) on display is really quite astounding. I mostly shot with my Macro lens to capture close-ups of the various flowers and petals.

We ate a quick lunch in the Group Picnic area and resumed shooting in the Australia section. The arboretum is also a great place to shoot hummingbirds. The garden is full of hummingbirds buzzing back and forth. Next I spent an hour or so shooting the various Cacti in the California native section.

Overall, it was a great location for flower macro photography, and I would love to get back here again.